UB Celebrates 80th Birthday of Legendary Patti LaBelle

Today, UB celebrates one of our absolute favorites, legendary Patti Labelle on her 80th Birthday!

Born Patricia Louise Holte on May 24th, 1944 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Patti LaBelle is a singer, songwriter, actress, and entrepreneur with a career spanning 60 years.

After joining her church’s youth choir in her teens, she discovered her singing had the ability to uplift audiences. Word of her talent spread quickly through Philadelphia, and before she knew it, listeners from around the city were coming to hear her sing.

She has survived the fads and trends and like the perennial phoenix, she has transformed herself time and again. The road has not always been paved with gold for Patti LaBelle as she has journeyed from ’60s girl group leader to ’90s powerhouse diva and now, a seasoned legend.

But she will tell you with a smile as broad as her high octane vocal range that she considers it a blessing that she has sustained her career and that she can make a living at what she loves doing most, purely and simply, singing her heart out!

The sheer volume and scope of music Patti has recorded over the years is tremendous. With a catalog of 30+ albums and over 50 charted singles to her credit as both a group member and solo star. Her amazing career has spanned over 60 years of righteously soulful singing.

It’s a multi-faceted career that continues to take Patti to new levels of acclaim, accomplishment and international recognition: while she has attained widespread popularity, Patti can boast the kind of unswerving audience loyalty and devotion that most performers yearn for.

Beyond her unbridled musicality, she is quite simply a salt-of-the-earth down-home diva who gives of herself unselfishly, a superstar who has never forgotten the paying public has kept her career going through good times and bad, ups and downs, and constant change…

Patti‘s earliest years were spent much like those of her musical contemporaries – singing in church. It was the choir at the local Beulah Baptist Church that gave the youngster her first opportunity to give vent to her natural vocal gifts and like other girls growing up in the ’50s, the idea of forming a vocal group was a natural.

With Cynthia “Cindy” Birdsong, Patti formed The Ordettes and by 1961, the two school friends had hooked up with Wynona “Nona” Hendryx and Sarah Dash – singers from The Del Capris, a rival female group – to form The Bluebells.

In 1962, the group began working with producer/arranger Bobby Martin and the initial result was the hit “I Sold My Heart To The Junkman,” a Top 20 pop and R&B; hit credited to The Bluebelles but – the story goes – actually recorded by another group, The Starlets.

Whatever initial confusion may have surrounded that first release, it was unquestionably Patti‘s recognizable powerhouse vocals that were featured on “Down The Aisle,” “You’ll Never Walk Alone,” and “Danny Boy,” the three hits that first bore the name “Patti LaBelle & The Bluebelles” which appeared on the charts between late ’63 and early ’65.

Building a reputation as a dynamic vocal outfit who brought energy and excitement to their live performances, Patti and The Bluebelles spent their first few years building a solid R&B; base by performing on the “chitlin circuit,” a series of theaters in cities like New York, Chicago, Washington D.C., Atlanta, Detroit, Baltimore, and Philadelphia that featured package shows with hit R&B; stars of the day.

“Live” recordings at The Uptown in Philly and at the Brooklyn Fox – both issued by Atlantic Records – captured the Bluebelles in fine form and by the middle of 1965, the group had signed with the label. “I think it was (veteran Atlantic executive) Jerry Wexler who signed us,” Patti recalled. “Our first sessions included some originals like ‘Patti’s Prayer,’ ‘Groovy Kind Of Love,’ and ‘All Or Nothing.’ But most of the tunes we did were ballads… which was great because I’ve always loved singing slow songs.”

