Raised in the Mount Airy section of Philadelphia, Linda Creed's
contribution to the Philly Soul Sound of the 1970s through the 1980s is
undeniable. Her talents as a lyricist were teamed with Philadelphia
International Records most noted composer-producer-arranger Thom Bell in
1971. The Creed and Bell collaboration produced an impressive array of
Top 40 hits.
For the vocal group The Stylistics, this songwriting team penned "Stop,
Look, Listen (To Your Heart)" (their first collaboration & first Top 40
Hit), "You Are Everything", "Betcha By Golly, Wow", "I'm Stone In Love
With You", and "You're As Right As Rain." For The Spinners, they penned
"Ghetto Child", "The Rubberband Man" and "I'm Coming Home." Creed's
sensitive lyrics meshed with Bell's signature classical-cum-soul sound
also produced one of Johnny Mathis's signature albums. Mathis' 1973 LP "I'm
Coming Home" included the first recorded versions of "A Baby's Born",
"I'd Rather Be Here With You", "Sweet Child" and "Life Is A Song Worth
Singing", the latter becoming one of Mathis' most requested songs and a
hit single for singer Teddy Pendergrass.
Although Creed was diagnosed with breast cancer at the age of 26, she
continued to work. With composer Michael Masser, she wrote the poignant lyrics
to "The Greatest Love of All" for the Muhammad Ali biopic Ich bin der Grösste (1977); this
Creed-Masser composition would become a No. 1 hit for singer Whitney Houston in
1986, the same year Creed lost her battle with breast cancer at age 37.
In 1987 her family and friends established The Linda Creed Breast Cancer
Foundation in Philadelphia to provided free mammographies to uninsured
and underinsured women. As one half of one of the most commercially and
critically acclaimed songwriting teams, she was inducted posthumously
into the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 1992.
