Editor’s note: The author, Steve Bailey, is outreach coordinator at the Anson County Historical Society.
Wadesboro native Richard Lewis Spencer, a Grammy-winning musician, minister and teacher, is “behind one of the most-sampled pieces of music in history,” according to the BBC, and is a member of the N.C. Music Hall of Fame.
“The Amen Break – a six-second drum solo in The Winstons’ 1969 track ‘Amen, Brother’ – has been sampled by artists including The Prodigy, Oasis and NWA,” the BBC wrote.
While living in Wadesboro, Richard at age of 11 and 12 studied classical piano at the famed Beckwith Piano School in Charlotte. At 13, he became the organist and pianist for the late Bishop J.H. Sherman of the Church Of God In Christ.
In 1962, Richard moved to Washington, D.C., where he worked with various bar bands and recorded with Leroy Taylor and the Four Kays as one of the first acts to sign with historic Shrine Records.
He won a Grammy Award as R&B Songwriter Of The Year in 1969 for his composition “Color Him Father,” which became a hit when he sang it with The Winstons on Metromedia Records. The Winstons’ recording reached No. 4 on the Billboard Hot 100 and No. 1 on the Billboard R&B chart. The song was also recorded by Linda Martell who took it to No. 14 on the Billboard country chart.
The Amen Break was actually played by the now-famous G.C. Coleman, who has since passed on. Some claim that piece of music helped to launch hip-hop and the electronic subcultures.
Richard also played tenor saxophone in Otis Redding’s band, behind Curtis Mayfield and with The Impressions.
After a successful career, Richard left the music business in 1970. He returned to college to study at the University of the District of Columbia where he received a bachelor’s degree in political science and a master’s in labor management relations. He studied for a master’s in education at the University of Phoenix and the University of North Carolina, and completed the coursework for a Ph.D. at Howard University.
Richard retired from the Washington Metro system in 2000 and is currently a licensed Baptist minister and high school teacher (U.S. history, psychology, civics) in Montgomery County, Md. In March 2015, Spencer received the prestigious “D.C. Legendary Musicians Award”.
Richard Spencer was inducted into the N.C. Music Hall of Fame along with Jim Lauderdale, The Sensational Nightingales, Bucky Covington, Anthony Hamilton and the Steep Canyon Rangers at the 2017 North Carolina Music Hall of Fame at the Gem Theater in Kannapolis.