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William Bell (born William Yarborough on July 16, 1939, Memphis, Tennessee) is an 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". 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". It had previously been covered by Jamaican singer George Faith and was the (amended) title tune for his 1977 LP, "To Be A Lover", widely regarded as a classic of its type and a big hit in the reggae charts. In 1977, Bell topped Billboard's R&B singles chart with his polyamorous soul song "Tryin' to Love Two". Hip-hop producer The Alchemist sampled Bell's song "I Forgot To Be Your Lover" for the group Dilated Peoples 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. Ludacris also sampled Williams song on his single "Growing Pains" from the album Word of Mouf. Los Angeles rapper MURS furthermore sampled Bell's "Yesterday I Lied, Today I Cried" in his song "Yesterday & Today", released on the 2006 album Murray's Revenge. In 1997 Bell was inducted in to the Georgia Music Hall Of Fame.

Bell's recording career extended to 2006, when his most recent LP, New Lease of Life, was released on his own Wilbe Records label.

William Bell
Happy

Albums

The Soul Of A Bell (Stax 1967)

Tribute To A King (Stax 1968)

Bound To Happen (Stax 1969)

Wow ... William Bell (Stax 1971)

Phases Of Reality (Stax 1973)

Relating (Stax 1974)

Coming Back For More (Mercury 1977)

It's Time You Took Another Listen (Mercury 1977)

Survivor (Kat 1983)

Passion (Tout Ensemble 1985)

On A Roll (Wilbe 1989)

Bedtime Stories (1992)

A Portrait Is Forever (Wilbe 2001)

New Lease Of Life (Wilbe)