50 Years Later, Gamble and Huff’s Philly Sound Stirs the Soul

“That was my first airplane ride,” Gamble said. He explained that Eddie Holland, of the producing/songwriting team Holland-Dozier-Holland, showed the duo how Motown worked, from the studios to the contracts. “Me and Huff were very excited — that was a dream, to be able to see Motown,” Gamble said. “On the way back, we discussed it and said that rather than have to go all the way to Detroit to fulfill our dreams, we would stay in Philly and create something similar to Motown. And that’s exactly what we did.”

With money borrowed from a friend in the clothing business, the partners set up shop in the mid-60s, and by 1967, they had a Top 5 hit with “Expressway to Your Heart” by the Soul Survivors. Gamble and Huff made a few attempts at starting their own record company, but in 1971, Clive Davis — concerned that CBS Records was lagging in the Black music market — offered them a distribution deal, and Philadelphia International Records was born.

“Philadelphia International really took the reins from Motown,” said the Grammy-winning producer and songwriter Jimmy Jam in a telephone conversation, explaining that the label provided the “blueprint” for the work he has done with his partner, Terry Lewis. “I didn’t understand joint ventures and all that stuff, I just knew that at the bottom of that green label it said ‘Distributed by CBS Records’ — and that was Columbia and Epic. So here’s a company run by Black people that’s on the same level as those labels, and I remember thinking how cool that was. And you knew when you saw that green label that it was going to be something great.”

Carter noted the connection between Philadelphia International’s corporate and creative sides. “Looking at what they did in terms of entrepreneurship, they owned the recording studio, the label, the masters, they had a publishing company,” he said. “It’s one thing to want to become an artist or an athlete, but they showed us that you can actually start and build some serious businesses. And the music was about Black unity — messages of positive reinforcement that just happened to have the sweetest melodies and great lyrics.”

Article source: https://www.nytimes.com/2021/02/25/arts/music/gamble-huff-philadelphia-international-records.html