Spyder Turner

Dwight Turner first saw the light of day in Beckley, West Virginia, in 1947 before his family settled in Detroit, Michigan. Throughout his teenage years he performed regularly with doo-wop ensembles and school glee clubs. Clay McMurray, serving as both producer and engineer, sent MGM Records a demonstration tape showcasing Turner’s “guess-timating” vocal impressions of Jackie Wilson, David Ruffin, Billy Stewart, Smokey Robinson, and Chuck Jackson on “Stand By Me.” The label pressed the tape into commercial release, and under the stage name Spyder Turner the resulting cover climbed to number three R&B and number twelve pop on Billboard’s charts in February 1967. MGM followed with the album Stand By Me later that year; it peaked at number fourteen R&B and number 158 pop during the spring. Also in 1967 the follow-up single “I Can’t Make It Anymore” reached number ninety-five on the pop side. In 1996 Collectables reissued the album under the title Golden Classics Edition: Stand By Me. Turner continued working in the industry through live appearances and behind-the-scenes projects. As a singer-songwriter he supplied Rose Royce with “Do the Dance,” a number-four R&B and number-thirty-nine pop hit issued on Whitfield Records, the Warner Bros.-distributed label founded by former Motown producer Norman Whitfield, architect of the Temptations’ seventies successes. Still based in Detroit, Turner scored a regional hit via an independent release in 1998.