Gamble and Huff on the stories behind 'Love Train,' 'Ain't No Stopping Us Now,' and more

The Write Stuff is a series where artists tell the stories behind their hit songs.

If there was one song that sums up the legendary career of Kenny Gamble and Leon Huff — founders of Philadelphia International Records and architects of the Sound of Philadelphia — it's "I Love Music," the 1975 hit they wrote and produced for the O'Jays.

"It's the song that identifies us as songwriters and producers," says Huff, 79. "That says it all to me: we love music."

Five decades after Philadelphia International launched in November 1971 — putting the City of Brotherly Love on the music map with everyone from Harold Melvin & the Blue Notes to Lou Rawls and Patti LaBelle — Gamble and Huff's legacy endures as one of the most important movements in R&B history.

"Me and Huff were like teachers — and at the time we might not even have known that," says Gamble, 78. "It's unbelievable what happened then. I don't think it'll ever be done again."

In honor of Philadelphia International's 50th anniversary, the famed duo share the stories behind 10 tunes that defined the golden era of Philly soul.

"Me and Mrs. Jones" – Billy Paul (1972)

"Gamble and I, we used to have breakfast or lunch in this restaurant below the building where we had our production company," says Huff, of how this 1972 classic came to be. "I knew a couple that used to come there — I knew the guy, and I knew that wasn't his wife. They used to sit at the same booth; she'd go to the jukebox and play the same record. So they had a routine. Gamble and I went up to Gamble's office where the piano was, and Gamble wrote the story exactly the way it played out."

As for why they decided to call the woman in question Mrs. Jones, Huff says, "Gamble and I went through the phone book after we kicked around a few names. Two-syllable words, three-syllable words didn't go with the melody, so it had to be one syllable. And J is a strong letter, so we picked Jones." Plus, Gamble adds, "At that time, you had more people in the phone book with the name Jones. That was the most common."

"I Miss You" – Harold Melvin & the Blue Notes (1972)

While it's hard to imagine anyone else but Teddy Pendergrass belting such classics as "If You Don't Know Me By Now," "The Love I Lost," and "Don't Leave Me This Way" (though Thelma Houston did take the latter all the way to No. 1 with her 1976 disco cover), Teddy P wasn't the original lead singer of Harold Melvin & the Blue Notes. He was the drummer.

But the group's debut single changed all of that for Pendergrass. "One day I was rehearsing them on 'I Miss You,'" says Huff. "I was taking them through their paces and teaching them this song, and I heard this voice in the background that just caught my attention — that baritone voice. And I said, 'Gamble, the big one in the back — the big, tall, dark one — he got the voice to be the lead singer.' That voice just attracted me, and he had the qualities of a sex symbol."

"Love Train" – The O'Jays (1972)

"During that time, it was kind of like it is today: The world was a mess," says Gamble of what was going on during their songwriting sessions for this 1972 staple. "We talked about how people can't get along with one another. We were talking to the whole world from that little room that we were in — and the beautiful part of it is that [the song] went out all over the world; it was a hit everywhere."

The train as a symbol of unity was a nod to the '60s soul men that came before them. "If you remember, Curtis Mayfield had a song [with the Impressions] called 'People Get Ready' 'cause there's a train coming," says Gamble, "and James Brown was talking about the 'Night Train.'"

"Back Stabbers" – The O'Jays (1972)

"We wanted to sign McFadden & Whitehead as writers," says Huff about the songwriting duo who went on to pen PIR hits like "Bad Luck" and "Wake Up Everybody." "They came down to the office for the day. I was in the hallway going to the water fountain and they stopped me. John Whitehead gave me a sheet of paper with some words on it — it didn't have no music or anything, just the story 'Back Stabbers.' So we [added] the music and produced it. And I put that piano roll in the front to give a little mystique to it because backstabbers are sneaky."

