The Detroit Cobras covers led me to Gino Washington, the Detroit-based early-60s R&B singer who had some nice lesser known singles.
Gino has one of the shortest Wikipedia pages I've seen a musical artist have - certainly one that I've heard of
Gino signed with Ric-Tic Records, a small Detroit label which also has a similarly small Wiki article saying it was viewed as a potential "competitor" to Motown. Not really though - that didn't stop Berry Gordy from raiding their artists