Kenny Gamble

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Kenneth "Kenny" Gamble (born August 11, 1943 in Philadelphia , Pennsylvania ) is an American music producer and songwriter from the field of soul , who was involved in a number of hits with Leon Huff , especially in the 1970s (cf. Gamble and Huff ).

After singing with The Romeos for a while, Gamble teamed up with Huff in the late 1950s. In 1964 the first single produced by Gamble and Huff, The 81 by Candy & the Kisses, was released . 1967 came with Expressway to Your Heart by The Soul Survivors for the first time a single by the two producers in the top 5 of the pop charts . The duo has since worked for well-known labels such as Atlantic and Chess and was later mainly responsible for the success of Jerry Butler's Only the Strong Survive and I Can't Stop Dancing by Archie Bell & the Drells . From September 1968 both produced exclusively in the Sigma Sound Studios .

In 1971, Gamble and Huff founded Philadelphia International Records , distributed by Columbia , and began to compete with Motown with a style of music later known as Philly Soul, or Phillysound . By 1975 the two produced hits like If You Don't Know Me by Now by Harold Melvin and the Blue Notes , Back Stabbers and Love Train by The O'Jays and Billy Paul's Me and Mrs. Jones , which even won a Grammy . Also, The Three Degrees , The Intruders and MFSB , the house band of the label, some successes were recorded at Philadelphia International. In addition, the label was significantly involved in the creation of disco music .

In 1975 Philadelphia International was embroiled in a Payola scandal. Huff was acquitted, while Gamble was fined $ 2,500. In 1976 the two still produced Enjoy Yourself , a hit by the soul band The Jacksons , followed in 1979 by McFadden & Whitehead's Ain't No Stopping Us Now , but otherwise the label's success waned significantly. When Teddy Pendergrass , the biggest star of Philadelphia International, was paralyzed after a car accident in 1982, the commercial end came, although Gamble and Huff continued to run the label.

In 1990 they both received a Grammy for Best R&B Song thanks to Simply Red's cover of If You Don't Know Me by Now . In 1999 they received the Grammy Trustees Award . In 2005 she was inducted into the Dance Music Hall of Fame .

The Rolling Stone listed Gamble and Huff as 66th of the 100 best songwriters of all time .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ The 100 Greatest Songwriters of All Time. Rolling Stone , August 2015, accessed August 7, 2017 .
personal data
SURNAME Gamble, Kenny
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Gamble, Kenneth (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American soul producer and songwriter
DATE OF BIRTH August 11, 1943
PLACE OF BIRTH Philadelphia , Pennsylvania, USA