Released in 1965, the group’s first Atlantic album included a number of standards and popular songs of the day: “I remember that we all picked the songs but I wouldn’t record anything that I didn’t love … and ‘Over The Rainbow’ was one of those songs I always loved from the time I heard Judy Garland sing it in The Wizard Of Oz. It has such a beautiful melody and that line, ‘if birds can fly, why can’t I?’ – that’s always been my line because I have often thought of myself that way, as a bird who could fly…”

While she would have no way of knowing so at the time, “Over The Rainbow” has gone on to become a permanent staple in Patti‘s “live” repertoire. “It didn’t happen right away but gradually, over time, we began including it in our show, and it’s one of those things where if I don’t do the song in every performance now, I’d probably get lynched,” she laughed.

Nona, Sarah, and Patti – after Cindy left we were like three peas in a pod. The group’s three-year stay with Atlantic proved less than successful: only two singles – “I’m Still Waiting” and “Take Me For A Little While” – saw any chart action and in spite of two fine albums and a collection of strong singles, Patti and The Bluebelles (reduced to a trio with the departure of Cindy who replaced the late Florence Ballard as a member of The Supremes in 1968) were in need of a new attitude…

Enter Vicki Wickham, a British television producer who had presented the group on “Ready, Steady, Go!” the U.K.‘s hippest ’60s music program. Wickham took over management of the group and she had a vision… “I was thinking that the fans wouldn’t appreciate us for changing… I was a scaredy cat,” Patti recalled of the shift in visual image and musical approach that resulted in the group’s 1971 emergence as LaBelle.

The group signed with Warner Brothers and recorded two progressive albums that featured an eclectic fusion rock and R&B.; While neither album was commercially successful, tracks like “Morning Much Better” and Cat Stevens‘ “Moonshadow” became favorites among the cult audience that began following the trio in the ’70s.

A one-off album for RCA, 1973’s “Pressure Cookin'” still failed to take LaBelle to the masses although word of mouth was spreading and it became apparent that a hit single could be the key to taking the group to a new level of popularity.

After signing with Epic Records in 1974, the tide turned. Patti: “We went down to New Orleans to work with (producer) Allen Toussaint on our first album for the company. I thought we’d be there for two weeks. I like to hit and quit it! But Allen took his time and we were there for two months. I was not very happy!”

Patti, Nona, Sarah were however ecstatic when “Lady Marmalade,” a catchy ditty about a Creasant City hooker became an across-the-board, million-selling #1 pop and R&B; smash in early 1975. The song’s success led to the group’s first gold album, “Nightbirds” which contained classic tracks like the follow-up single, “What Can I Do For You,” and “Are You Lonely.”

With their avant-garde outfits, high energy stage presence and scorching vocal harmonies, LaBelle had arrived.

After two more excellent albums (“Phoenix” and “Chameleon”) which Patti still considers “classics that have the best singing we ever did as a group together,” the trio LaBelle decided to split up: “It was time for us to part as singing partners while remaining friends,” Patti reflects, noting that she approached recording her first solo album for Epic with a considerable amount of concern. “I was afraid of being blamed for the group’s breakup, and I didn’t know how people would respond to me as an artist out on my own…”

Patti‘s fears were allayed when the record-buying public responded well to her initial self-titled debut which included the hits “Joy To Have Your Love” and the LaBelle standard, “You Are My Friend,” another tune that remains a “must” in Patti‘s “live” repertoire.

After completing three more albums (“Tasty,” “It’s Alright With Me,” and “Released”) and racking up six R&B; chart singles (including “I Don’t Go Shopping” and “Little Girls,” a personal Patti favorite) with Epic, Patti signed with Philadelphia International Records in 1981.

“(Label co-founder) Kenny Gamble and I grew up together in Philly, and we knew it was just a matter of time before we would do something together. Working with the company was like being with a family of people I knew and loved…”

In all, Patti recorded three albums from the label (“The Spirit’s In It,” “I’m In Love Again” – her first gold LP as a solo artist – and “Patti”) but it was only after she had technically “left” Philadelphia International in 1983 that she had her first #1 R&B; hit as a solo performer.

