Customer Reviews

Lady Marmalade: Best of Patti & Labelle

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

The first five tracks of this album do it for me... then slowly as LaBelle edges its way into the '70s that funky Hammond/Horn/Percussion driven Crescent City N'awleans funk (produced by Allen Tousainte) give way to the poppy '80s (with a brief reprise via "Get You Somebody New". By no means am I putting Patti down, but Labelle was a funk powerhouse... unlike other "girl" group at the time they weren't "cute" and "pretty" they were RAW and SEXY, and Grooves like Lady M. sizzled over the air waves (it was too late for many radio stations to pull it from the airwaves til they realized that the song was about. In addition to Lady M., Are You Lonely and What Can I Do For You (both message heavy tunes) are worth the purchase of the CD alone, especially if you can't hunt down the original albums !

This excellent compilation of mid to late 70s material draws upon the best of Labelle and Patti's early solo recordings during their Epic years. It is also possibly the place to start for newer fans interested in checking out Patti's legacy before she became a full fledged supper club soul artiste.

The CD is divided equally between Labelle and Patti, the solo artiste. Trouble is, the first half featuring Labelle's best known numbers from their three Epic albums ("Nightbirds", "Phoenix" and "Chameleon") is so energetic, exciting and uniformly excellent they badly overshadow Patti's solo work. Understandably, half the 8 Labelle tracks here (including their #1 smash hit "Lady Marmalade") are extracted from their chart album "Nightbirds", though the quality of these are more than matched by 2 cuts each from "Phoenix" and "Chameleon". "Messing With My Mind" is as tough as "Get Me Somebody New" is funky. Somebody should lobby CBS to release the never-before-reissued "Phoenix" on CD, seeing that both "Nightbirds" and "Chameleon" have long been available in CD format.

Unfortunately, what goes up must come down. After the excitement and camp fest of Labelle, Patti's soft soul MOR ballads which take up the second half of this CD just seems so tame and boring. Apart from the samba styled "Teach Me Tonight", nothing that Patti cut with Epic remotely rivals the work of Labelle. Without the presence of Sarah and Nona to spice things up and lend Labelle its progressive touch, Patti gives in to her own smaltzy and maudlin tendencies and there's plenty of evidence to suggest that this was at work here.

This "best of" in the Legacy series is nevertheless a terrific compilation. Buy it for the two rare-on-CD Labelle tracks from "Phoenix" if nothing else.

because Sarah Dash, Nona Hendrix, Cindy Birdsong (who later became a Supreme), and Patti LaBelle puts them all to shame! And this CD highlights the best of their work as well as Patti's early solo work. Although most will know them for Lady Marmalade, that song doesn't even come close to showing the true talent of these ladies. And this CD can read like a soundtrack of someone's like. Isn't It A Shame - a poignant tale of love not always going like expected. You Turn Me On, so soulful and sensuous. Get You Somebody New - puts a man in his place much better than En Vogue's Never Gonna Get It. This CD even features some lesser known earlier work by Patti like the inspiration Quiet Time and the funky Me Gusta Tu Baille. This CD is a REQUIREMENT for anyone who is a fan of Patti and/or LaBelle.

if you do not own a labelle cd or have never heard of them, and you would like to, then this is the cd for you. The voices of these three women swoops and soars like eagles. Patti herself with the multi octave voice. As to correct the last reviewer, BKA KOWTOWN,the labell verson of you are my friend is the original written by patti labelle's husband armstead edwards. sylvester's record is the remake of the song

When Epic released this CD as the first ever collection on the group Labelle, I thought it shortchanged the contributions of the group. One way you look at it, it is a strong collection of half the group's songs, and half of Patti's late 70's solo work. But it does irk me that Epic did it this way because the group made so many inroads as a black female group writing their own songs & blending so many genres of music together. They deserve their OWN full CD , and if they really put more thought into it, it should be done this way.

The 8 Labelle songs are brash and boldly sung - pushed to the limits defying a category of either r&b/rock/dance/gospel , because the group easily combined all these influences. I would have liked to have seen some rarities, and with the songs coming from their last 3 Epic albums, the rarities are the footstompin' MESSIN' WITH MY MIND and the gutbucket soul of TAKE THE NIGHT OFF - both written by Nona Hendryx, and not on any other CD. That's because Sony/Epic has not released their 1975 album PHOENIX on CD to this day. Another Labelle compilation SOMETHING SILVER on Warner Brothers is more properly done to showcase songs from the group's first three albums , plus includes the massive hit LADY MARMALADE.

