Tom Bell Obituary, Death – Didn’t I (Blow Your Mind This Time) was a swooning soul ballad that took the Delfonics, a Philadelphia vocal trio, to the top of the US charts in the early weeks of 1970, selling a million copies and earning them a Grammy award for the year’s best performance by an R&B duo or group. The song’s introduction featured an unusual combination of a French horn, a grand piano, an electric sitar, and a glo The record also established the credentials of Thom Bell, their 26-year-old producer and arranger. Bell’s classical training was the driving force behind his often shockingly unorthodox orchestrations, and the record helped establish those credentials. Bell was one of the architects of the Philadelphia sound, which was a kind of smooth soul music that dominated the pop, R&B, and disco charts throughout the 1970s. Bell passed away last week at the age of 79. After working with the Delfonics, he went on to produce singles for the Stylistics, the Spinners (known in the UK as the Detroit Spinners to avoid confusion with a prominent folk group), New York City, Dionne Warwick, Elton John, and Deniece Williams. He also worked with the Delfonics. Bell’s propensity for romantic string arrangements was countered on many of his productions by subtle syncopations that helped to indelibly imprint a key phrase in the listener’s memory. He enjoyed experimenting with different structures and textures, much like Burt Bacharach, whose work he respected and was inspired by. Despite the fact that his albums often had a laid-back vibe, they were rarely boring and always well-constructed. In the film Jackie Brown, which Quentin Tarantino directed in 1997, the song “Didn’t I (Blow Your Mind This Time)” plays a pivotal role.
Bell was one of ten children born to his parents, Anna and Leroy Bell, and had Jamaican ancestry through his mother’s side of the family. He was born in Philadelphia. Both Anna, who worked as a stenographer, and Leroy, who owned both a fish market and a restaurant, were talented musicians. Anna played the piano, and Leroy played both the accordion and the Hawaiian guitar. At the age of four, they bought their kid a drum set, and then one year later, they enrolled him in piano lessons. He studied alongside the future black classical piano star André Watts, whose parents had settled in Philadelphia. However, he had also begun listening to the R&B radio stations, and he was impressed in particular by Little Anthony and the Imperials. The records of Little Anthony and the Imperials were written and produced in New York by Teddy Randazzo, and they highlighted the high tenor voice of Anthony Gourdine against lush backgrounds.
Kenny Gamble, a friend of Bell’s, and Tommy Bell initially collaborated as a pair known as Kenny and Tommy, which later developed into a singing trio known as the Romeos. Neither one of them, however, was ever going to have a successful career in the performing arts. Bell worked as a songwriter for a publishing company owned by the singer Chubby Checker before joining the Cameo-Parkway record label, where he served an apprenticeship as a pianist, arranger, and conductor. Bell had dropped out of high school to pursue a career in music, and he did so by working as a songwriter for the publishing company.
Beginning in 1968 with “La-La,” Bell’s first hits as a producer came with the Delfonics, who featured the high tenor of William “Poogie” Hart. Bell’s first song with the Delfonics was “I Feel Good” (Means I Love You). After working together for two years, the relationship came to an end, and he moved on to another Philadelphia vocal group called the Stylistics. The lead vocalist of that group, Russell Thompkins Jr., also possessed a distinctively high voice. The song “Stop, Look, Listen (To Your Heart)” by the Stylistics was Bell and his new writing partner, the 23-year-old lyricist Linda Creed’s first hit together. It was released in 1971 and made it to the top 40 on the Billboard charts.