With Booker T. Jones, Bell wrote the song "Born Under a Bad Sign," which became a signature song for blues musician Albert King. It was later popularized by the power trio Cream. Also, Bell's collaboration in 1968 with Judy Clay yielded the memorable hit, "Private Number." Further U.S. hits followed with "I Forgot to Be Your Lover" (1968), which was remade into a U.S. Top 10 pop hit by Billy Idol in 1986 as "To Be a Lover." It had previously been covered by the Jamaican singer George Faith and was the (amended) title tune for his 1977 album To Be a Lover.
In 1977, Bell topped Billboard's Hot Soul Singles chart with his polyamorous soul song "Tryin' to Love Two". In 1985 Bell founded the label Wilbe and issued Passion, which found its most receptive audiences in the UK (although "I Don't Want to Wake Up Feeling Guilty," a duet with Janice Bullock, was a minor U.S. hit). In 1986, The single "Headline News" entered the UK singles charts.
Hip-hop producer The Alchemist sampled Bell's song, "I Forgot to Be Your Lover," for the group Dilated Peoples in their hit track, "Worst Comes to Worst." The track appears on their 2001 album Expansion Team. The same song was also sampled by the French hip-hop group Arsenik in their hit track, "Regarde le monde." The track appears on their 2002 album, Quelque chose a survecu.... Jaheim also sampled it in his song "Put That Woman First," which appears on his album Still Ghetto; and True Master used the same sample for the Killah Priest song "One Step" on the album Heavy Mental (1998). Kanye West sampled the William Bell track "Strung Out" for Cam'ron's song "Down & Out," which appeared on the Purple Haze album. Ludacris also sampled Bell's song on his single "Growing Pains," from the album Word of Mouf.
Los Angeles rapper MURS used a sample produced by 9th Wonder and used Bell's "Yesterday I Lied, Today I Cried", in his song "Yesterday & Today," released on the 2006 album Murray's Revenge.
In 1997 Bell was inducted in to the Georgia Music Hall Of Fame. The same year he received the Rhythm and Blues Foundation's R&B Pioneer Award.
Bell's recording career extended to 2006, when his most recent LP, New Lease of Life, was released on his own Wilbe Records label.
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