Kenny Gamble and Leon Huff
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Year:
2008
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Inducted by:
Jerry Butler
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Category:
Ahmet Ertegun Award
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Kenny Gamble -
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Leon Huff
Introduction
Spreading love and soul music since the Sixties.
Kenny Gamble and Leon Huff are master songwriters and producers, amassing one hundred seventy-five gold and platinum records and recruiting disciples of Philadelphia soul over the course of their careers.
Jerry Butler Inducts Kenny Gamble and Leon Huff
Jerry Butler Inducts Kenny Gamble and Leon Huff at the 2008 Rock & Roll Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony-
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Jerry Butler Inducts Kenny Gamble and Leon Huff00:00:55 -
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Kenny Gamble and Leon Huff Acceptance Speeches00:05:35 -
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"If You Don't Know Me By Now"00:05:03 -
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"Only the Strong Survive"00:03:05
Hall of Fame Essay
2008
There’s certainly a good ring - both literally and figuratively - to the story that Kenny Gamble and Leon Huff like to tell about meeting for the first time in a Schubert Building elevator on Philadelphia’s Broad Street in the summer of 1964.
In those days, the Schubert was Philly’s equivalent of New York’s Brill Building, its office space filled by virtually all of the city’s key music business-movers and shakers.
They were there because each of these ambitious young African American men - one (Gamble) a singer, the other (Huff) a piano player, and both aspiring songwriters — had gotten their feet in some newly opened doors of opportunity with established local writing/production companies hungry for a piece of the bubbling soul-music pie.
