Bell stayed at the Apollo for a couple of years, but the low pay and seven-shows-a-day schedule eventually led him back to Philadelphia where he took a similar job at the Uptown Theater playing piano behind top R&B acts like Marvin Gaye, the Supremes, Sam Cooke, and Brenda Holloway. The pay was still bad, however, and the ambitious young man grew tired of "banging away on the piano, breaking my fingernails night after night." In a big band of 15, the piano was the only unamplified instrument.

One day, Bell saw an ad in the paper for rhythm section auditions at Philadelphia's Cameo/Parkway records, the home of Chubby Checker and Dee Dee Sharp. Again, Bell passed the audition, but the label wasn't looking for a "colored" rhythm section.

"I was young, could write music and play anything they put in front of me, so they gave me a job as a lead sheet writer. I had to listen to the demos that came in, decipher the words, and write out the words and music."

Bell did that for about a year; then, Chubby Checker tapped him to tour with him as musical director and keyboardist. Also at that time, "Motown was kicking Cameo's behind so they decided it would be okay to have a 'colored' rhythm section," Bell recalls.

Bell played and recorded with the "colored" acts on the label through the mid-'60s, and "then five guys came in to audition and asked if I would like to produce them. The only problem was they didn't sing very well, or have any songs," chuckles Bell. Only the guitar player could sing, so Bell made him the lead singer, ruffling some feathers. Next they needed songs, but when Bell went to the big publishers, all they would send him was hopelessly dated material.

So, "necessity being the mother of invention," Bell started writings songs for the group himself. With the group's name mutating almost daily, they released two singles that "did okay." Then Cameo went out of business, the group was down to three, there was "no money, no distributor, and time was running out."

Somehow the money was scraped together for a third single: That was "La-La Means I Love You," and the group was the Delfonics. The song, a classic soul ballad boasting a beautiful Bell melody, was picked up by Bell (no relation) Records owner Larry Utall, distributed under the Philly Groove label, and climbed the pop charts all the way to No. 4 in early '68. Thom Bell was 25 and on his way.

The Delfonics hit again in 1970 with "Didn't I (Blow Your Mind This Time)," another delicate but firm gem. "Didn't I" won the 1970 Grammy for R&B Record of the Year, but Bell, who "wrote the melody, arranged, produced and played the song," wasn't called to the podium to collect the award, Larry Utall was, and with "no money and no Grammy," Bell decided to take his services elsewhere.