Dan's Papers - July 17, 2009 - The Spinners' Motown, Jungle Jack's Animals at PAC

Westhampton Beach Performing Arts Center (PAC) has something for everyone this weekend with events that will leave all happy.

Legendary vocal group The Spinners - whose sound harkens to the golden era of Motown doo wop and soul - take the stage on Sunday, July 19. The group has many well-known hits - "It's a Shame," "I'll Be Around," "Could It Be I'm Falling in Love" and "One of a Kind (Love Affair,)" to name a few - and you can pretty much expect to hear them, according to Bobbie Smith, one of the group's remaining original members and lead singers. "You've got to play the hits," he said. "That's what the fans want to hear." And while most artists who have been together for as long as The Spinners tend to rearrange songs to keep them fresh for the performers, Smith says the group needs to focus on satisfying the fans. "We try to keep the songs tight. We might add little things, but we don't mess with it or change the structure or the beats. That's not what people want to hear."

The group was founded just outside Detroit in the early '50s as the Domingoes, renaming themselves The Spinners in 1961. Originally signing with the Motown record label, the group finally came into its own in the 1970s, when it signed to Atlantic and had the majority of its number 1 hits. The Spinners got lost in the shuffle at Motown, which featured a number of similarly talented soulful vocal groups, Smith said. "They had a lot of groups of the same caliber," he said. "Atlantic put all its focus on The Spinners."

Though most of the group's focus is on touring, Smith said The Spinners have some material recorded and plan on putting out a CD in the near future.

Tickets to The Spinners July 19 performance are $100/$80/$60. The group goes on at 8:30 p.m.

There's a great event for kids and their families this weekend at PAC, as Jungle Jack Hanna comes to town Saturday, July 18, with shows at 4 and 7 p.m. (Tickets are $55/$45/$35.) Hanna will bring some of his animal friends with him - including an aardvark, a serval cat, an African porcupine and a python among many others - and will share humorous stories from traveling the globe.

In between bringing the animals on stage, where some lucky audience members might get to come up and interact with the creatures, Hanna will show videos of the many places and organizations he's visited around the worl. - most of which involve rehabilitation animals, including features on a koala rescue center in Australia, which Hanna calls "beautiful and moving," an orphanage for elephants who lost their parents due to poaching and the rehabilitation of a sea turtle someone tried to poach.

Also at the show, Bide-A-Wee, an animal adoption center, will be on hand with some local pets that need to find a loving home. And complimentary Ben & Jerry's ice cream from Main Street Sweets will be served in between performances.

Hanna, one of the best known animal experts in the United States, has a new TV show, "Jack Hanna's Into the Wild," makes many TV appearances and tours the country performing shows where he introduces children to different kinds of animals.