PHILADELPHIA — The Philly sound is going to the movies.
“The Sound of Philadelphia,” a new documentary film, will tell the story of songwriters and producers Kenny Gamble, Leon Huff and Thom Bell, architects of the Philly soul sound that was a dominant musical and cultural force in the 1970s. The film is now in production with a team that includes Oscar and Emmy-winning documentarian Alex Gibney.
Gamble, Huff and Bell — collectively known as “The Mighty Three” — have a shared catalog of over 3,500 songs, whose innumerable hits include The O’Jays’ “Back Stabbers,” Billy Paul’s “Me & Mrs. Jones,” The Delfonics’ “La-La (Means I Love You),” The Stylistics’ “You Are Everything” and many, many more.
The heavy hitting team behind the “Sound of Philadelphia” film includes Gibney, director of “Enron: The Smartest Men In the Room” and “Going Clear: Scientology and the Prison of Belief,” who is executive producing, and director Sam Pollard, whose credits include recent docs “Mr. Soul!” and “Sammy Davis: I Gotta Be Me.” Ron Howard and Brian Grazer are also executive producers.
The news comes on the heels of the 50th anniversary celebration in 2021 of Philadelphia International Records, the label founded by Gamble and Huff. Their artist roster included Paul, The O’Jays, Harold Melvin & the Blue Notes, Patti LaBelle, McFadden & Whitehead, The Three Degrees and others.