Bruce Hawes

Philly maestro BORN 1953

Though not as well-known as Gamble & Huff or Thom Bell – the songwriters, producers and chief architects of ’70s Philadelphia soul – Bruce Hawes co-wrote two of the City Of Brotherly Love’s biggest R&B hits: The Spinners’ Mighty Love (1974) and Games People Play (1975). A preacher’s son who sang in a church choir, Philly-born Hawes was steeped in the sanctified cadences of gospel music but began writing secular songs in his teens, and in 1973 joined Thom Bell’s production company as a staff songwriter. Under Bell, Hawes’ talent rapidly blossomed and he went on to write for a raft of soul acts in the ’70s and ’80s, including

The Three Degrees, Gladys Knight & The Pips and Phyllis Hyman. In later life, Hawes left Philadelphia for Florida, where he continued to write and produce.

Charles Waring