Formerly from Mississippi in a local gospel act, the Seven Seals, along with his two brothers, Walter and Robert, they later moved to Los Angeles around 1956. A bet with his brother Robert, that they could cut a record as good as any Motown work, in the winter of 1965, Mike & the Censations recorded their first official release “Victim Of Circumstance”. A self-released record on Robert's [url=https://www.discogs.com/label/1071519]Bryan Records[/url] label. It made the top 50 of the R&B Charts.