The world over knows that Motown was the #1 African American owned music label; but do you know who the second in line was?

Philadelphia International Records, created by Keenth Gamble and Leon A. Huff. The dynamic duo were the hottest independent R&B producing team of the late 1960′s working with artists such as Wilson Pickett, Aretha Franklin & The Intruders. Once they created PIR and secured a distribution deal with Clive Davis then President of CBS; within a year PIR was home to the #1 R&B and pop chart hit makers The O’Jays with hits like Back Stabbers and Love Train.

Gamble and Huff are the creative minds behind the original long-running theme song for Soul Train with MFSB featuring The Three Degrees, and are responsible for many hits by Teddy Pendegrass, Lou Rawls and Phyllis Hyman just to name a few. Gamble and Huff were the creators of the The Sound Of Philidelphia better known as T.S.O.P.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UOP0Jmz6QIQ

During the late 1970′s and early 1980′s, Gamble and Huff continued to write Top 10 hits for Teddy Pendergrass, the O’Jays and the Jones Girls. They produced million-selling hits for McFadden and Whitehead, Pattie LaBelle and Phyllis Hyman. They also saw many of their compositions become big hits for other artists. As the Hip Hop game became more and more mainstream and the use of samples was a big hit Gamble and Huff songs were sampled by artists such as; Heavy D and the Boyz’ (“Now That We’ve Found Love”), Nas (“I Remember,” using the melody from “Cowboys to Girls”)  and Big Punisher (“I’m Not A Player”) . Current R&B artists have used the T.S.O.P. to make their albums hot as well. producers like Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis, Babyface and of course Diddy have used samples of their music.

After writing or co-writing 3,000 songs,  Kenneth Gamble and Leon Huff were inducted into National Academy of Songwriters Hall of Fame in 1995, they were awarded the prestigious Lifetime Achievement Grammy in 1999 which honors Gamble and Huff for their body of work, both as producers and songwriters, and their contribution to the entire fabric of popular music.

Gamble and Huff today’s Artist Spotlight.

Until next time…

Keep Jammin!

*Excepts taken from www.gamble-huffmusic.com