Billy Henderson, 67, Sang Tenor with the Spinners
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Singer Billy Henderson, a member of the Spinners who sang “I’ll Be Around” and other hits, died. Friday in Daytona Beach, Fla. He was 67 and suffered from diabetes.
The 1972 song “I’ll Be Around” was part of a string of Top 20 Spinners hits that included “Could It Be I’m Falling in Love,” and “Then Came You,” their first No. 1, performed with Dionne Warwick, who disliked the song and bet that it would not be a hit.
The five-member band of high school friends formed in 1954 in Ferndale, Mich.. They went on to be nominated for six Grammy Awards.
Their other hits included “Ghetto Child” (1973), “They Just Can’t Stop It” (Games People Play) (1975), and “The Rubberband Man (1976), which they performed while wearing outsized rubber bands around their necks.
Four of the original band members, including Henderson, continued to perform together until recently. He was dismissed from the group in 2004 after suing the group’s corporation and business manager in a financial dispute.
