That's What Girls Are Made For by The Spinners

Album: The Original Spinners (1961)

Charted: 27

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This is a rather innocent song about how girls should be cared for and loved. In later years, The Spinners often sang about losing a girl ("How Could I Let You Get Away"), and trying desperately to get her back ("I'll Be Around," "Working My Way Back To You").
Released on the label Tri-Phi Records, "That's What Girls Are Made For" was The Spinners' first single. It was written by Tri-Phi owner Harvey Fuqua and his wife, Gwen Gordy. Gwen is the sister of Motown founder Berry Gordy, and when Fuqua joined Motown a few years later, he brought The Spinners with him along with the rest of his roster. The Spinners didn't fare so well at Motown, but when they moved to Atlantic Records in 1972, they began working with Philadelphia producer Thom Bell and had a string of hits. >>>
Suggestion credit:
Bertrand - Paris, France
That's group member Bobbie Smith singing lead on this track, although some sources claim their label boss, Harvey Fuqua, sang the vocal. The Spinners modeled their sound on Fuqua's group The Moonglows, so he was certainly an influence.

When The Spinners moved to Atlantic Records in 1972, Philippé Wynne joined the group and sang lead on many of their hits, although Smith got the lead on their hit "I'll Be Around."
The group honed their skills performing this song around the country, learning valuable lessons in stage presentation and business dealings along the way. One show was at the Uptown in Philadelphia, where the piano player in the house band that backed the group was Thom Bell, who went on to write and produce for The Delfonics and The Stylistics. When The Spinners signed to Atlantic in 1972 after years of neglect at Motown, the label paired them with producer Jimmy Roach, but their recordings were underwhelming. Around this time, Atlantic started working with Thom Bell and gave him a big list of acts to choose from. Bell noticed The Spinners on the list and remembered them from the Uptown show, where they wowed him with "That's What Girls Are Made For." Bypassing the big names on the list (like Aretha Franklin), he claimed The Spinners, and clicked with the group right away. Their first sessions with Bell, recorded at Sigma Sound Studios in Philadelphia, produced the hits "I'll Be Around," "How Could I Let You Get Away," and "Could It Be I'm Falling In Love."

Comments: 2

Barry from Sauquoit, NyOn June 28, 1961, the Spinners performed "That's What Girls Are Made For" on the Dick Clark ABC-TV network weekday-afternoon program 'American Bandstand'...
At the time the song was in it's first week on Billboard's Hot Top 100 chart, at position #82; six weeks later it would peak at #27 {for 1 week} and it spent 8 weeks on the Top 100...
It reached #5 on Billboard's Hot R&B Singles chart...
Between 1961 and 1995 the Detroit quintet had forty records on the Hot R&B Singles chart; seventeen made the Top 10 with six reaching #1, "I'll Be Around" for 5 weeks in 1972, "Could It Be (I'm Falling In Love)" for 1 week in 1973, "One Of A Kind (Love Affair)" for 4 weeks in 1974, "Mighty Love" for 1 week in 1974, "Games People Play" for 1 week in 1975, and "Rubberband Man" for 1 week in 1976.
John from Nashville, TnWhen Atlantic Records offered Thom Bell a long list of acts he could produce, the Spinners name was last on the list. Bell remembered this song and immediately wanted to produce them. The top brass from Atlantic tried to steer him from producing the Spinners because the act was about to be dropped from the label. Bell persisted, and the rest is history.

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