William Bell
By All Music Guide
By All Music Guide
Bells next solo hit, 1968s 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, Peachtree; the hits dried up as the next decade opened, but 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, and issued Passion, which found its most receptive audiences in the U.K. (although I Dont Want to Wake Up Feeling Guilty, a duet with Janice Bullock, was a minor U.S. hit). In addition to subsequent LPs, including 1989s On a Roll and 1992s Bedtime Stories, in 1987 Bell was inducted into the Georgia Music Hall of Fame, that same year receiving the Rhythm & Blues Foundations R&B Pioneer Award. After 1992, Bell took a lengthy hiatus from the recording studio, though he still performed regularly. In 2000, he released an album of all-new material on Wilbe entitled A Portrait Is Forever and followed it six years later with New Lease on Life. In between he was honored with the 2003 W.C. Handy Heritage Award.
