Vinnie Bell

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title: "Vinnie Bell" type: doc version: 1 created: 2026-02-28 author: "Wikipedia contributors" status: active scope: public tags: ["1932-births", "2019-deaths", "20th-century-american-inventors", "american-rhythm-and-blues-guitarists", "american-male-guitarists", "american-rock-guitarists", "american-session-musicians", "decca-records-artists", "guitarists-from-new-york-city", "musicians-from-brooklyn", "20th-century-american-guitarists", "20th-century-american-male-musicians"] description: "American guitarist (1932–2019)" topic_path: "arts" source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vinnie_Bell" license: "CC BY-SA 4.0" wikipedia_page_id: 0 wikipedia_revision_id: 0

::summary American guitarist (1932–2019) ::

::data[format=table title="Infobox musical artist"]

Field	Value
name	Vinnie Bell
image	Vinnie Bell (Universal Newsreel, Sept 67).jpg
alt	Black-and-white photo of guitarist wearing a suit while playing in the studio
caption	Bell playing the Coral electric sitar in 1967
background	non_vocal_instrumentalist
birth_name	Vincent Edward Gambella
alias	Vincent Bell
birth_date
birth_place	Brooklyn, New York, U.S.
death_date
death_place	Tenafly, New Jersey, U.S.
instruments
genre	Pop music
years_active	1955–2019
website
::

| name = Vinnie Bell | image = Vinnie Bell (Universal Newsreel, Sept 67).jpg | alt = Black-and-white photo of guitarist wearing a suit while playing in the studio | caption = Bell playing the Coral electric sitar in 1967 | background = non_vocal_instrumentalist | birth_name = Vincent Edward Gambella | alias = Vincent Bell | birth_date = | birth_place = Brooklyn, New York, U.S. | death_date = | death_place = Tenafly, New Jersey, U.S. | instruments = | genre = Pop music | years_active = 1955–2019 | label = | associated_acts = | website =

Vincent Edward Gambella (July 28, 1932 – October 3, 2019), known as Vinnie Bell, was an American session guitarist, instrument designer and pioneer of electronic effects in pop music.

Life and career

Vinnie Bell was born in Brooklyn, New York City, and studied guitar from childhood. He made his first recordings as a session musician on singles by such instrumental groups as the Overtones and the Gallahads, and played in nightclubs in New York City in the late 1950s. By 1962, Bell decided to devote his energies to working as a studio musician in New York and Los Angeles. In 1963, he did a session with the French Jean-Jacques Perrey for Kai Winding, in which he played the guitar and Perrey played the Ondioline. After that Vinnie along with Perrey recorded several successful commercials, when Jean-Jacques got a contract with the Vanguard Records label. Perrey asked him to be the lead guitarist for his recording sessions as "E.V.A." from Moog Indigo (1970).

He also helped design a number of electric guitar models with the company Danelectro for its Coral line of instruments, including the "Bellzouki" electric 12-string guitar, and the electric sitar, which was used, not necessarily by Bell, on such hits as "Cry Like a Baby" by The Box Tops, "Green Tambourine" by The Lemon Pipers, and a cover of the love theme from the 1970 film, Airport. The last of these sold over one million copies and was awarded a gold disc. It also won a Grammy Award for Best Instrumental Composition in 1971, while Bell was nominated for Best Instrumental Performance.

As well as being notable for his technical innovations, Bell worked extensively as a session player, playing on tracks such as "The Sounds of Silence" by Simon & Garfunkel and for artists such as the Four Seasons and Bob Dylan, specifically his Desire album. He also recorded occasionally under his own name, his albums including The Soundtronic Guitar of Vincent Bell (Independent Record Company, 1960), Whistle Stop (Verve, 1964), and Pop Goes the Electric Sitar (Decca, 1967).

He died on October 3, 2019, at the age of 87.

Discography

Albums

• The Soundtronic Guitar of Vincent Bell (1959)
• Whistle Stop (Verve, 1964)
• Big Sixteen Guitar Favorites (Musicor, 1965)
• Pop Goes the Electric Sitar (Decca, 1967)
• Good Morning Starshine (Decca, 1969)
• Airport Love Theme (Decca, 1970) (Peaked at No. 75 on the Billboard Top LPs)

Singles

• "Airport Love Theme" (US # 31, 1970; AC # 2, 1970, Australia #4)
• "Nikki" (1970) Did not chart

As sideman

With Quincy Jones

• Quincy Jones Explores the Music of Henry Mancini (Mercury, 1964) With Les McCann
• Les McCann Plays the Hits (Limelight, 1966) With Clark Terry
• Mumbles (Mainstream, 1966)

References

References

1. "Vincent E. Gambella 1932 - 2019".
2. Fiks, Ethan. (1998). "Tricks and special effects : the player's guide to unusual sounds and techniques". Alfred Pub. Co.
3. "Vinnie Bell".
4. Countryman, Dana. (2010). "Passport to the future : the amazing life and sounds of electronic pop music pioneer Jean-Jacques Perrey". Sterling Swan Press.
5. "Welcome to Vinnie Bell .com!".
6. Bacon, Tony. (2010). "Rickenbacker electric 12 string : the story of the guitars, the music, and the great players". Backbeat Books.
7. Saufley, Charles. (December 7, 2015). "Danelectro Baby Sitar Review".
8. "Vinnie Bell".
9. Murrells, Joseph. (1978). "The Book of Golden Discs". Barrie and Jenkins Ltd.
10. (2019-06-04). "Vincent Bell".
11. Simons, Dave. (2004). "Studio stories : how the great New York records were made : from Miles to Madonna, Sinatra to the Ramones". Backbeat Books.
12. "The Top 30 12-String Guitar Songs of All Time".
13. Whitburn, Joel. (1973). "Top LPs, 1955–1972". Record Research.
14. Kent, David. (1993). "Australian Chart Book 1970–1992". Australian Chart Book.

::callout[type=info title="Wikipedia Source"] This article was imported from Wikipedia and is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Content has been adapted to SurfDoc format. Original contributors can be found on the article history page. ::