Maggie Bell -

Maggie Bell is a Scottish singer who fronted soul-rockers Stone the Crows on four albums between 1970 and 1972. As a solo artist, she debuted with the 1974 Atlantic release Queen of the Night, followed by Suicide Sal on Led Zeppelin‘s Swan Song label. In 1981, she recorded one album with super-group Midnight Flyer.

Background

She was born Margaret Bell on January 12, 1945, in the Maryhill district of Glasgow, Scotland. Bell grew up in Maryhill, where her father worked as a mechanic and played popular ballads on the family piano. Her paternal aunt Doris Droy performed in Scottish music halls as “Suicide Sal,” named after a 1932 poem about American outlaw Bonnie Parker. Bell joined the Salvation Army at age five, where she sang and played tambourine. She left school for work as a window dresser and sang at Glasgow pubs.

Bell entered professional ballroom work at seventeen with a fifteen-piece band at Glasgow’s Locarno Ballroom. She sang with guitarist Leslie Harvey in the Kinning Park Ramblers, then worked with the Mecca Band and Dennistoun Palais Band.

Early Groups

Bell made her recording debut in 1966 with songwriter Bobby Kerr, also known as Johnny Curtis, under the name Frankie & Johnny. Decca issued “(I’m) Never Gonna Leave You” (b/w “I’ll Hold You”), followed later that year by the Parlophone single “Climb Ev’ry Mountain” (b/w “I Wanna Make You Understand”).

In 1967, Bell and Harvey joined brass players Bill and Bobby Patrick for gigs on United States Air Force bases in Germany. The musicians returned to Scotland after restrictions followed the April 1968 assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. Bell and Harvey formed Power with singer/bassist James Dewar, keyboardist John McGinnis, and drummer Henry Wright. The group established a residency at the Burns Howff in Glasgow.

Harvey left Power temporarily for a two-month United States tour with Cartoone. He returned to Glasgow and urged Power to replace cover material with original songs. Cartoone manager Mark London subsequently brought Peter Grant to hear Power at the Burns Howff. In late 1969, Grant renamed the band Stone the Crows. Wright cleared out for drummer Colin Allen.

Stone the Crows

On Polydor, Stone the Crows released their February 1970 self-titled debut and the October followup, Ode to John Law, both produced by Mark London at Advision Studios. Bell shared vocals with bassist James Dewar on the early lineup and arranged “Blind Man” with Leslie Harvey. Dewar and keyboardist John McGinnis left after Ode, leaving Bell as the principal singer alongside new bassist Steve Thompson and keyboardist Ronnie Leahy. (Dewar surface in the Robin Trower trio)

Bell took a larger compositional role on their November 1971 release Teenage Licks. She arranged the traditional “Ailen Mochree” and co-wrote “Big Jim Salter,” “Mr. Wizard,” and “Keep On Rollin’” with Harvey and drummer Colin Allen. On May 3, 1972, Harvey died from electrocution at the Top Rank in Swansea. Stone the Crows recruited Jimmy McCulloch and completed Ontinuous Performance, which retained Harvey on four tracks and featured Bell as co-writer of the single “Good Time Girl.” The group continued through June 1973 and then disbanded.

Grant and London retained Bell as a management client and offered to help establish her solo career. Bell recorded two New York album projects for Atlantic, one with ex-Mountain bassist Felix Pappalardi and another with ex-Rascal Felix Cavaliere, but Atlantic shelved both projects. Jerry Wexler then took over Bell’s Atlantic sessions and reviewed more than two hundred prospective songs with her. Bell spent two months learning eleven selections for Queen of the Night. Wexler brought Bell to Atlantic Studios in New York in October 1973 to record her first released solo album.

Discography: