The woman’s name (in the photo below) is Linda Creed and she is responsible for writing Johnny Gill’s first hit, “Half Crazy”…okay so that might not be as surprising as it is to find out that Linda probably wrote at least one of your favorite old school soul songs. If you’re from the Old School, you’ve probably slow danced to one of her hits before. Surprised much? That’s understandable…but check out what she’s done for Teddy Pendergrass and so many other music icons…

Teddy Pendergrass said that Linda Creed, who passed away from breast cancer at age 37 (April 1986), was one of his closest friends in the music industry and she was one of the main reasons why he was able to build up the will to start creating music again. In case her name sounds familiar to you, it’s also probably because you’ve heard of the breast cancer treatment foundation, Linda Creed Breast Cancer Foundation, which was established by her family in 1987.

Linda and her co-writing partner, Thom Bell, have a pretty solid song writing list and for a while back in the 70’s and early 80’s, if a soul artist wanted a hit, it would have been in their best interest to phone up those two. They were in demand like Ashford and Simpson back then. This further proves that soul music has no color…it simply has soul.

Check out the list of Old School SOUL CLASSICS that we ALL love, written by Linda and Thom back in the day….

Linda Creed and Thom Bell penned a bunch of hits for The Stylistics, here are some of them.

• • “Stop, Look, Listen (To Your Heart)” – originally recorded by The Stylistics
  • “You Are Everything” – originally recorded by The Stylistics
  • “Betcha by Golly, Wow” – originally recorded by Connie Stevens as “Keep Growing Strong”, later made famous by The Stylistics, later covered by Phyllis Hyman, and Prince
  • “People Make the World Go Round” – originally recorded by The Stylistics
  • “I’m Stone in Love with You” – originally recorded by The Stylistics
  • “Break Up to Make Up” – originally recorded by The Stylistics
  • “Rockin’ Roll Baby” – originally recorded by The Stylistics
  • “You Make Me Feel Brand New” – originally recorded by The Stylistics

• • “Ghetto Child” – originally recorded by The Spinners
  • “I’m Coming Home” – originally recorded by Johnny Mathis, later covered by The Spinners
  • “Life Is a Song Worth Singing” – originally recorded by Johnny Mathis, later covered by Teddy Pendergrass
  • “Living a Little, Laughing a Little” – originally recorded by The Spinners
  • “The Rubberband Man” – originally recorded by The Spinners
  • “Old Friend” – originally recorded by Phyllis Hyman

Linda and Thom even wrote these songs, including the one made made famous by our beloved Whitney Houston- “Greatest Love of All.” On a side note, ILOSM fam’ please continue to keep Whitney’s and Bobby’s daughter, Bobbi Kris, in your thoughts and prayers, as well as all of her family and loved ones during this difficult time.

• “Greatest Love of All” – originally recorded by George Benson; later made famous by Whitney Houston
• “Hold Me” – Teddy Pendergrass (duet with Whitney Houston)

This information makes me think about what the world would be like if we all were able to just close our eyes and listen to the soul of a person, judging them and their actions solely off of that alone. Most of us probably never even knew that we were jammin’ to the work of a white woman when we were listening to these songs back in the day. But now that we know, I think I speak for most of us reading this when I say, it doesn’t change a thing about how those songs touched our soul and still do to this very day. If we all (as in all races) simply listened to our hearts, we, as a society, would prosper greatly in my humble opinion. The world is so tainted now though, so that’ll probably be an uphill battle for many centuries to come, unfortunately. I can still have a dream though, right?