It's time for another songwriting team in the "Covered" series. Here, I'm looking at the soul music giants Kenny Gamble and Leon Huff. I have enough of the songs they wrote for four albums. Here's the first one.
You may not know Gamble and Huff by name, but I'll bet you know their songs. In the 1960s, soul music was dominated by the Motown sound coming out of Detroit. But in the 1970s, soul music was dominated by the Philly sound, which came out of Philadelphia. In 1991, the group Boyz II Men had a big hit with the song "Motownphilly." The title says it all, showing nostalgia for the two main soul music trends of earlier decades.
Motown Records had lots of great songwriters, with the Holland-Dozier-Holland team being the most prominent. It was a similar situation with the Philly sound, except the Gamble and Huff team was even more prominent. That's especially if you take into account all of their roles. They co-owned the main record label for the Philly sound, Philadelphia International. When they weren't writing hit songs, they were signing new acts and/or producing hits. Between writing and producing they were involved in a truly stunning 175 gold or platinum records!
So hopefully that's enough of an intro to entice you, if you weren't familiar with their names. Now, here's more about how the music on this first volume came to be.
Kenny Gamble was born in Philadelphia in 1943, and Leon Huff was born in Camden, New Jersey, in 1942. Gamble was discovered by Jerry Ross when he was 17 years old, in 1963. At that time, Ross was an established record company owner, producer, and songwriter. Gamble and Ross wrote some songs together before the Gamble and Huff collaboration really took off. Their biggest success was "I'm Gonna Make You Love Me," which was a hit for multiple artists. (I've included the original version, by Dee Dee Warwick in 1966, but it was a much bigger hit later for the Supremes and Temptations.) Through working with Ross, Gamble learned much about the music business, including how to run a record label.
The collaboration between Gamble and Huff began in the 1950s. They were members of a harmony group called the Romeos. That group didn't have much success. But another member of the Romeos was Thom Bell, who also would later have a key role in the Philly sound. (He'll be the subject of a separate "Covered" album.) They even occasionally wrote songs together as far back as the 1950s, such as "Lost," which was a minor hit for Jerry Butler in 1959.
The Gamble and Huff collaboration intensified with the very first song here, "The 81" by Candy and the Kisses, in 1964. Although the song was written by Gamble and Ross, Huff played keyboards on the song, and he helped produce it with Gamble. Huff also got to co-write the B-side. Bit by bit, they began writing more songs together. The first really big Gamble and Huff written song was "Expressway to Your Heart," which made the Top Five in both the pop and soul charts in the U.S. in 1967. Their songwriting grew more frequent and successful in 1968, with three big hits they wrote together: "Hey Western Union Man," "Cowboys to Girls," and "I Can't Stop Dancing." From that point on, they became a hit-making force, usually writing at least a handful of hits each year, for many years to come.
That takes us to the end of this volume. I'll continue with their story in the next one. But in the meantime, here's their Wikipedia link if you want to know more. And yes, I said "link," not "links" - the two of them are so closely associated with each other that there's only a "Gamble and Huff" Wikipedia page, not pages for each of them:
This album is 54 minutes long.
01 The 81 (Candy & the Kisses)
02 Who Do You Love (Sapphires)
03 I Really Love You (Dee Dee Sharp)
04 I'm Gonna Make You Love Me (Dee Dee Warwick)
05 Girl Don't Make Me Wait (Bunny Sigler)
06 Expressway to Your Heart (Soul Survivors)
07 Together (Intruders)
08 I Can't Stop Dancing (Archie Bell & the Drells)
09 At the Top of the Stairs (Formations)
10 'Cause You're Mine (Vibrations)
11 Hey Western Union Man (Jerry Butler)
12 Cowboys to Girls (Intruders)
13 Love in Them There Hills (Vibrations)
14 [There's Gonna Be] A Showdown (Archie Bell & the Drells)
15 Moody Woman (Jerry Butler)
16 It's Been a Long Time (Betty Everett)
17 Only the Strong Survive (Jerry Butler)
18 A Brand New Me (Dusty Springfield)
19 What's the Use of Breaking Up (Jerry Butler)
20 Here I Go Again (Archie Bell & the Drells)
21 Don't Let the Green Grass Fool You (Wilson Pickett)
https://pixeldrain.com/u/T4D57AYn
alternate:
https://bestfile.io/en/LZ96W3r5vnKxxBk/file
The cover image is from 1968. I moved the two people closer using Photoshop. Also, the original picture was in black and white. But I colorized it with the use of the Kolorize program. That's Gamble on the left (wearing a hat) and Huff on the right.
Thanks
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