In the '80s it grew to be in the main stream that songs were tied deeply with images and sold by promotion videos which we often watched on MTV, and even now we are sometimes startled at these kind of images with brand-new ideas. There used to be the connection between movie and music, however, many promotion videos had more movie scenes and less appearances of the artists as if they excused themselves for performing their own parts. Apart from the popular, others were pleased with records of motion picture soundtracks, the vehicles of delivering their own tunes to many people's ears. That's why they only took a clear-cut attitude about hidding themselves behind the severe flood of images. If you have watched "Beveley Hills Cop" before, you should hear the unknown voice soaring and spreading quite higher with all her might. That tune New Attitude was sang by Patti LaBelle, who not only made some hits from the '60s but sang insertion tunes in some movies in the '80s, and she made a big break-through with Burt Bacharach penned On My Own featuing ex-Doobie Brother Michael McDonald. The two tunes I mentioned can be heard on "Gold", her compilation putting spotlights on and after the '80s, which suggests her today's status as a graceful singer in the Middle of the Road or Adult Oriented Rock.
While splendid singers are likely to sing more tender-touched ballads as they grow older, I'm overpowered specially by her pitching a driving and vibrating ball to the high. I had not been so impressed by her '80s sides, however, I couldn't resist her '74 tune Lady Marmalade and I couldn't wait for a time to have "Nightbirds" including this. This album of the trio LaBelle was processed by Allen Toussaint and the Meters of New Orleans, and let us listen not only to pre-eminent Lady Marmalade with crisp and deep grooves and suggestive lyrics, but to the cool funk with sticky rhythms and horns and clever chorus on What Can I Do for You?, Don't Bring Me Down or All Girl Band . The trio, Sarah Dash, Nona Hendryx and her, didn't appear suddenly with gorgeous wigs and sexy attire in the image of the future space age : they had been one of bright and healthy girl groups in the '60s.
A quartet called the Blue Belles was formed from two girl groups in around 1961 and cut doo-wap sides like I Sold My Heart to the Junkman, and ballads or musical tunes like Down the Aisle, Danny Boy or You'll Never Walk Alone from labels in Philadelphia like Newtown or Parkway. The liner notes of their compilation of that age "The Early Years" says that their biggest hit in the Blue Belles years I Sold My Heart to the Junkman was cut by the Starlets in truth. As the Starlets belonged to a label called Pam in Chicago, Newtown decided to release this tune under a contractual problem in a different name and it gave birth to the Blue Belles. On their compilation of Atlantic in New York "Over the Rainbow", we can hear Over the Rainbow of the movie "The Wizard of Oz" fame, Brill-Building tunes like Groovy Kind of Love which gave hits for Wayne Fontana & the Mindbenders or Phil Collins, or Dreamer written unexpectedly by southern soul writers Dan Penn and Spooner Oldham. While their ability was appreciated by Wilson Pickett who featured them in the chorus of 634-5789 or by the big shots of rock or soul who took them in a favor, thier producers such as Bert Berns, Jerry Williams Jr. (a.k.a. Swamp Dogg), Don Davis or Curtis Mayfield often thought them as one of conventional girl groups, and Patti LaBelle with a spreading and free voice seemed to be a Jill of all trades and master of none. During the late '60s transition from girl groups of the past to the gospel-derived soul which brought into the main stream, a Blue Belle Cindy Birdsong joined the Supremes as replacement for Florence Ballard.
Their performance on the UK music program "Ready, Steady, Go" took the attention of Vicki Wickham, who later became the manager of them and brought the trio's girl group era to an end. On their Warner Bros. and RCA years compilation "Something Silver", their renditons of Gil Scott-Heron's The Revolution Will Not Be Televised , the Who's Won't Get Fooled Again or the Rolling Stones' Wild Horses, not in the repertoire of other female soul singers, are unique for the harsh rocka-funky grooves together with their assertive and fantastic appearance. The singer-songwriter Laura Nyro featured LaBelle as chorus on her R&B renditions "Gonna Take a Miracle" which express floating and peculiar soul in their own way. Not only on "Something Silver" but on their Epic years best "Lady Marmalade", I think it is not too much to say that Nona Hendryx plays a role in the hub of LaBelle by composing Touch Me All Over, If I Can't Have You, Are You Lonely? or Messin' with My Mind and so on. Patti LaBelle became solo and came to hurl less novel screwballs and more orthodox straight balls. It seems to me that she was put in the mold as you see her on the photos of on and after '80s. However, I think she is horrible because her voice is still on the quite high level while her contemporaries cannot hide their decline. (2007/03/30)