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	Thom Bell
	Interviews with Successful Songwriters DIANE WARREN THOM BELL			< last page \| 1, 2, 3 \| next page > DK: When did you go back to Philly? TB: I moved back in about 1963, 64. I became a conductor for Chubby Checker. I did that for two years. I got tired of conducting the twist all over the world, so I left and went to a record company called Cameo/Parkway Records. At that time Motown was doing real well, so Cameo thought that since Motown has a bunch of black artists there, all they had to do is get a bunch of black musicians and they could do the exact same thing. That didn't work out very well. I became the head of the studio musicians because I was the one who could read the best. During that time, a guy came to me with a group who said, "Man, you produce records?" I said yes even though I didn't know the first thing about producing records. He said he had a group he wanted me to listen to. They weren't so hot. He wanted to know when we could get a hit record with this group. I said, "Well, I don't know if I hear anything here. Let me hear the drummer sing." He couldn't sing. The bass player couldn't sing. The guitar player sang. I said, "From now on, you don't play guitar no more, because you're now the lead singer." I took the group. I couldn't use the rest of the cats because they were like a drain. I chopped them down from eight in the group to three. They were called The Five Guys then. When I chopped them down to three, we made the The Delfonics. The first record I did with them in 1965 was with Cameo Records. Cameo didn't know anything about black music at the time, and neither did I. But the record did well in the Philadelphia, Baltimore, Washington, Virginia area. The second record did well in the same area, and then the company folded. When the company folded, the guy went out and got a loan and put some money up and said "Man, you've got to give me a hit record on this group." So I called around different publishers and told them my name. "Who?" "Thom Bell." "No, I'm afraid the only Bell we know is Bell Telephone and the Liberty Bell with the crack in it." And I said, "I'm looking for songs." "Well, no." And if they did send you songs, they'd send you the junky songs. I said, "This can't be. I'm going to write my own doggone songs." And that's what I did. Same as I started writing arrangements. I know enough music and all I have to do is go down to the library, get some more music, get some books on orchestration, theory and composition. It cannot be too much different from what I studied on piano. I got myself some books, and nobody has ever written another arrangement for me. I write my own everything. DK: How big were the string sections you were working with at that time? TB: Usually there were 20 strings--12 violins, six violas and two cellos. But when I started in 1968, I didn't have any money, and we had four violins, one viola, one cello. But as things got bigger, the sounds got bigger and people starting copying it. Then, of course, your instrumentation has to get bigger. No one really knew what an oboe sound was until they heard the introduction to "Betcha By Golly Wow." They weren't even into a bassoon until they heard things like "Make Up To Break Up," where I used a bassoon. Because guys were starting to catch up to my sound, I said, "that's okay, that's all right." I started digging deeper into my own background and deeper into the symphonic orchestra. DK: You used french horns with the Delfonics. Celeste--was that what was doing the bell sounds? TB: Yeah, that was celeste. I don't even know if they make a celeste anymore. On those first sessions, 80 percent of the instruments I was playing myself because I didn't have the money. Like timpanies and things of that nature. I didn't have the money, so I got myself some books, read about timpanies. I would get the timpani and practice timpani. I started as a drum major, actually. So when it came to different types of rolls--I started out that way. By the time I was six, I played drums and piano. By the time I was 11, I got into fluglehorn, but it hurt my mouth. Then I got into trumpet; that hurt my mouth. Then I got into the big drums in the drum and bugle corps and them things used to kill my back walking down the street. I said, "no, no, no, I can't have no instrument that hurts me." By the time I was eight or nine, I was playing harp. My brother was in Germany and he sent me the big chromatic harps, which you call a harmonica. I made my own little guitars out of cigar boxes and a piece of wood and some rubber bands. Music was essential in our family because my mother is a concert pianist, my father plays pedal steel guitar, piano and also accordion. By the time I was nine or ten, I was playing accordion. Most people don't know that on a lot of records, I was playing accordion. DK: As a songwriter you've collaborated with people like Linda Creed. TB: Linda Creed was my collaborator for a time. William Hart and I wrote "La La" and "Didn't I Blow Your Mind," and then Creed and I wrote until she died. My next collaborator after that was Deniece Williams, who is a very good lyricist by the way. And after that came my nephew, Leroy Bell. Then after that was with James. I did one with Phil Hurt which was "I'll Be Around." I really haven't collaborated with that many writers. Only five or six. Until you find the right one that fits your thoughts; it's like making love, man. You could have a bunch of ladies in your sheets, one every hour until the right one comes along that fits you. DK: Linda Creed was obviously right on the money. Was she the lyricist? TB: Yeah. DK: Do you write lyrics too? TB: Yeah, but I always classified her as being the lyricist. Lyric, to me, is a very serious art. I'm talking about when you're really writing lyrics, like "The Greatest Love of All." Those are lyrics. That's not some poof puff nonsense that anybody can write. I can sit down and write, yes, but-- DK: Did she bring you completed lyrics or how was it? TB: She couldn't stand sitting around waiting for me to come up with melodies and things. So she'd go home and I'd call when it was ready. I would call her the next day and make a tape of it, give it to her and whatever I wrote--if I wrote the first verse, or sometimes I didn't write anything but the hook of the song, like "Betcha By Golly Wow" or "People Make The World Go 'Round" or something like that. Then I'd give it to her and the next day, she'd have it. DK: You would put the hooks in the titles when you were involved in those? TB: Yes. DK: A lot of your hooks in the titles came from real, everyday situations. TB: I was never one for writing fantasy. I always wrote about very material things. I don't live in the past. I live today and tomorrow. Being an Aquarian, I always live in the future. DK: What do you think when you turn on the radio and hear your licks being copped? Do you like it? TB: I think it's funny. When you put your things out there, if someone likes them--I feel that they borrow them. They borrow the licks. Like the guys from Toto said, " 'Africa', that was you and the Spinners, man." To me, that's nothing like the Spinners, but to them, it was the Spinners. If I put it out there, I put it out there for people to enjoy. If you can make something from it, God bless you. < last page \| 1, 2, 3 \| next page >