American soul singer and founder of Archie Bell & the Drells, a Houston, Texas-based R&B vocal group.

Bell was born in Henderson, Texas, but moved to Houston as a young boy and formed the group in 1966 with his friends James Wise, Willie Parnell and Billy Butler. They signed with the Houston-based record label, Ovide, in 1967 and recorded a number of songs.

The song Tighten Up, written by Archie Bell and Billy Butler, became a hit in Houston and was picked up by aAtlantic Records for distribution in April 1968. By the summer it topped both the Billboard R&B and pop charts. At that time, Bell had been shot in the leg while on military service and and was in a military hospital. However the Army began allowing him to tour later in the year and discharged him in 1969.

Despite their incapacitated leader, the success of the single prompted the band to rush out an album, I Can't Stop Dancing, recorded in 1969. By this time another of Archie's brothers, Lee Bell, had replaced Butler and became the band's choreographer.

After mediocre chart showings in the late 1970s, the group split in 1980. Bell later released one solo album, I Never Had It So Good, in 1981 on Beckett Records.