I just got off the phone with songwriters Kenneth Gamble and Leon Huff (at left), aka Gamble & Huff, who will be inducted Monday into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame along with Madonna, John Mellencamp, The Dave Clark Five, Leonard Cohen, The Ventures and Little Walter. The festivities happen at the famous Waldorf-Astoria in New York and you can be sure the party will begin over the weekend.

The duo, who began writing together 45 years ago, created the Philadelphia sound, which included hits such as Love Train, Me and Mrs. Jones and Use Ta Be My Girl  for artists like The O'Jay's, Patti LaBelle, Lou Rawls and Teddy Pendergrass. Two new CDs, one  of their hits and one of "forgotten wonders," were released by Sony yesterday.

So, what does it take for a partnership to work as long as that of Gamble & Huff? "Respect and trust," Huff tells me. They met on an elevator in a Philadelphia building where one worked on the second floor and the other on the sixth. "We were the only African-Americans going in and out of the building every day so we had to say something to each other." They discovered that Huff was a piano player and Gamble a lyricist and melody-maker. They got together one day and wrote half a dozen songs and a partnership was born.

Gamble says the Hall of Fame honor "has given us a new boost." A new generation is discovering their work and talent. Michael Bublé performs the Gamble & Huff classic Me & Mrs. Jones on Call Me Irresponsible and Keyshia Cole included a sample of their' She's Only A Woman on Just Like You, her contemporary R&B album. "It's exciting," says Gamble, who'd like to write for Cole and American Idol winner Fantasia. "It makes us remember what it was like."