Patricia Louise Holte (born May 24, 1944), known professionally as Patti LaBelle, is an American R&B singer and actress. She is also known as the "Godmother of Soul". LaBelle began her career in the early 1960s as lead singer and frontwoman of the vocal group Patti LaBelle and the Bluebelles. After the group's name changed to Labelle in the 1970s, they released the US number-one hit "Lady Marmalade". After the group disbanded in 1977, LaBelle began a solo career, achieving mainstream success in the 1980s with singles including "If Only You Knew", "New Attitude" and "Stir It Up". In 1986, she achieved both a US number-one album, Winner in You, and a US number-one single with "On My Own", a duet with Michael McDonald. LaBelle won a 1992 Grammy for Best Female R&B Vocal Performance for her album Burnin', and a second Grammy in 1999 for the live album Live! One Night Only. She reunited with her Labelle bandmates in 2008 for the album Back to Now.
LaBelle has also had success as an actress with a role in the Academy Award-nominated film A Soldier's Story, and in television shows such as A Different World and American Horror Story: Freak Show. In 1992, LaBelle starred in her own sitcom Out All Night. In 2002, LaBelle hosted her own lifestyle show, Living It Up with Patti LaBelle, on TV One. In 2015, LaBelle took part in the dance competition Dancing with the Stars. Labelle has given her name to brands of bedding, cookbooks and food, including Patti's Sweet Potato Pie, which became a viral sensation after featuring in a YouTube video that year.
In a career which has spanned seven decades, LaBelle has sold more than 50 million records worldwide. She has been inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame, the Hollywood Walk of Fame, the Black Music & Entertainment Walk of Fame, and the Apollo Theater Hall of Fame. Rolling Stone included her on their list of 100 Greatest Singers. LaBelle is a dramatic soprano recognized for her vocal power, modal register range and emotive delivery.
Patti LaBelle and the Bluebelles
Patricia Louise Holte was born in the Eastwick section of Southwest Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, the second-youngest child of Henry (1919–1989) and Bertha (née Robinson; 1916–1978) three children, and the next-to-youngest of five children overall. Her siblings were Thomas Hogan Jr. (1930–2013), Vivian Hogan (1932–1975), Barbara (1942–1982), and Jacqueline "Jackie" (1945–1989). Her father was a railroad worker and club performer and her mother was a domestic. Despite enjoying her childhood, LaBelle would later write in her memoirs, Don't Block the Blessings, that her parents' marriage was abusive. Shortly after her parents' divorce when she was 12, she was sexually molested by a family friend. She joined a local church choir at the Beulah Baptist Church at 10 and performed her first solo two years later. While she was growing up, she listened to secular music styles such as R&B and jazz music as well.
When she was 16, LaBelle won a talent competition at her high school, John Bartram High School. The success led to her first singing group, the Ordettes, in 1960 with schoolmates Jean Brown, Yvonne Hogen, and Johnnie Dawson. With LaBelle as the front woman, the group became a local attraction until two of its members left to marry, while another was forced to quit the group by her religious father. In 1962, the Ordettes included three new members: Cindy Birdsong; and Sarah Dash and Nona Hendryx, who had sung for another vocal group which was defunct at the time. That year, they auditioned for local record-label owner Harold Robinson, who agreed to work with the group after hearing LaBelle sing the song "I Sold My Heart to the Junkman". Initially, he had been dismissive of LaBelle, believing her to be "too dark and too plain".
Shortly after Robinson signed them, he had them record as the Blue Belles and they were selected to promote the recording of "I Sold My Heart to the Junkman", which had been recorded by The Starlets. It was recorded as a Blue Belles single due to label conflict. The Starlets' manager sued Harold Robinson after the Blue Belles were seen performing a lip-synching version of the song on American Bandstand. After settling out of court, Robinson altered the group's name to "Patti LaBelle and The Blue Belles". Robinson gave Holte the name "LaBelle", which meant "the beautiful" in French. Initially, a Billboard ad cited the group as "Patti Bell and the Blue Bells". In late 1963, the group entered the top 40 with the ballad, "Down the Aisle", which was distributed by King Records. This was soon followed by a rendition of "You'll Never Walk Alone", which was re-released by Cameo-Parkway Records and was another top 40 hit, followed by a rendition of "Danny Boy".
Following the dissolution of Cameo-Parkway in late 1965, the Bluebelles signed with Atlantic Records, where they had modest success with the songs "All or Nothing" and "Take Me for a Little While". Their Atlantic debut album, Over the Rainbow, featured their modern soul rendition of the title track. Birdsong left the group to join the Supremes in July 1967; three years later, they were dropped from Atlantic as well as their longtime manager Bernard Montague. Under the advice of Dusty Springfield, Vicki Wickham, producer of the UK music show Ready, Steady, Go, began managing the trio. Wickham's first direction was for the group to change their name to simply Labelle and renew their act, going for a more earthy look and sound that reflected progressive soul. In 1971, the group opened for the Who in several stops on the group's U.S. tour.
Labelle signed with Warner Bros. Records and released their self-titled debut album in 1971. The record's progressive soul sound and its blending of rock, funk, soul and gospel rhythms was a departure from their early girl-group R&B sound. In the same year, they sang background vocals on Laura Nyro's album, Gonna Take a Miracle. A year later in 1972, the group released Moon Shadow, which repeated the progressive sound of the previous album. In 1973, influenced by glam rockers David Bowie and Elton John, Wickham had the group dressed in silver space suits and luminescent makeup, designed for them by Larry LeGaspi.
After their third successive album, Pressure Cookin', failed to generate a hit, Labelle signed with Epic Records in 1974, releasing their most successful album to date, with Nightbirds, which blended soul, funk and rock music, thanks to the work of the album's producer, Allen Toussaint. The proto-disco single, "Lady Marmalade", would become their biggest-selling single, going number one on the Billboard Hot 100 and selling over a million copies, as did Nightbirds, which later earned a RIAA gold award, for sales of a million units. "Lady Marmalade" was later inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame. In October 1974, Labelle made history by becoming the first rock and roll vocal group to perform at the Metropolitan Opera House. Riding high on the success of "Lady Marmalade" and the Nightbirds album, Labelle made the cover of Rolling Stone in 1975.
Labelle released two more albums, Phoenix in 1975 and Chameleon in 1976. While both albums continued the group's critical success, none of the singles issued on those albums ever crossed over to the pop charts. By 1976, Patti, Nona, and Sarah began arguing over the group's musical direction. Personal difficulties came to a head during a show on December 16, 1976, in Baltimore where Hendryx went backstage and injured herself during a nervous breakdown. After the incident, LaBelle advised that the group separate.
Following Labelle's split, she signed a solo contract with Epic and issued her self-titled debut album in 1977. The album included her composition, "You Are My Friend", which was only a modest R&B chart hit in 1978 but would become one of her early showstoppers in concert. Three more Epic releases followed in succession through 1980 (Tasty, It's Alright with Me, and Released), all of whom failed to generate a top 40 chart hit until her rendition of Peter Allen's "I Don't Go Shopping" reached the top 30 on the R&B charts in 1981.