We continue our look back at the music of 50 years ago………
When you first hear the voice of Patti LaBelle you know you are listening to a powerful instrument. In fact, on record, it almost seems that LaBelle knows only one volume…and that power can be a problem. In 1971 La Belle, along with Nona Hendryx and Sarah Dash released their debut LP simply called “LaBelle”.
It features the soaring, lead vocals of Patti and the solid harmony backup of Hendryx and Dash. Although the sameness of LaBelle sound can get boring, they do fly on a couple of these including a soulful take on “Running Out Of Fools/You Gotta Make A Fool of Somebody”.
There are some of covers…Carole King’s “Youve Got a Friend” , Laura Nyro’s “Time & Love and the Rolling Stones ‘Wild Horses”. How they work is up to your discretion.
There is no Lady Marmalade here(one of my faves)…that would come a bit later…and the group would splinter later in the 70’s and lead to each releasing their own stuff at the height of the disco craze. Patti would, of course, hit it big in the 80’s with a number of records.
This is where it started, and they would also back up a singer-songwriter on an LP later in the year, which we will visit tomorrow.
