Return to Rock-and-Roll Page.Spencer Davis is a fine musician who formed a group that had a number of hits in the UK in the 60's, and a couple of hits that reached the top ten on the charts in the USA.
Davis was born in Birmingham, England in 1941. He taught school in Birmingham for a time before forming his own R&B style rock band there in 1963.
Davis played rhythm guitar and contributed vocals. The other members of the original group were Steve Winwood on lead guitar, keyboards and lead vocals, his brother Muff Winwood on bass, and Pete York on drums. Beginning in 1964 Spencer Davis Group managed to put ten hits in the top forty in the UK; two of these, Keep On Runnin' and Somebody Help Me went to number one. In 1967 the band had two hits that went top ten in both the UK and the USA: Gimme Some Lovin' and I'm A Man. They also recorded a number of LP's, the most prominent of which was Autumn in 1966.
Steve Winwood proved to be a talented vocalist and musician. Critics offered very favorable reviews of both his bluesy vocals and his ability on the keyboards. He left in 1967 and was replaced by Eddie Hardin. Winwood joined Blind Faith and formed a group called Traffic in 1967. Eventually he would strike out as a solo act, and become one of the top music stars of the 80's with hits such as Higher Love and Roll With It. Steve's brother Muff went on to a career as chief of A&R at CBS Records in the UK, producing among other things the initial LP from Dire Straits. Others who performed with Spencer Davis Group over the years included drummer Dave Hynes, guitarist Ray Fenwick, and bass player Dee Murray, who later played with Elton John.
By 1970 Spencer Davis Group had run its course and Davis moved to the United States and pursued a variety of endeavors within the music business. He formed an acoustic duo in 1971, worked for a time with blues legend Fred McDowell, and reformed Spencer Davis Group with York briefly in 1973. He issued a number of albums in the 70's, both as a solo act and with others, and worked with Rolling Stones producer Jimmy Miller in the 80's.
The records from Spencer Davis Group that are best remembered by the band's fans in the United States are their 1967 hits Gimme Some Lovin' and I'm A Man.
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