A principal architect of the Stax/Volt sound, singer/composer William
Bell came to prominence with his classic “You Don’t Miss Your Water,”
one of the quintessential soul records to emerge from the Memphis
scene. William cut his teeth backing Rufus Thomas, and in 1957
recorded his first sides as a member of the Del Rios. After joining the
Stax staff as a writer, in 1961 Bell made his solo debut with the selfpenned
“You Don’t Miss Your Water,” an archetypal slice of countrysoul
and one of the label’s first big hits. A two-year Armed Forces stint
effectively derailed his career, however, and he did not release his first
full-length album, The Soul of a Bell, until 1967, generating a Top 20
hit with the single “Everybody Loves a Winner”; that same year, Albert
King also scored with another classic Bell composition, the oft-covered
“Born Under a Bad Sign.”
Bell’s next solo hit, 1968’s “A Tribute to a King,” was a poignant
farewell to the late Otis Redding; the R&B Top Ten hit “I Forgot to Be
Your Lover” soon followed, and a series of duets with Judy Clay, most
notably “Private Number,” also earned airplay. In 1969, he relocated
to Atlanta and set up his own label, and in 1977 Bell capped a major
comeback with “Trying to Love Two,” which topped the R&B charts. In
1985, he founded another label, Wilbe. In addition to issuing
subsequent LPs, in 1987 Bell was inducted into the Georgia Music Hall
of Fame, and that same year also received the Rhythm & Blues
Foundation’s R&B Pioneer Award. After 1992, Bell took a lengthy
hiatus from the recording studio, though he still performed regularly.
In 2003, he was honored by the Blues Foundation with the W.C. Handy
Heritage Award. In 2007, Bell showed that he still ‘had it’ when he
wowed the crowd at the Stax 50th Anniversary Reunion show. He went
on to perform at SXSW in Austin and the Ponderosa Stomp in New
Orleans that year, and followed that up with an extensive tour of
Europe and a July 2009 appearance at Lincoln Center in NYC. In
September of 2009, Bell signed to Blind Ambition Management and is
currently working on a ‘comeback’ album and tour.
