The David J. Steinberg & Thomas R. Bell Distinguished Endowed Scholarship
For seven decades, they built the music together.
David Steinberg and Thom Bell met early. Thom was a Cameo session musician and the musical director for Chubby Checker’s touring orchestra; David was the young attorney who handled legal and business affairs.
The David J. Steinberg & Thomas R. Bell Distinguished Endowed Scholarship was established in late 2025 by the Steinberg family at Monmouth University’s Department of Music and Theatre Arts. It supports promising students whose love for music echoes the kind of patient, lifelong devotion David and Thom shared. The scholarship is not a memorial. It is the encore — the moment after the long set ends and the audience asks for one more song. Each new recipient is the next verse.
Two careers. One friendship.
Thom began at Cameo Parkway in the early 1960s as a session musician and the musical director for Chubby Checker’s touring orchestra — the foundation of a six-decade career that would make him one of the principal architects of the Sound of Philadelphia. Thom produced and arranged definitive records for The Stylistics, The Spinners, The Delfonics, Dionne Warwick, and many others, defining a sweeping, string-laden orchestral soul that influenced generations of producers from Jimmy Jam & Terry Lewis and Babyface to Bruno Mars. And by the numbers, Thom ranks among the top eight most successful writer-producers of all time in Top 40, Top 10, and #1 hits — see the producer page ›
In 1977, David Steinberg set up the deal that brought Elton John and Thom together. The Thom Bell Sessions that followed were shelved for nearly two years — then in 1979, with the Rocket Man falling back to earth and MCA out of options, the label rush-released “Mama Can’t Buy You Love.” It was Elton’s first Top 10 hit in 975 days. It went #1 on Adult Contemporary, #9 on the Hot 100, sold a million singles, and put him back in the Top 40 conversation. It revived his career.
Thom was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 2006 and inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame by way of the Music Excellence Award in 2025.
Read more in The Scoreboard →For over six decades, David served as personal counsel to artists, songwriters, and producers whose work shaped American popular music. His client roster crossed genre after genre and era — from Cameo Parkway’s rock and pop, The Sound of Philadelphia creators Gamble, Huff and Bell to Jimmy Cliff and Bob Marley.
From 1964 to 2020, David ran his Philadelphia practice essentially solo — no firm, no partners, save for periodic special counsel arrangements over the years — protecting a generational catalog of Hot 100, R&B, and international #1’s across fifty-six years. He never sought the spotlight. He didn’t need to. The work spoke for itself. The Scoreboard documents his seven-decade career in detail.
Read more in The Scoreboard →
The next verse
Selection & criteria
- It is preferred that the recipient be a first- or second-year student pursuing a degree in Music with a concentration in Music Industry in the Wayne D. McMurray School of Humanities and Social Sciences.
- The recipient must be a full-time undergraduate student.
- The recipient should have and maintain a GPA of 3.0 or above — whether a transfer student or a current Monmouth University student.
- If the above criteria cannot be met, the University will administer the Scholarship to a Monmouth University student pursuing a degree in Music within the Wayne D. McMurray School of Humanities and Social Sciences who has a GPA of 3.0 or higher.
- The Scholarship is renewable if the above criteria continue to be met.
The fund grows. The encore continues.
Each year’s award is approximately 4.5% of the fund’s prior-year balance, per Monmouth University’s endowment spending policy. As the fund grows, the annual award grows with it — a permanent obligation supporting Music Industry students at Monmouth, year after year, in perpetuity.
At $1M, the scholarship effectively funds a full-tuition Music Industry student at Monmouth every year — permanently. That is the goal.
Add a note to the encore.
We promise you will find at least five songs among the #1 hits from David’s clients — many of them produced by Thom — that either made you fall in love, feel love, get up and dance, twist and shout, or simply feel really great. What better reason could you find to be a giver to this wonderful scholarship?
Donate via Monmouth University