2 languages
Leon Huff
From HitStory, the pop encyclopedia of School of Rock · Artist
Leon Huff · Leon A. Huff was born in 1942 in Camden, New Jersey, and became the keyboardist and composer of one of the most famous songwriting and production partnerships in pop history. His partner was Kenneth Gamble of Philadelphia. They first worked together when Huff played on a recording by Candy & The Kisses in the early 1960s. In 1967 they produced their first top-five hit, Expressway to Your Heart by The Soul Survivors, and went on to write and produce for The Intruders, Archie Bell & the Drells, Wilson Pickett and Dusty Springfield, among others.
Music and breakthrough
In 1971 Gamble and Huff founded Philadelphia International Records as a rival to Motown. In the 1970s the label released a string of soul hits, such as If You Don't Know Me by Now by Harold Melvin & the Blue Notes and Back Stabbers, For the Love of Money and Love Train by The O'Jays. The house studio band MFSB played on almost all of those records. The Philadelphia sound had lush strings, driving bass lines and gliding hi-hat rhythms. From it grew a new style that soon came to be called disco. In 1980 Huff also released a solo album, Here to Create Music.
Influence
The duo wrote more than three thousand songs and were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2008. Their records combined sweet soul with lyrics about Black pride and social problems, forming a bridge between the soul of the 1960s and the dance floor of the 1970s.
Listening
Discography
Studio albums
- 1980Here to Create Music
Mentioned in other articles
- Philly soul Genre
In Philadelphia the songwriters and producers Kenneth Gamble and Leon Huff made their own soul from the late 1960s, and in 1971 they founded Philadelphia International Records.