:Melvin Bliss

{{Infobox musical artist

| name = Melvin Bliss

| birth_name = Melvin McClelland

| alias =

| birth_date = {{birth date|1945|06|01}}

| origin = Chicago, Illinois{{cite web|url=http://www.hiphopdx.com/index/news/id.11795/title.synthetic-substitution-singer--sample-icon-melvin-bliss-dies|title="Synthetic Substitution" Singer / Sample Icon Melvin Bliss Dies|publisher=Hiphopdx.com|accessdate=13 May 2013|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131016061801/http://www.hiphopdx.com/index/news/id.11795/title.synthetic-substitution-singer--sample-icon-melvin-bliss-dies|archive-date=16 October 2013|url-status=dead}}

| death_date = {{death date and age|2010|07|07|1945|06|01}}

| genre = Soul

| years_active = {{Start date|1973}}–{{end date|2010}}

| label = Sunburst Records

| associated_acts = Herb Rooney, Bernard Purdie

}}

Melvin McClelland{{cite news|url=https://www.theguardian.com/music/2011/jun/23/samples-copyright-interview|title=Recycled riffs:samples of music biz justice|newspaper=The Guardian|accessdate=12 May 2013|location=London|first=Angus|last=Batey|date=23 June 2011}} (June 1, 1945{{cite magazine|url=http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_EuTVo7fWMyY/TE8x_1EmucI/AAAAAAAACWk/DjsVF1xg5Xk/s1600/Melvin+Bliss+article.jpg|title=Introducing Melvin Bliss|magazine=Blues & Soul|accessdate=8 June 2013}}-July 26, 2010) was a rhythm and blues singer known for his 1973 song "Reward/Synthetic Substitution",{{cite magazine|url=http://www.waxpoetics.com/features/in-memoriam/melvin-bliss|title=Melvin Bliss|magazine=Wax Poetics|accessdate=12 May 2013}} the B-side of which was heavily sampled[https://www.theatlantic.com/culture/archive/2010/07/melvin-bliss-rip/60457/ Melvin Bliss, R.I.P.] Hua Hsu. The Atlantic. Jul 27 2010 in at least 94 hip hop songs such as "Real Niggaz Don't Die" and "Alwayz into Somethin'" by N.W.A, "O.G. Original Gangster" by Ice-T, "O.P.P." by Naughty by Nature and more recently "My Life" by 50 Cent, Eminem and Adam Levine.{{cite web|url=http://www.pastemagazine.com/articles/2010/07/rip-melvin-bliss.html|title=RIP Melvin Bliss|publisher=Pastemagazine.com|accessdate=7 July 2013}}

Born in 1945 in Chicago as Melvin McClelland, his career didn't begin with music; rather, in the Armed Forces.{{cite AV media | people=Holder, Earl | year=2011 | title=Synthetic Substitution: The Life Story of Melvin Bliss | medium=Motion picture | publisher=Peripheral Enterprises}} After spending a few years singing in Naval bands, he departed the Navy in the mid-1950s. From there, he went from stage to stage until the early 1970s, when in an attempt to boost his career prospects he visited a Queensbridge concert hall intending to use it for self-promotion. While awaiting a meeting with the hall's owner, he encountered the mother of Herb Rooney and it emerged that he wanted a singer to record one of his compositions. After an informal discussion with Rooney himself, Bliss hit the studio to record it; the result was Reward. That song's B-side, "Synthetic Substitution", became one of the most sampled songs of all time.{{Cite web|url=http://www.cratekings.com/melvin-bliss-synthetic-substitution-documentary/|title=Melvin Bliss - Synthetic Substitution (Documentary)|date=10 May 2010 |publisher=Cratekings.com|accessdate=7 July 2013}} Bliss' label, Sunburst Records, was a sister company of Opal Productions, and in 1974 it went bankrupt, taking Sunburst Records with it; in doing so rendering Bliss a one-hit wonder.

In 2011, a documentary about him, Synthetic Substitution: The Life Story of Melvin Bliss, was released by Peripheral Enterprises. It was produced by Earl Holder.