"Ain't No Stopping Us Now" – McFadden & Whitehead (1979)

This disco anthem, which McFadden & Whitehead co-wrote and co-produced with Jerry Cohen, finally gave them their big shot as artists. "The first time I saw them, they were in a group called the Epsilons," says Huff. "So they were a little frustrated because they always wanted to sing before they wanted to write and produce. So when they got the opportunity to go in there and record themselves, they said, 'Ain't no stopping us now! We're on the move now, 'cause now we're singing.' "

But Gamble initially wanted the duo to give the tune to another one of their bigger acts: "I had told McFadden & Whitehead they should have given that song to the O'Jays, and they didn't like that. That's when you had the real conflict … But that song couldn't have been no bigger than it was. It was destiny that they would do it."

"TSOP (The Sound of Philadelphia)" – MFSB (1974)

Featuring vocals by the Three Degrees, this disco hit provided the musical intro to Soul Train, making it the first television theme to hit No. 1 on the Hot 100. "Don Cornelius [the late host of Soul Train] was a good friend of ours," says Gamble. "I used to talk to Don two or three times a week, because that was the way for us to get our artists maximum exposure on Soul Train. So one weekend, I said, 'Man, you need a new theme song. Come to Philly and let us see if we can work on it.' So we went in the studio and tried to come up with something, and we just couldn't get what we wanted. So he said, 'Man, I'm going back to LA,' and I said, 'Hold on, let us try it again.' We went back to the studio and started working on trying to come up with a song, and it all fell in place."

But Cornelius didn't want it to be called "The Soul Train Theme." "He said, 'No, no, no no — don't call it 'The Soul Train Theme,' " says Gamble. "So I told him, 'OK, well, if you don't want it to be named 'The Soul Train Theme,' we're going to call it 'The Sound of Philadelphia.'"

"When Will I See You Again" – The Three Degrees (1974)

"I was coming in our building, and right outside there was this girl," says Gamble. "And she looked familiar, but I didn't really know her name. So we started talking for a few minutes, and then I said, 'OK, I gotta go.' She said, 'Well, when will I see you again?' And so I went upstairs and me and Huff wrote that song right then … We we were recording the Three Degrees at that particular time, so we were concentrating on songs that would be [good for them]. We also recorded it with the O'Jays, but it was a girl that said 'When will I see you again?', so I guess that voice just stuck in my head."

According to Huff, after the Three Degrees performed the hit single at Prince Charles' 30th birthday party at Buckingham Palace, "We called it our 'royalty song.'"

"You'll Never Find Another Love Like Mine" – Lou Rawls (1976)

"When Lou Rawls signed with us, I said, 'Gamble, we gotta step our game up!' " says Huff. "We just knew that we had to write good songs for a voice like that. And that's what we did: First song — bam! — that was it."

"He didn't take but a couple takes," adds Gamble, "because he was a natural — like a natural man."

"Enjoy Yourself" (1976) – The Jacksons

After the Jackson 5 left Motown and became the Jacksons, replacing Jermaine with Randy, the pressure was on to keep up the success that the group had as a boy band. But, Huff says, "I took my mind off of trying to top what they did. What they did at Motown, that was that. Now you're in Philly, so this is a new chapter. Our songs didn't sound nothing like [what] they did in the past. We had something fresh."

Still, Gamble admits that scoring a Top 10 hit with "Enjoy Yourself," the group's first post-Motown single, was no small feat. "They had gone through a lot of changes," says Gamble. "And when they came to Philly, it was the first time they ever recorded without Jermaine [who stayed at Motown as a solo artist]."

"Turn Off the Lights" – Teddy Pendergrass (1979)

"We used to go to Jamaica and write," says Huff. "We used to go there, get a house on the beach, and we'd come up with some great songs. This particular song [was inspired when] they had a blackout. We were preparing to have a writing session and everything went dark. It scared me — I didn't know what was going on."

That incident would inspire the lyrics "Turn off the lights/And light a candle," helping set fire to one of Pendergrass' sexiest slow jams. "We were always writing for the girls," says Huff of Pendergrass' solo material. "We had the females throwing their panties at him."

Related content: