Archie Bell & the Drells
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Archie Bell & the Drells was a Philadelphia soul vocal group, one of the main acts on Kenneth Gamble and Leon Huff's Philadelphia International Records. The band's hits include "Tighten Up" and "I Can't Stop Dancing" (both 1968), "Here I Go Again" (a UK hit in 1972), Soul City Walk" (1976), and "Everybody Have A Good Time" (1977).
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[edit] Career
Archie Bell (born 1 September 1944, in Henderson, Texas), the older brother of NFL player Ricky Bell (1955-1984), moved to Houston as a young boy and formed the group in 1966 with his friends James Wise, Willie Parnell and Billy Butler. They signed with Houston based record label, Ovid, in 1967 and recorded a number of songs including "She's My Woman" and "Tighten Up". Right at this time Bell was drafted into the U.S. Army and began serving in Vietnam.
Surprisingly, Bell's promoter, Skipper Lee Frazier, began unsuccessfully pushing the flip side of "Tighten Up", but at the recommendation of a friend gave the other side a try. "Tighten Up" became a hit in Houston, and was picked up by Atlantic Records for distribution in April 1968. By the summer it toppped both the Billboard R&B and pop charts. The line in Tighten Up "we dance just as good as we walk" was a little ironic, given that Bell had been shot in the leg and was consigned to a military hospital bed at the time. However the Army began allowing him to tour later in the year and discharged him on April 15, 1969.
The phenomenal success of the single prompted the band to rush out an album, despite their incapacitated leader. In 1969 the group recorded their first full album with Gamble and Huff, I Can't Stop Dancing, which reached number 28 on the R&B chart. By this time another Archie's brothers, Lee Bell (born 14 January 1946, in Houston), had replaced Butler, and Lee became the band's choreographer.
After mediocre chart showings in the late 1970s, the group split in 1980. Archie Bell later released one solo album (I Never Had It So Good - 1981) on Beckett Records.
[edit] Trivia
- The song "Tighten Up" was spoofed on the 1994 Simpsons episode "Bart Gets Famous".
- Taylor Hicks covered the song "Tighten Up" on his 1997 album In Your Time.
- The Japanese electro-pop band, Yellow Magic Orchestra, also covered the song in the early 1980s. Although their version was much more of a parody rather than a serious cover, and entitled "Japanese Gentlemen Stand Up Please".
- A Sample of "Tighten Up" is used in a Janet Jackson songs titled "Free Xone" from The Velvet Rope album.
[edit] Album discography
- 1968: Tighten Up - U.S. Black Albums Chart #15, U.S. Pop Albums Chart #142 - Atlantic
- 1968: I Can't Stop Dancing - U.S. Black Albums Chart #28 - Atlantic
- 1969: There's Gonna Be a Showdown - U.S. Pop Albums Chart #163 - Atlantic
- 1975: Dance Your Troubles Away - U.S. Black Albums Chart #11, U.S. Pop Albums Chart #95 - Philadelphia International
- 1976: Where Will You Go When the Party's Over? - U.S. Black Albums Chart #47 - Philadelphia International
- 1977: Hard Not to Like It - Philadelphia International
- 1979: Strategy - U.S. Black Albums Chart #37 - Philadelphia International
