Thom Bell

https://variety.com/2022/music/obituaries-people-news/thom-bell-dead-soul-music-producer-sound-philadelphia-philly-1235469048/

 

Bell, a Grammy-winning producer and a member of the Songwriters Hall of Fame, is best known as one of “the Mighty Three” — a co-creator of the richly-orchestrated “Sound of Philadelphia” brand of soul along with fellow songwriters and producers Kenny Gamble and Leon Huff. Together, the Philly trio was responsible for smashes from the O’Jays’ “Back Stabbers” to Harold Melvin and the Blue Notes’ “I Miss You.”

 

Independent of Gamble and Huff, however, Bell was famed for writing and producing creamy, dreamy, harmony-laden R&B hits of the late ’60s and ’70s such as “La-La (Means I Love You)” and “Didn’t I (Blow Your Mind This Time)” for the Delfonics, “You Are Everything” and “Betcha by Golly, Wow” for the Stylistics, and “I’ll Be Around,” “Could It Be I’m Falling in Love” and “Games People Play” for the Spinners.

 

There’s also a great quote from Bell in the same article: “All I wanted to be was a piano player in the rhythm section, then an arranger and a conductor. I was forced to do these other things, like writing, to get noticed. I mean, ‘Who is Thom Bell?’ had to be the question at that time. The only bell they knew in Philly had a crack down the middle. So, I started writing melodies.”

 

Favorite songs written or co-written by Thom Bell:

Stop, Look, Listen (To Your Heart) – The Stylistics

Living A Little, Laughing A Little – The Spinners

A Brand New Me – Dusty Springfield

I’ll Be Around – The Spinners

People Make The World Go Round – The Stylistics

La-La-Means I Love You – The Delfonics

You Are Everything – The Stylistics

I’m Doin’ Fine Now – New York City

Break Up To Make Up – The Stylistics

You Make Me Feel Brand New – The Stylistics

 

Jim Stewart (Stax record label co-founder)

https://www.washingtonpost.com/obituaries/2022/12/06/stax-founder-jim-stewart-dead/

 

What a collection of talent – Otis Redding, Wilson Pickett, Carla Thomas, Booker T. & The MG’s, Isaac Hayes, just to name a few. I loved this stuff when I was growing up, and still do.

 

[T]he label released more than 160 songs on the Billboard Hot 100 pop chart and 243 on the R&B chart, according to the Stax Museum. The company also became known as a haven for racial integration in the segregated South: Black and White musicians performed together in bands including the Bar-Kays and the M.G.’s while Mr. Stewart, who was White, worked with Black business partners including Al Bell, the company’s head of promotions, who eventually became co-owner.

 

“The spirit that came from Jim and his sister Estelle Axton allowed all of us, Black and White, to … come into the doors of Stax, where you had freedom, you had harmony, you had people working together,” Bell said in an interview for “Respect Yourself.”

 

Christine McVie

https://variety.com/2022/music/news/christine-mcvie-dead-fleetwood-mac-singer-songwriter-1235445846/

 

Trivia note from Variety’s obituary: “Between her 1976 divorce from McVie and her 1986 marriage to [Eddy] Quintela, she was engaged for three years to the Beach Boys’ drummer-songwriter-vocalist Dennis Wilson.”

 

I have to admit that I didn’t know that “Perfect” was her given surname; I had always assumed that it was something that she adopted for professional purposes.

 

Favorite songs:

Heroes Are Hard To Find

Over My Head

Say You Love Me

Little Lies

Everywhere

 

And, although she didn’t write it, be sure to give a listen to her take on “I’d Rather Go Blind”, with her first band, Chicken Shack, which reached #14 in the UK. Despite the song’s ubiquity – it was originally released by co-writer Etta James and covered by B.B. King and Rod Stewart, among many others – no one ever had a hit with it on this side of the Atlantic.