The Dell Music Center closed out the summer with a tribute to legendary Philadelphia songwriters Kenny Gamble and Leon Huff.<\/p>\n
It comes after a year of celebrating the city’s cultural legacy and America’s 250th anniversary.<\/p>\n
“As Philadelphia continues to celebrate America’s 250th anniversary, we continue to recognize the people, culture and accomplishments that have shaped our city and our nation,” said Mayor Cherelle Parker.<\/p>\n
On Thursday night, the duo got to sit back and watch their legacy of music sung and celebrated before thousands.<\/p>\n
The concert celebrated 55 years of Philadelphia International Records, founded by Gamble and Huff in 1971, bringing artist like The Spinners, The Delfonics, The Three Degrees, The O’Jays , Jean Carne and Harold Melvin & the Blue Notes to international fame.<\/p>\n
They created the iconic Sound of Philadelphia in the 1970s, which is a distinctive blend of soul, R&B, orchestration and socially conscious lyrics.<\/p>\n
“Gamble and Huff wrote so many songs for us, I can’t even name them,” said Roger Banks, a member of Legendary Blue Notes featuring Sugar Bear. “They’ve been doing this since Mickey was a mouse. I’m glad to be a part of the legacy from Harold Melvin.”<\/p>\n
Kenny Gamble and Leon Huff say all they wanted was to create a ‘message in their music’ of love and empowerment. They say they are honored to be celebrated in their hometown.<\/p>\n
Music pioneer Thom Bell was also honored.<\/p>\n
“So often you hear of someone passing, getting sick; give them their flowers while they can see them,” said WDAS radio personality Miss Patty Jackson. “They did so many signature songs!”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Dell Music Center closed out the summer with a tribute to legendary Philadelphia songwriters Kenny Gamble and…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":278757,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[92249,9537,7158,116679,116678,113387,113388,69,71,113390,70,113392],"class_list":["post-278756","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-philadelphia","tag-250th","tag-cherelle-parker","tag-gamble","tag-harold","tag-huff","tag-kenny-gamble","tag-leon-huff","tag-philadelphia","tag-philadelphia-headlines","tag-philadelphia-international-records","tag-philadelphia-news","tag-the-spinners"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/278756","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=278756"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/278756\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/278757"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=278756"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=278756"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=278756"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}