Their achievements are staggering: 15 gold singles, 22 gold albums (eight of which went platinum), and a song catalog that’s rife with R&B standards. In fact, as recognized in their Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction earlier this year, Kenny Gamble and Leon Huff are the architects of Philadelphia Soul music — a style and sound that defined much of popular music in the ’70s. Such songs as “Love Train,” “Back Stabbers,” “Me and Mrs. Jones,” and “If You Don’t Know Me By Now” merely skim the surface of countless hits the duo co-wrote, produced or helped arrange. In the following phone interview, the two look back at their remarkable career.

Russell Hall: Why were the early ’70s such a golden period for soul music?

Gamble: It had to do with the state of the world. Marvin Gaye’s “What’s Going On?” was perfect for the time, in that it asked all the right questions. Civil rights, and the quest for freedom, and African American awareness — from the ’60s to the ’70s — was a time of awakening. Songwriters, at that time, were part of a movement. It was (an) extension of the James Brown era, and of things like Curtis Mayfield’s “People Get Ready.” Huff and I wrote a lot of songs that had social commentary as well — songs like “Love Train,” and McFadden and White’s “Wake Up Everybody.”

RH: That sense of social consciousness is most explicit on the 1973 O’Jays album, “Ship Ahoy.” Did you think of that album as a concept album?

Gamble: Definitely. We were trying to address slavery, and the lingering effects that slavery had on people of African descent, and what it’s done to America. When you listen to that album, you really feel the anxiety and the pressure that the slaves went through, when they came over here in those ships. Even today the message of that album resonates. It’s an issue that’s yet to be resolved. To this day people continue to ask us about that title song.

RH: Did the fact that American Bandstand was based in Philadelphia have an impact on what you were trying to do?

Huff: Absolutely. I was going to school during that era, and I couldn’t wait to get home and turn on the TV. Blacks weren’t allowed to dance on the show, but I was still always anxious to see it. You might see Little Anthony or Frankie Lymon or The Platters or Chubby Checker. I was also into people like Dion and the Belmonts and Fabian and Frankie Avalon. American Bandstand was the MTV of that era.

RH: In the mid-’70s a lot of rock artists started trying to incorporate the Philly sound into their music. What were your thoughts about that?

Gamble: That was great. There was David Bowie, with his “Young Americans” album. I’ve read a few biographies that make it clear how much he admired the Philly sound. And of course Elton John came to Philadelphia to record. Even B.B. King got on-board. It seemed everybody wanted to get a piece of that Philly sound. The Rolling Stones even covered “Love Train.”

RH: Were there any artists who you especially wanted to work with, who you were never able to sign?

Huff: Quite a few. Miles Davis was one of them.

Gamble: Another was Bob Marley. I was thrilled to meet him. We had serious discussions with him. I remember when he came over to the hotel to meet with us. I had never seen hair like that. What stuck me most was how humble he was. The reason that didn’t happen was because he got sick. He was diagnosed with cancer.

RH: What do you feel you could have accomplished with him?

Huff: There’s no telling what would have come out of that collaboration. It would have been one heck of a marriage. Bob Marley was so much more than just a singer. And I think that’s how people look at our music — as a movement. I think that’s what attracted Marley to us. Together I think we could have done something sensational.