William Bell (singer)

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William Bell (born William Yarborough on July 16, 1937 in 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". In 1977, Bell topped Billboard's List of number-one rhythm and blues hits (United States) with his polyamorous soul song "Tryin' to Love Two".

Hip hop group Dilated Peoples sampled Bell's song "I Forgot To Be Your Lover" in their hit track "Worst Comes To Worst." The track appears on their 2001 album, Expansion Team. It was also sampled by Ludacris in his song "Growing Pains", which appears on his album Word of Mouf. Jaheim also sampled it in his song "Put That Woman First", which appears on his album Still Ghetto; also True Master used the same sample for the Killah Priest song "One Step" on the album "Heavy Mental" from 1998.