Philadelphia International Records 50th Anniversary

On 25th Jan 2021 Philadelphia International Records celebrated its 50th Anniversary. The label was set up in 1971 by Kenny Gamble & Leon Huff out of the remnants of short-lived Neptune records run by Gamble & Huff when it's funders Chess folded it in 1969. Two previous labels set up by Gamble & Huff were Excel which became Gamble which in turn became TSOP, a subsidiary of PIR, named after the 1974 hit song and Philly 'anthem' 'TSOP (The Sound Of Philadelphia)' by MFSB & Three Degrees, which incidentally became the Soul Train theme tune after The Rimshots (mentioned in a previous post) between 1973-74.

The offices were based at 309 S Broad St which were previously the offices for another legendary Philly label Cameo Parkway.  The offices were destroyed by fire by a 27 yr old arsonist Cristopher Cimini in 2010 and subsequently sold to a developer and the building was demolished in 2015. The plan was to build a  47 storey (590 ft) hotel called SLS International, but I understand that this has since been downscaled owing to budget and now will be a smaller residential building due for completion in  Autumn 2021.

The first album released on PIR Z 5380 was Billy Paul 'Going East' and the first 'numbered' single ZS7 3501 was Gideon Smith 'Arkasaw Wife' / 'When Two Worlds Can Successfully Collide' but it was released in May 1971 after ZS7 3502/3/4 which were all released in Apr 1971.

45Cat lists them in this order:

Apr 1971 ZS7 3503 The Ebonys - You're The Reason Why / Sexy Ways

Apr 1971 ZS7 3504 Dick Jensen - Going Up On The Mountain / Three Cheers For Love

9 Apr 1971 ZS7 3502 Johnny Williams - It's So Wonderful / Love Don't Rub Off

May 1971 ZS7 3501 Gideon Smith 'Arkasaw Wife' / 'When Two Worlds Can Successfully Collide'

Scanning through the Discography the first major hit must surely have been The O'Jays with 'Backstabbers' #3 US and #14 UK in 1972 but don't overlook the superb ballad 'Sunshine' on the flip. With PIR's first #1 hit being The O'Jays 'Love Train' the following year also from the 'Backstabbers' album.

It would be futile to try and list the top singles from the label as all 'should' be pretty well known by now, but here's a selection of 40 of the best (the list could easliy be 100):

Backstabbers,

I Miss You,

If You Don't Know Me by Now,

Me And Mrs Jones, 

Love Train, 

I'll Always Love My Mama, 

The Love I Lost, 

Dirty Old Man, 

Year Of Decision, 

Satisfaction Guaranteed (Or Take Your Love Back),

Where Are All My Friends, 

Keep Smilin', 

Hey Baby, 

I Didn't Know,

Bad Luck, 

Hope That We Can Be Together Soon,

I Love Music, 

Wake Up Everybody, 

I'm So Much In Love With You, 

You'll Never Find Another Love Like Mine, 

Message In Our Music, 

Free Love, 

Let's Clean Up The Ghetto, 

If You Wanna Go Back, 

Everybody Have A Good Time, 

I Don't Love You Anymore, 

See You When I Git There, 

Close The Door, 

Don't Let It Go To Your Head, 

Was That All It Was, 

Bring The Family Back, 

You Gonna Make Me Love Somebody Else, 

Ain't No Stoppin' Us Now, 

The Sweetest Pain, 

My Love Don't Come Easy,

Love T.K.O., 

Nights Over Egypt, 

If Only You Knew, 

Do You Get Enough Love, 

You Just Don't Know, 

Lovin' You

The top selling artists include O'Jays, Harold Melvin & The Blue Notes, Teddy Pendergrass, Billy Paul, Intruders, Bunny Sigler, Three Degrees, Archie Bell & The Drells, Lou Rawls, Jean Carn and the house band MFSB (Mothers-Fathers-Sisters-Brothers). Other artists include Phyllis Hyman, Shirley Jones, Dexter Wansel, The Ebonys, Johnny Williams, Carolyn Crawford, Dee Dee Sharp Gamble, People's Choice, The Futures, Jerry Butler, McFadden & Whitehead, The Jones Girls. Frantique, Dick Jensen. Some other artists who are not so obvious also released 45s on PIR include Patti LaBelle, Norman Harris, Leon Huff, The Stylistics and there are a few other artists who just released one or two singles.

To commemorate 50 years PIR has released a 50 track compilation. (click image to view tracklisting)