If Ken Burns would do a documentary about soul music, William Bell would be prominently featured. Who is William Bell? He is the best Soul, Blues, Americana, Beach music artist you will miss if you don’t come see him live at the Newberry Opera House on September 27 at 8 p.m.
What Motown was to Detroit, the legendary Stax Records studio was for Memphis. Founded as Satellite Records in 1957, founders and siblings Jim Stewart and Estelle Axton would later combine their last names and change the name to Stax records. Stax would define the Memphis soul sound and bring to America artists like Sam & Dave, Booker T & the MGs, and Otis Redding.
Stax’s first national hit; however, was “You Don’t Miss Your Water (Until the Well Runs Dry)” written and sung by a young Memphis boy named William Bell.
Bell would go on to co-write blues anthem “Born Under a Bad Sign,” record Beach classics “Tryin’ to Love Two” and “Private Number,” have his beats sampled by dozens of Hip Hop artists, and win a Grammy for Best Americana Album in 2017.
Growing Up In Memphis
Bell remembers that a contest and a job with one of the piano virtuosos of the time brought him to the attention of Stax Records.
“I won a Mid-South Talent Contest and one of the awards was going to Chicago to sing with a big band up there for a weekend and he was friends of a man named Phineas Newborn…and he told [Phineas] that this is a kid you need to look at and I starting singing with Phineas Newborn’s 14 piece orchestra and that is how I really came to the attention of Stax Records,” Bell said.
At Stax, William Bell was singing with a Doo Wop group named the Del Rios. They would sing back up for Carla Thomas’s “Gee Wiz,” another Stax hit.
His Soul Legacy: Stax’s First National Hit / First Single Male Artist.
William Bell would go on to give Stax Records their first national hit and become its first single male artist. He remembers, “Chips Moman, who was working at Stax at the time and a good producer, he had been asking me about doing a solo project and, of course, I had resisted because I was with the Del Rios. We had cut a couple of sides with Stax.”
“Several of the guys in the group were older than I was, and they got drafted so that left me and Louis Williams by ourselves. I ran into Chips and he asked me again about recording something and I had written this song while I was on tour during the summer with the Phineas Newborn orchestra.”
“I had written this song called ‘You Don’t Miss Your Water.’ I was homesick one night in the hotel and it was pouring down rain and that is how that came about.”
“I recorded it and Jim Stewart really didn’t care that much for it. Mrs. Axton, who was the other half of the label, she loved it. Jim thought it was a little too gospelly. I had come right out the Baptist church. She prevailed and had him release it and – low and behold – it became a big, big record for Stax and for me.”
Years later, this song would be one of the songs he would sing at the White House for a tribute to soul concert.
Friendship with Otis Redding
One of the most famous artists on the Stax Label was Otis Redding. William Bell talks about their friendship, which started when he was on leave from the military after he too was drafted. “During one of my trips home, I went to the studio and [Otis] was actually bringing Johnny Jenkins in to record and we hit it off.”
“When I got out of the military, I had another hit record and Otis and I started touring together. After touring, I would go down to Macon or he would come to Memphis and we would hang out and have a good time as young artists coming up.”
December 10, 1967
Just like Waylon Jennings was a coin flip away from being on the plane with Buddy Holly when he crashed, William Bell had his brush with fate. “I had been in the studio with Otis when he did ‘Dock of the Bay.’ I had a performance in Chicago and he had ones up near Wisconsin and he said ‘I can drop you off if you want to ride with me…’ The night before we were to leave, it was snowing so badly in Chicago, my performance was cancelled – otherwise I would have traveled with him.”
Bell would co-author “A Tribute to a King” in Otis Redding’s honor. As the song goes, “Without his soulful singing…This old world won’t be the same.”
His Blues Legacy
Bell collaborator for the Redding tribute piece was none-other than Booker T of Booker T & The MGs. They would also co-author a song for Albert King called “Born Under a Bad Sign,” which would later be recorded by everyone from Crème to Buddy Guy to Jimmy Hendricks.
Collaboration with Booker T
William Bell speaks fondly of his friend, “Booker I had known each other for a long time. We went to the same church and our families knew each other. We were all part of the Mt. Olive Cathedral. We became good friends from the church and the family era, and we went to the same high school, Booker T. Washington High School. And, we wound up at Stax together. It was just a natural thing for Jim Stewart to pair us up to do some writing and we had super success with the artists we were writing for and for myself.”
Success Outside of Memphis / His Beach Music Legacy
One of the songs that would be so successful for William Bell would be a duet with Judy Clay called, “Private Number.” The song would hit the Top 10 in the UK. Along with “Tryin’ To Love Two” and others, Bell’s legacy would live on as Beach Music classics.
“We were just happy as young kids to hear our songs on the radio. And, until we started touring the world, we didn’t realize the impact our songs were having on people. Back in Memphis, we were just young kids happy to earn some money.”
His Hip-Hop Legacy
From Kanye West to Ludacris, the list of rap and hip-hop artists who have sampled Bell’s songs is very long.
When asked about the borrowing of his beats, Bell comments about the blending of genres, “It is a testament to a good song, and I found out early on that people are people. You have the same frustrations, desires. That is how I tried to write.”
Move to Atlanta
Bell would continue writing and producing music after Stax dissolved in the late 60s, and he moved to Atlanta. “I just needed a change of scenery. I love the city. It was similar to Memphis. Booker moved to L.A. I set up shop here. I built a studio.”
He was also trying new things like acting. Bell said, “Acting was one of my passions. I wanted to stay in the entertainment industry. I found the Academy school in Atlanta, and I did some Summer Stock with them and did some acting classes with Mary Nell Santacroce, who was like the Grand Dame of acting in Atlanta and worldwide.”
He would play Stanley in “Streetcar Named Desire” on stage and do some walk on roles in movies like “Together for Days” alongside a young Samuel L. Jackson.
His Americana Legacy – Winning a Grammy in 2017
When William Bell performed a Tiny Desk Concert for NPR, one of the top comments was, “To hell with “he’s still got it” … William Bell never lost it! Writing great songs and singing them with all of his heart and soul.”
The NPR recording featured songs from Bell’s latest album “This is Where I Live.” It would go on to win Best Americana Album at the Grammys.
Bell talks about the project and the connection he made with producer Johnny Lowenthal, “A fantastic producer, you know he is Johnny Cash’s son in law, married to Rosanne. We just really hit off both as friends and musician. He was a fan — number one. He knew all about my career. He was telling me that he had a band when he was growing up and they used to play those songs.
“We wanted to capture some of the essence of the touch on the Stax era, but not dwell on It. We just took our time. It’s world music now. We wanted to broaden our scope a little bit. Him being from the Americana era and Country and me from Soul and Gospel, it just worked out.”
William Bell’s Upcoming September 27 Performance In Newberry.
“I am bringing my whole 10 piece band. You can expect me doing some of the old songs down to the new songs from ‘This is Where I Live’. We can’t do them all, but we put some in a medley. We are looking forward to it.”
Soul, Beach Music, Hip-Hop, Americana – no matter the genre – William Bell is a legend. Spend an evening with him at the Newberry Opera House on Friday, September 27 at 8:00 p.m. Call for tickets 803-276-6264 or buy online at NewberryOperaHouse.com.