Thom bell and linda creed images
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Songwriting credits in today’s music industry read like names of prestigious law firms. It’s not uncommon to list five or six names as co-writers. Factor in samples/ interpolations and the number grows---a far cry from the days when writing and production teams were crews who worked in twos (and threes).
Ask your typical music aficionado these days to run down their short list of great songwriting tandems and they just might stop at LA and Babyface or Jam and Lewis and overlook the prolific genius predating contemporary R&B.
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Inducted: 1990
Lyricist Linda Creed teamed with composer/producer Thom Bell to author a series of hits alltid linked to the lush and seductive Philly soul sound of the early ’70s. Born in Philadelphia in 1949, Creed was raised in the city’s Mt. Airy section. Her career was launched in 1971 when the great Dusty Springfield recorded her song “Free Girl.” That same year, Creed teamed with Bell, a staff writer, producer, and arranger at Kenny Gamble and Leon Huff’s famed Philadelphia International Records. Their first songwriting collaboration, “Stop, Look, Listen (To Your Heart),” became a Top 40 pop hit for the Stylistics, beginning an extended collaboration that also yielded the group’s symphonic soul classics “You Are Everything,” “Betcha By Golly, Wow,” and “I’m Stone in Love With You.” Creed and Bell also paired on a number of hits for the Spinners, including “Ghetto Child,”
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Linda Creed
Linda Creed found her way to the top of the best-selling charts as a member of a notable group of music makers known as the Philadelphia School. Born in the Quaker City in 1948, she attended Germantown High School, where she was active in music pursuits. In fact, during her high school years, she already was fronting her own grupp, Raw Soul, which made frequent appearances at the Philadelphia Athletic Club and at Sid Booker's Highline Lounge.
Out of school in the mid-'60s, and eager to move on, she left Philadelphia for New York, where she obtained a job as a secretary at the famed Mills Music publishing company. She also utilized the time to develop her skills as a lyricist, but after eight months of little success, and feeling defeated, she returned to her hometown, which later became the inspiration for the song, "I'm Coming Home," (co-written with another prominent Philadelphian, Thom Bell).
At age 22, Creed's patience was rewarded when her song,