His best known productions included the Spinners' 'I'll Be Around,' the Stylistics' 'Betcha by Golly, Wow' and the Delfonics' 'La-La (Means I Love You).'
NEW YORK — Thom Bell, the Grammy-winning producer, writer and arranger who helped perfect the"Sound of Philadelphia" of the 1970s with the inventive, orchestral settings of such hits as the Spinners'"I'll Be Around" and the Stylistics'"Betcha by Golly, Wow," has died at age 79.
Few producer-arrangers compared to Bell in setting a mood — whether the celebratory strings and horns kicking off the Spinners'"Mighty Love," the deadly piano roll at the start of the O'Jays'"Back Stabbers" or the blissful oboe of"Betcha by Golly, Wow," a soulful dreamland suggesting a Walt Disney film scored by Smokey Robinson.
Bell, often collaborating with lyricist Linda Creed, worked on more than 30 gold records from 1968-78 as Philadelphia became as much a center of soul music as Detroit and Motown Records were in the 1960s. He was an independent producer but so vital to the Philadelphia International Records empire built by Kenny Gamble and Leon Huff that the publishing company they formed together was called Mighty Three Music.
The Spinners' chart-topping"Then Came You" featured Dionne Warwick, who had been skeptical that the up-tempo ballad would catch on. Bell tore a dollar bill in half and got Warwick to agree that whoever guessed wrong about the song would have to inscribe an apology on their half of the money and send it to the other. Bell would long hold on to the signed note he received from Warwick.
"To put it in a nutshell, he's responsible for everything that's happened to me in my career," Stylistics lead singer Russell Thompkins Jr. told the Seattle Times in 2018."He helped me in knowing my vocal range, finding the best way to sing a song. Everyone was his instrument. It didn't matter if you were a singer, a trombonist or a studio engineer. You were part of his construction.
Thanks to such longtime friends as Gamble and Huff, he became well connected in the local music scene. He and Gamble were together briefly in Kenny Gamble & the Romeos, and he also worked as an arranger and session player for the Cameo and Parkway labels, where artists included the Delfonics and Chubby Checker of"The Twist" fame. Gamble and Huff began producing together in 1967, and Bell was soon working with them on songs by Jerry Butler and Dusty Springfield among others.
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