Noted primarily as one of the most sought-after session guitarists in the business, Vincent Bell (born Vincent Gambella in New York City in 1935 (and not to be confused with Vincent F. Bell) also developed the electric 12-string guitar as well as the electric sitar. Tracking down his own recorded efforts, however, can turn out to be an exercise in futility as he also recorded albums and singles as Vinnie and Vinny Bell for a variety of labels.In addition, as a 21-year-old he was a member of the New Jersey-based vocal group The Gallahads, and again there's often rampant confusion with another Doo-Wop group with that name that hailed from Seattle. In Gambella's case he, along with Bob Alexander, Frank Kreisel and Jackie Vincent, had two singles released by Jerry Blaine's Jubilee Records of New York, with their first of 2 1956 releases going head-to-head with Sanford Clark on The Fool. With the backing of the Billy Mure orchestra, The Gallahads finished well back of Clark's # 7 at # 62 Billboard Pop Top 100 in August as Jubilee 5222 b/w The Morning Mail. The follow-up I Give You My Word (I'll Always Love You) b/w Take My Love as Jubilee 5259 went nowhere.In 1960, billed as Vincent Bell, he had Lead Guitar b/w Quicksand come out as Independent 102 (with distribution arrangement through Laurie Records) as well as Caravan b/w The Faint as Independent 1214, but when this actually emerged is unclear. In 1963, billed as Vinnie Bell & The Bell Men, he released Whistle Stop b/w Shindig as Verve VK-10308, followed in 1964 by an album titled "Whistle Stop" (Verve MGV-8574) where his name was spelled Vinny Bell. That same year, he cut his first of 2 LPs for Musicor Records of New York City titled "51 Greatest Motion Picture Favorites" billed as Vinnie Bell (Musicor MM 2009/MS 3009) and followed that in 1965 with "Big Sixteen Guitar Favorites" (Musicor MM 2047 - re-released in 1970 as "The Best Of Vincent Bell" (Musicor MS 3192).By 1967 he was with Decca where he would cut 3 albums under two different billings: "Pop Goes The Electric Sitar" (Decca DL-74938) in 1967 as Vincent Bell; "Good Morning Starshine" (Decca DL-75138) in 1969 as Vinnie Bell; and "Airport Love Theme" (Decca DL-75212) in 1970, again as Vincent Bell. He also played in the orchestras of Alan Lorber and Tito Puente, and you can hear his famous "watery guitar" work in the late 1969 Ferrante & Teicher smash hit Midnight Cowboy. His guitar is also prominent in Frank Sinatra's 1980 Theme From New York, New York, and his electric sitar is front and centre in The Lemon Pipers' 1967 # 1 Green Tambourine and Freda Payne's 1970 # 3 Band Of Gold.He also recorded a few more singles in that span only one of which made it onto the Billboard singles charts, and that came in April-May 1970 when, as Vincent Bell, he had Airport Love Theme (Gwen And Vern) from the film Airport make it to # 2 Adult Contemporary/# 31 Billboard Pop Hot 100 backed by an orchestra directed by Nick Perito (Decca 32659 b/w Marilyn's Theme). The hit earned him the 1971 Grammy for Best Instrumental Composition. His other known singles which did not chart are also listed in the Comments.All together, a wealth of material (see the contents of the albums mentioned in the Comments below) that would fill out a decent anthology CD, but at the moment all we have is one from CD Baby titled The Best Of Vincent Bell which, using the same cover picture, converts the Musicor vinyl releases "Big Sixteen Guitar Favorites" and "The Best Of Vincent Bell" mentioned above. The only difference is in the order of the tracks in the CD.