Born in Memphis, at the age of 13 he sang in The New Rival Gospel Singers, along with his brother Spencer Wiggins and his sister Maxine Wiggins. [a=Larry Lee (2)] introduced him to [a=Jerry Crutchfield] who got him signed at [l=RCA] in 1966, at [l=Atlantic] in 1967 and [l=Abet] in 1968.