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Also naming Broad Street from Spruce Street to Pine Street as "Gamble and Huff Walk."
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WHEREAS, This year marks the 49th Anniversary of the extraordinary partnership of musical legends, Kenneth Gamble and Leon Huff. As you may be intimately aware, they together founded PIR, which became the second largest African-American owned record label in America during the 1970's. PIR made its unforgettable mark internationally, creating an entire movement that is still known as "The Sound of Philadelphia"; and
WHEREAS, The Gamble-Huff collaborative chemistry generated a series of massive hits throughout the 1960s, including "I'm Gonna Make You Love Me" (a regional hit for Dee Dee Warwick later covered by Diana Ross & the Supremes and the Temptations), the Soul Survivors' "Expressway To Your Heart," the team's first Top 5 record, and the Intruder's 1968 breakout "Cowboys To Girls," blueprints for the emerging trademark sound of Philly Soul; and
WHEREAS, In 1971, Gamble and Huff founded PIR as the outlet for their creative vision. Building a stable of Philly-based talent -- including Patti LaBelle, Archie Bell & the Drells, Jerry Butler, the Ebonys, the Intruders, the O'Jays, Harold Melvin and the Blue Notes, Billy Paul, MFSB, the Three Degrees, Teddy Pendergrass, Lou Rawls, just to name a few -- PIR recordings reached the tops of the charts from day one, at one point selling more than 10 million records in a nine month period, with hits like Billy Paul's "Me & Mrs. Jones," a Grammy-winning #1 pop and R&B smash, Harold Melvin & the Blue Notes' "If You Don't Know Me By Now," and the O'Jay's "Backstabbers" and "Love Train"; and
WHEREAS, By 1973, PIR was second only to Motown as the largest African-American owned company in America and became the birthplace, incubator and launching pad for the Philly Soul sound, a unique blend of R&B rhythms, sweet soul vocals, deep funk grooves, pulsing horn charts and lush string arrangements with melodic structures ...
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