Rufus Wonder

Best known for the Northern soul favorite "Under the Moon," singer Rufus Wonder was born in Bossier City, Louisiana. Raised by his aunt and uncle, he spent much of his adolescence in California singing in church, local theater groups, and his Fresno high school choir. After graduation he briefly moved to Los Angeles before joining the U.S. Navy. Assigned to the USS Badoeng Strait aircraft carrier, Breckenridge formed a vocal group dubbed the Blenders and around this same time he adopted his stage name. (He borrowed "Rufus" from his father and "Wonder" from a ski shop in Shreveport, Louisiana.) After receiving his discharge, Wonder returned to L.A. and joined the Ripps. Upon the group's breakup, he mounted a solo career and worked the San Francisco club circuit before his relocation to Chicago, finally settling in Detroit in 1965. There he signed to Frank I. Robinson and Clifford Dickerson's tiny Lando label and cut 1966's "Under the Moon" with a backing group dubbed the Additions.