The forgotten duet by legends Kenny Gamble and Thom Bell

From SoulTracks.com:

They are among the most successful soul music producers and songwriters in history. The story of Philadelphia soul music could simply not be written without Kenny Gamble and Thom Bell, two-thirds of the “Mighty Three” that were responsible for the rise of the lush, elegant soul and dance music that emanated from the City of Brotherly Love in the 1970s and 80s.

But before their glorious run as hitmakers for such legendary acts as The O’Jays, The Spinners, Patti LaBelle, Harold Melvin & The Blue Notes, The Stylistics and more, Gamble and Bell were teenage friends who were struggling to make a name for themselves in the nascent Philly soul community – a struggle compounded by the structural racism in the local music scene.

And while pianist Bell was seeking his fame as a musician, Gamble was committed to establishing himself as a singer. And so the songwriting duo took a run as a vocal duo, recording their 1962 composition “I’ll Get By” as Kenny & Tommy, and releasing it to the Philly radio community.

Read the full article here;
SoulTracks Lost Gem: The forgotten duet by legends Kenny Gamble and Thom Bell | SoulTracks - Soul Music Biographies, News and Reviews

This may well be my favorite Gladys Knight Motown track by Norman Whitfield. The guitar work and the Funk Bros are on fire here and Gladys delivers over them. But one thing drives me crazy about this recording.

It came on my iPod today at the gym and reminded me that about 1 minute into the song the drum fades out...and stays out for over a minute. I have always wondered if this was a mixing error by Whitfield or was he trying to augment the horns and guitars here. It's on both the stereo and mono mixes.

Anybody else pick up on this?

We struggled to get to hear much US soul music on the BBC in the early 60's. The corporation had problems though, as they had to do as the powerful musicians union wanted. So most of their broadcast time was taken up with live music broadcasts, record plays came 2nd best. Even then, the BBC had a 'policy' of supporting UK acts recordings over US ones, so many times we'd be played a UK beat group cover version of a recent US R&B / soul hit.
This all changed when the pirate radio stns set up off-shore of England. They had little or no space & no money, so live musician sessions weren't a possibility for them. So vinyl ruled 100% of the time & with US black music being the hip thing, they played the US versions not the UK cover.
The BBC eventually adapted [[by creating RADIO ONE, etc) but it took them a few years.
HOWEVER, with R&B being the in-genre, all the top UK acts were soon playing R&B / soul ... so when they were asked to do a live BBC radio session, it wasn't only their own tunes that they played ...

Michael Jackson was inarguably a great artist

He was inarguably a great entertainer

He was inarguably a great talent

But was he a great singer?

I don't really hear him described that way

To be fair, I've never heard anyone say that MJ has a "bad" voice or even just an "average" voice propped up my material or production

But his name doesn't really come up in discussions about great voices the way that Otis Redding, David Ruffin, Aretha and Marvin are

To my ears he is

I've always loved his voice from J5 to an adult



PS: I just had to edit the post as I realized I kept using "is" instead of "was"

Nearly a decade on, I still can't believe that he's gone

Her passing was announced today on her official Facebook page...

"ON BEHALF OF MY DEAR FRIEND ANGIE, I AM SADDENED TO ANNOUNCE HER PASSING ON THE MORNING OF JUNE 13TH. THE FUNERAL WILL BE HELD AT ST. DOMINCKS CHURCH IN VALEJO CA. ON JUNE 28TH AT 1:00pm."

https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100044180243805

I have sadly been informed that our Vandella Ros Ashford has been admitted into a care facility with advanced dementia. I am sending all my prayers and asking for others for this sweet lady. Met her a couple times when she was on the road with Martha.