The Stylistics were formed in Philadelphia, PA in 1966 from two groups, “The Percussions” and “The Monarchs”. When members from each group were drafted or went on to further their education, the remaining members under the guidance of their English teacher Beverly Hamilton joined forces and changed the name to “The Stylistics”. During the early 1970s, the group had twelve consecutive R&B top ten hits including “Stop, Look, Listen”, “You Are Everything”, “Betcha by Golly, Wow”, “I’m Stone in Love with You”, “Break Up to Make Up” and “You Make Me Feel Brand New”. They had five gold singles and three gold albums.

After working locally for a number of years, the group was approached by Bill Perry who asked if they would be interested in recording. Their first song “You’re a Big Girl Now” was recorded at Virtue Recording Studio, a local studio in Philadelphia. This song was written by the group guitarist at the time, Robert “Doc” Douglas and Road Manager, Marty Bryant. The sessions cost Bill Perry a little over $500 to produce and was released locally. It was soon picked up in the tri-state area and before long, it became a number 1 hit in Philadelphia and a few other cities.

The Stylistics also found a path on to adult contemporary airwaves, and the group made Billboard magazine’s Easy Listening singles chart twelve times from 1971 to 1976, with three entries (“Betcha by Golly, Wow”, “You Make Me Feel Brand New” and “You’ll Never Get to Heaven (If You Break My Heart)”) reaching the Top 10. Every single that Bell produced for the Stylistics was a Top Ten R&B hit, and several—”You Are Everything”, “Betcha by Golly Wow!”, “I’m Stone in Love with You”, “Break Up to Make Up” and “You Make Me Feel Brand New”—were also Top Ten pop chart hits