Patti's 8 songs come from her first four Epic solo albums from 1977-1980. Not knocking the Patti solo stuff, 'cause I love the songs here, especially the latin based funk of TEACH ME TONIGHT and one of her signature songs YOU ARE MY FRIEND. This CD is strong, but half group, half solo was not the way to go, as it's the only collection to contain songs from the group's Epic era, their most noted & commercially successful recordings & they limited it to 8 songs. Sony/BMG needs to release a proper collection on Labelle, as well as their 3rd & 5th albums that are not on CD yet: PRESSURE COOKIN' and PHOENIX.

Or, in other words, they were on the cover of Rolling Stone, with Sarah Dash showing her inny navel with her midriff showing outfits (where is she, anyway?) long before TLC even knew their alphabets....they perhaps weren't even embryos then. Anyway, Labelle, of the gitchy-gitchy ya ya cut "Lady Marmalade" were good gurls gone bad, gone overboard. I mean, they did a cover of Gil Scott Heron's "The Revolution Will Not Be Televised" that caused conern for our little early morning FM radio station at my Bugtussle college town. So when Voulez-vous coucher avec moi was all over the top 40 airwaves I was a little surprised--well, not really, considering the 70s. "Marmalade" is a good tune cowritten by one of my faves, Bob Crewe, produciare extraordinare, but it only scratched the surface of the gurls' vocal prowess. To get a full range of that listen to the blistering cuts "Get Ya Somebody New", a I'm-fed-up-and-I refuse-anymore-bs-from-you song, if ever I heard one, and "Isn't It A Shame" both form the Nightbirds' swan song "Chameleon". They are included on this CD with early Patti jams "Joy to Have Your Love" and a remake of the legendary Disco tranvestite Sylvester's "You Are My Friend". Funky instrumental pi-anna and arrangements from N'Awleen's legendary Al Toussaint, wah-wah guitar from Wah Wah Ragin, Ray Parker and probably glam gurl Nona Hendrix, herself....Nona, where are ya, baby, we need you! Anyway, this is one phunkay collection of Labelle when they was in all that gold and silver lame. I wonder if Misdemeanor Elliot caught a glimpse of them.

PATTI LaBELLE, NONA HENDRIXS & SARAH DASH, ARE THREE SISTA'S FROM THE DAYS OF SOUL! WHEN MUSIC WAS MUSIC. THE VOCAL BLENDING, THE RYTHYMIC SOUNDS, JUST PURE FUNK 'N SOUL. THIS IS WHAT SINGING WAS ABOUT. NOT, THAT TODAY'S MUSIC ISN'T GOOD, BUT IT CAN'T MATCH NOTE FOR NOTE...SCREAM FOR SCREAM...PUTTING YOUR HEART IN IT!! LaBELLE WAS THIS TYPE OF ARTIST. JUST LISTEN TO: "WHAT CAN I DO FOR YOU", OR "MESSING WITH MY MIND";..."THERE'S NO MORE TO SAY..."

hearing these voices together is a real soul treat.they are more than Lady Marmalade.given a fair shot they would have been twice as huge today.so much talent between these three Women.the grooves and there voices are solid.a must have.

"Lady Marmalade: The Best of Patti and Labelle" is a 1995 chronological collection of 16 Epic recordings, 8 by Labelle (tracks 1-8, 1974-1976) and 8 from Patti LaBelle's early solo career (tracks 9-16, 1977-1980).

The songs included here are good, but the legacy of the group Labelle deserves better. For a real collection of Labelle hits, see "Something Silver" a collection of songs taken from their first three albums, released 1971-1973 on Warner Bros. and RCA.
Labelle is Patti LaBelle, Nona Hendryx, and Sarah Dash.

I purchased this item to replace one that was lost. I would first like to say that I searched other sources and was immediately attracted to the price of the item. It was described as almost new. It arrived in its original package and was exactly as stated. I couldn't be more pleased. The item took a little longer to arrive than other items I ordered on the same date. Overall I was very satisfied and would order again from this seller. This CD is a must have if you are a Patti fan.