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THOM BELL AND LINDA CREED: LOVE IS THE MESSAGE

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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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Greatest Love of All: A Story of Cancer, Courage and Collaboration By Sheldon Taylor

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 In April 1986, Whitney Houston's Greatest Love of All was rising fast on the charts. Released a few weeks earlier as the final single from her triple-platinum debut Whitney Houston album, it was looking to be every bit the success of her previous hits like You Give Good Love, How Will I Know, and Saving All My Love For You. Composed, arranged, and produced by Michael Masser and lyrics penned by Linda Creed, Houston’s thrilling rendition of the 1977 original is permanently lodged in the public consciousness but the song's history and lyrical inspiration have been lost with time.               By 1976, Linda Creed was looking to spread her wings. As a staff writer at Philadelphia International Records, she joined forces with producer Thom Bell’s to create some of the greatest songs in the Philly Soul songbook.  In just four and a half years they'd racked up over 20 platinum and gold singles and albums. Creed was just twenty-t...
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WALKING THE LINE: EXPLORING THE FRAGILE GENIUS AND ENDURING LEGACY OF MAURICE WHITE

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In his autobiography Hit Man: Forty Years Making Hits , Topping Charts and Winning Grammys , songwriter David Foster reflects on his encounter with friend and teacher Maurice White in the early Eighties. Foster was flying high, having made the jump from journeyman session man (he co-wrote Cheryl Lynn’s 1978 smash Got To Be Real ) to an in-demand super producer. Rejuvenating Chicago’s career, Foster turned the band with the wicked horn section into platinum power ballad kings.  Next up was a project with a certain country/pop superstar. Foster recalls sharing his success with White:   " I remember running into Maurice a few years later. I was producing something for Kenny Rogers at the time and I told Maurice about it, and he turned to me and said, “You know, I never get called for any of those jobs.” Are you kidding ? I said, with your track record! “No he said, I don’t get called for that kind of stuff.” And when I thought about it later, I understood what he...
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