Soul legend William Bell was one of the mainstays of Stax Records, and consequently was more known for earthy Memphis type soul. But in 1968 all that changed with the release of "Happy", one of the most infectious joyous Northern Soul classics ever put down to wax, and of course it was a major top priority to record for our documentary "The Strange World Of Northern Soul", so we visited William in his own recording studio in Atlanta and filmed him re-doing this stone classic. William Bell (born William Yarborough, 16 July 1939, Memphis, Tennessee) is a truly legendary American soul singer and songwriter. He was one of the architects of the Stax-Volt sound, and is probably best known for his 1961 debut single, "You Don't Miss Your Water". With Booker T. Jones, Bell wrote the song, "Born Under a Bad Sign", which became a signature song for blues musician, Albert King. It was later popularized by the power trio, Cream. Also, Bell's collaboration in 1968 with Judy Clay, yielded the memorable hit, "Private Number", which was number one in the pop charts in England. Further U.S. hits followed with "I Forgot To Be Your Lover" (1968), which was remade into a U.S. Top 10 pop hit by Billy Idol in 1986 as "To Be A Lover". In 1977, Bell topped Billboard's R&B singles chart with his polyamorous soul song "Tryin' to Love Two". Hip hop group, Dilated Peoples, sampled Bell's song "I Forgot To Be Your Lover" in their hit track "Worst Comes To Worst." The track appears on their 2001 album, Expansion Team. Jaheim also sampled it in his song "Put That Woman First", which appears on his album Still Ghetto, and True Master used the same sample for the Killah Priest song "One Step" on the album Heavy Mental from 1998. Kanye West sampled the William Bell song "Strung Out" for Cam'ron's song "Down & Out" which is on the Purple Haze album. In 1997 Bell was inducted into the Georgia Music Hall Of Fame. The man is a true legend of our music.
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