Al Bell (born Alvertis Isbell on March 15, 1940 in Brinkley, Arkansas, USA ) is an American record producer, songwriter, and record executive. Bell is best known as one of the key figures behind and a co-owner of Memphis, Tennessee-based Stax Records during the later half of the label's nineteen-year existence. A former disc jockey in his hometown of Little Rock, Arkansas, Bell was vital to the careers of Stax's soul stars such as The Staples Singers and Isaac Hayes, The Emotions, The Dramatics, and Mel and Tim. Bell's promotional efforts drove the “Memphis Sound” internationally, and made Stax the second-largest African American-owned business in the 1970s. In 2009, the BBC profiled Bell as "one of the icons of soul music" and "the driving force behind Stax Records"
Following his career at Stax, Bell became President of Motown Records Group during its restructuring for sale to MCA and Boston Ventures Group, and later started his own label, Bellmark, whose releases included Tag Team's single “Whoomp! (There It Is)” (1993). Today, Bell works in the independent music scene in Memphis, as well as maintaining an online music website and radio show at AlBellPresents.com
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“To be faced with what so-and-so’s mother lets him do, or what the teacher said in class today or what all the kids are wearing is to be required to reexamine some part of our belief structure. Each time we rethink our values we reaffirm them or begin to change them. Seen in this way, parenthood affords us an exceptional opportunity for growth.”
—Ruth Davidson Bell (20th century)