A year after a duet with Philly-based saxman Grover Washington Jr. on the Grammy-nominated tune, “The Best Is Yet To Come” had given her her first chart appearance since 1980, Patti found herself perched atop the R&B; hit parade with the ever soulful “If Only You Knew.”

In 1982 and 1983, Patti LaBelle starred in the musical “Your Arms Too Short To Box With God” from Vinnette Carroll. Patti has also appeared in other Broadway productions, including “Fela” and “After Midnight.”

Over the year, Patti scored three R&B; hits, two of which – “Love Has Finally Come At Last” (a duet with soul man Bobby Womack) and “Love, Need And Want You” (from “I’m In Love Again”) hit the Top 10. With the momentum building as a result of the hits, a long-term contract with a major label like MCA Records held the promise of taking Patti to a new plateau of popularity. It was a promise fulfilled…

“Jheryl Busby (then president of MCA’s black music department) was instrumental in bringing me to the company,” Patti recalled. “The first thing the company suggested was that I record a couple of songs for “Beverly Hills Cop,’ the Eddie Murphy movie…”

It didn’t hurt that the film became one of 1985‘s biggest box office draws, and Patti enjoyed two back-to-back smash singles with “New Attitude” (her first Top 20 pop hit as a solo artist) and “Stir It Up.” Sporting a new hair do and looking as spry as ever, Patti indeed had a new perspective on life…

“New Attitude” was released in early ’86, from “Winner in You,” her MCA debut album, also marked another milestone in her career: not only did it achieve platinum status but it also featured Patti‘s unforgettable #1 across-the-board hit, “On My Own,” a duet with former Doobie Brothers‘ member and respected singer/songwriter Michael McDonald.

“The song was sent to me and I did a version of it but somehow it just didn’t quite work,” Patti noted. “We were going over things I’d done and we talked about turning in into a duet. Someone asked , ‘If you could do it with anyone, who would you sing it with,’ and Michael was my first choice…”

The album also included a couple more hit singles (“Oh, People” and “Kiss Away The Pain”) and although it had been a slow building process over a 10-year period, Patti’s solo career was in full effect: by virtue of some key television appearances, cameo film roles and constant touring, she had successfully altered the perception that she was merely a singer with great chops, achieving nationwide celebrity status in the process.

Her sophomore MCA album contained its share of hits including “Yo’ Mister,” written and produced by the late great Prince, and “If You Asked Me,” which was used in the 1989 James Bond movie, “License To Kill“; a Top 10 R&B; hit, the song never took off on the pop charts… until Celine Dion covered it in 1992.

“I knew the song was a hit when I recorded it,” Patti stated, “and I was happy that Celine did it and did so well with it. But the arrangements are so close and we both have pretty powerful voices…so who knows why my version didn’t take off. Maybe it was timing…”

The song “Yo Mister” was written and produced by the late great Minnesotan Prince, for legendary Patti LaBelle‘s 1989 album, “Be Yourself.”

A song about a wayward daughter and her father’s reaction to her decline. The single was a hit and reached #6 on the R&B chart, with various remixes.

The video was shot in July of 1989, in St. Paul, MN near and at the neighborhood store off Dale and Selby. What makes that location so remarkable, is it’s in the Rondo area of St. Paul.

Patti Labelle and Prince only performed the single once to our knowledge and it was in Minneapolis at the Orpheum Theatre on November 15th 1989. A show that had Oprah Winfrey in the building.

The show was Patti LaBelle‘s first ever solo show in Minneapolis and Sheila E. also joined her on-stage for the performance of “Yo Mister.“

1991‘s gold “Burnin'” album spawned three back-to-back Top 5 R&B; hits, “Feels Like Another One,” “Somebody Loves You Baby (You Know Who It Is),” and “When You’ve Been Blessed (Feels Like Heaven)” and was followed by a 1992 “Live” album that captured on disc some of the excitement and energy that Patti‘s many fans have come to expect from their favorite diva.

