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1968 took Willie in to the Billboard R&B charts at no. 33, with his composition “It’s
A Miracle”, a gospel tinged ballad that he claimed was the recording he was most
proud of. I must admit it’s not my favourite, but each to his own!

The album that followed this release, entitled “If I Had A Hammer” comprised mainly
his previous singles on Enjoy, Fury and Capitol.

Subsequent to the release of the album, Willie split with Bobby Robinson, and moved

to the Fame label when his Capitol deal expired. Fame was run by the legendary
Rick Hall, who operated out of the equally legendary Muscle Shoals studio.

Hall felt that Willie had moved too close to ‘pop’ whilst with Capitol, and encouraged
a more R&B approach, which his new signing was certainly happy with. He only
released three singles on Fame, but each was a Southern Soul classic - indeed the

first one ‘Time Has Brought About A Change’ sounds to me like a blueprint for Rod
Stewart! The second, ‘Walk A Mile In My Shoes’ went to no. 27 on the R&B charts,
and the last one (‘Back Road Into Town’) was released in 1971, prior to a move to
Mercury in 1972, for whom he recorded 2 singles, before moving to Sound Stage 7,

where his 1976 single ‘Chicago - Send Her Home’ was his last release in the decade.
He recorded sporadically in the 1980s, but continued to perform around his home
area.

However, a 2004 CD compilation of his earlier works, simply entitled ‘Willie
Hightower’, on the Honest Jon label revived interest in his work, and eventually a

‘comeback’ album, ‘Out Of The Blue’, recorded at Muscle Shoals, was released in
2018.

As at today, at the grand old age of 84, Willie is still performing - more power to him!

Spencer Wiggins

This was another name new to me, until I happened
to hear ‘The Power of A Woman’ on the radio one day,
and had to investigate further!

Spencer was born on January 8th 1942, in Memphis.
He came from a musical family, his younger brother

Percy also being a recording artiste, and one of his
granddaughters is a 21st century R&B singer!

His childhood friends and neighbours included James

Carr, Homer Banks (of Stax fame) and Bobby Bland.
The whole family attended church regularly, and
enjoyed listening to a wide variety of music. Needless

to say, young Spencer joined the choir, as did most of
his family.