Capable of belting with the piercing force of an emergency siren while also conveying deep emotion through the softest intonations, R&B icon Patti LaBelle has sustained one of the most enduring paths in modern music. Since emerging in the early 1960s as part of the Bluebelles—a vocal ensemble that later transformed into the boundary-pushing LaBelle of the 1970s funk era—she has delivered successful recordings across girl group pop, raw soul, futuristic funk, intense disco, elegant quiet storm, and polished pop productions. Launching her individual path in 1977, LaBelle accumulated thirteen R&B singles that reached the top ten, among them the signature quiet storm ballad “If Only You Knew,” which topped the chart in 1983, alongside the crossover successes “New Attitude” in 1985 and “On My Own” the following year. Though recognized chiefly through her individual tracks rather than complete albums, two subsequent releases, Burnin’ from 1991 and the concert recording Live! One Night Only in 1998, each earned Grammy Awards within the R&B category. Since those victories she has explored gospel and jazz directions on The Gospel According to Patti LaBelle in 2006 and Bel Hommage in 2017, all while maintaining an active presence on stage and screen.
Patricia Holt entered the world in Philadelphia on May 24, 1944, and first developed her voice in a neighborhood Baptist choir before joining forces with longtime acquaintance Cindy Birdsong in 1960 to establish the Ordettes. The following year Nona Hendryx and Sarah Dash joined, prompting the name change to the Blue Belles. Under producer Bobby Martin they reached the top twenty on both pop and R&B listings in 1962 via “I Sold My Heart to the Junkman,” then returned to the charts two years later with interpretations of “Danny Boy” and “You’ll Never Walk Alone.”
Rechristened Patti LaBelle & the Bluebelles, the quartet joined Atlantic in 1965 and secured a modest hit with their take on the standard “Somewhere Over the Rainbow.” Birdsong departed in 1967 to replace Florence Ballard within the Supremes, leaving the remaining trio to perform extensively along the Chitlin’ Circuit throughout the rest of the decade. In 1970 they enlisted British manager Vicki Wickham, who shortened the group’s name to LaBelle and steered their sound toward funk and rock influences. Following their self-titled Warner Bros. debut the next year they shared bills with the Who, and they also joined Laura Nyro for the R&B-inflected album Gonna Take a Miracle. By 1973 the trio had adopted a glam aesthetic complete with elaborate futuristic stage attire, and in 1974 they became the first African-American ensemble to perform at New York’s Metropolitan Opera House. That landmark concert unveiled “Lady Marmalade,” which Allen Toussaint produced and which ascended to the top of the singles chart later that year.
After issuing Phoenix in 1975 and Chameleon the year after, the group dissolved and LaBelle embarked on a solo trajectory with Epic, releasing one studio album annually from 1977 to 1980. Across Patti LaBelle, Tasty, It’s Alright with Me, and Released she collaborated with David Rubinson, Skip Scarborough, and Allen Toussaint while maintaining a refined yet accessible R&B approach that occasionally leaned toward dance floors. Nine singles from this period charted, among them the Top 40 R&B entries “Joy to Have Your Love,” a funk-driven track co-written by Ray Parker, Jr., the characteristically warm Scarborough composition “It’s Alright with Me,” and the reflective ballad “I Don’t Go Shopping.” Her strongest club performance arrived with “Music Is My Way of Life,” which reached number ten on Billboard’s disco survey.
LaBelle next aligned with Philadelphia International for a five-year association that produced The Spirit’s in It in 1981, the gold-certified I’m in Love Again in 1983, and Patti in 1985. Label founders Kenneth Gamble and Leon Huff contributed to each project alongside Dexter Wansel, Bunny Sigler, and Cynthia Biggs. The middle album proved most commercially rewarding, driven by the quiet storm staple “If Only You Knew,” which topped the R&B chart and nearly crossed into the pop top forty, and by “Love, Need, and Want You,” another top-ten R&B success. Concurrently she appeared as a featured vocalist and duet partner on Grover Washington, Jr.’s “The Best Is Yet to Come,” a performance that earned a Grammy nomination for Best R&B Vocal Performance, Female, and on Bobby Womack’s “Love Has Finally Come at Last.” Early in this chapter she also initiated an intermittent acting career through a co-starring part in a Broadway revival of Your Arms Too Short to Box with God.
Before the label could issue her fragmented third Philadelphia International album, LaBelle had already moved to MCA in 1984. There she embraced a high-tech sonic update comparable to those undertaken by the Pointer Sisters and Chaka Khan, emerging as a mainstream pop figure via the Beverly Hills Cop soundtrack singles “New Attitude” and “Stir It Up.” Despite the commercial orientation, both tracks resonated strongly with her established audience and performed even better on the R&B side, peaking at numbers three and five respectively; the first also became a top-twenty pop hit and received a Grammy nomination for Best R&B Vocal Performance, Female. The resulting momentum fueled the platinum-certified 1986 album Winner in You, anchored by the Burt Bacharach-penned duet “On My Own” with Michael McDonald. The project and single simultaneously topped the pop and R&B charts, while follow-up “Oh, People” marked LaBelle’s sixth solo top-ten R&B entry. Additional Grammy recognition followed for Best Pop Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocal on “On My Own” and for Best R&B Vocal Performance, Female on Winner in You. She concluded the decade with Be Yourself, which yielded further major R&B hits in Diane Warren’s “If You Asked Me To” and Prince’s “Yo Mister.”
Activity slowed somewhat during the 1990s, yet each of her three studio albums—Burnin’ in 1991, Gems in 1994, and Flame in 1997—attained gold or platinum status and reached the R&B top ten, while four accompanying singles performed similarly. Burnin’ finally delivered LaBelle a Grammy for Best R&B Vocal Performance, Female. During the same span she published her memoir Don’t Block the Blessings: Revelations of a Lifetime and issued two live collections, the second of which, the double-disc Live! One Night Only from 1998, captured a Grammy for Best Traditional R&B Performance.
Following her final MCA release, 2000’s When a Woman Loves, LaBelle briefly joined Def Jam’s Def Soul imprint for Timeless Journey in 2004 and the covers collection Classic Moments the next year. She then shifted focus toward gospel with The Gospel According to Patti LaBelle, a Universal release that led Billboard’s gospel chart in 2006. Two years afterward she reunited temporarily with Nona Hendryx and Sarah Dash for Back to Now. She has sustained an active touring schedule and taken on select acting roles, including recurring appearances on American Horror Story and a guest spot on Empire, while also building a successful line of baked goods. In 2017 she returned fully to recording with Bel Hommage, a collection of jazz standards issued by Sony.