In 1994, MCA released “Gems,” a soulful set that included tunes like “The Right Kinda Lover” and “All This Love” which achieved gold status and reaffirmed Patti‘s ability to transcend the ongoing changes in the musical taste that have marked the ’90s. “The last few years have been wonderful and the record company and everyone involved with my career have been really hanging in there with me,” she smiled.

1995 also brought the hardest working lady in show business several career and personal life highlights. Patti was the featured performer at Super Bowl XXIX in Miami, Florida in January; a performance that was seen aroung the world! As honorary chairperson for the National Minority Aids campaign, Patti loaned her voice and likeness to institute the “Live Long Sugar” campaign.

This campaign focuses on getting information to targeted “inner cities” that medicine, which is either free or quite inexpensive, is available to those individuals living with HIV and AIDS related illnesses which can prolong and improve the quality of life.

Additionally, 1995 saw the launch of the Patti LaBelle Signature Lip and Nail Collection; a collection of lipsticks and nail polishes which capture the style and flair of the diva! Along with Laura B. Randolph, Miss LaBelle started writing her long awaited biography “Don’t Block the Blessings: Revelations of a Lifetime.”

“Change, the trick is o see it as just another opportunity to grow. A chance to change yourself from the person you are, into the person you want to be. When you fear it, you fight it and when you fight it, you block the blessing!”

All this, while doing numerous television appearances and performing in over 90 concerts throughout the year.

Patti has been featured in film and television programs including A Soldier’s Story, A Different World, American Horror Story, Empire, Star, and The Kominsky Method, and starred in her own TV series, “Out All Night.”

She’s also wowed television audiences with unforgettable performances on current hit shows such as, Dancing with the Stars and The Masked Singer.

In 2007, she introduced Patti’s “Good Life,” a successful food and lifestyle brand that offers a variety of frozen comfort foods, breakfast items, and desserts, including her world-famous sweet potato pie.

The Patti’s Good Life brand is available at retailers across the United States including Walmart and Target. Always a person to take on new challenges, in 2017 Patti launched a record label, GPE Records, and released her first jazz album, “Bel Hommage.”

On July 2nd, 2019, Patti LaBelle was honored in Philadelphia with her own street name, Patti LaBelle Way – between Locust and Spruce Street.

It was Patti LaBelle vs Gladys Knight during Verzuz, which took place in September of 2020 during the pandemic. Patti did her signature “kicks off shoes” performance to one of her favorites and classic “Over The Rainbow.”

Also in 2020 “Ain’t Nuthin’ But A Feelin’,” was released to streaming services. A song recorded during the sessions for her 1989 album “Be Yourself.” Produced and written by Full Force, with background vocals and instrumentals performed by Full Force and Cheryl Pepsii Riley.

Although she is an award-winning entertainer, author, and entrepreneur, Patti’s work as a humanitarian is just as noteworthy. She remains an advocate for adoption, diabetes, cancer, HIV/AIDS, and many other causes and non-profit initiatives.

While she has reached the heights of success throughout her 60 plus year career, Patti has also endured and survived personal strife. Within a ten-year period, she lost her mother, three sisters, and best friend to diabetes and cancer. In 1994, she was diagnosed with diabetes and shortly thereafter became a spokesperson for the American Diabetes Association.

The same motivation that had Patricia Louise Holte blossom from a choir member to lead vocalist for Patti LaBelle & The Bluebelles and later Labelle, to a solo artist, is the same energy that keeps her fire burning at eighty years young. “Each year I grow, and that’s a blessing from God. I do what I can do. I do what I feel God has given me the energy to do, so I just go out there and I do it…it’s not about making money because I don’t need money, but I need to sing. With a voice or without, I’ve got to get on that stage.”

Patti LaBelle began a successful solo career which has spanned over four decades with more than 50 million records sold worldwide. Patti LaBelle is known as the “Godmother of Soul.”

Happy Birthday Patti LaBelle!