Pressure Cookin' | ||||
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Studio album by | ||||
Released | August 7, 1973 | |||
Recorded | 1973 | |||
Studio | RCA Studio D, New York City | |||
Genre | ||||
Length | 40:05 | |||
Label | RCA | |||
Producer | Vicki Wickham; and "friend" (Stevie Wonder) on "Goin' On a Holiday" | |||
Labelle chronology | ||||
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Pressure Cookin' is the third album by American singing trio Labelle, released in August 1973. This release was their first and only for RCA Records, and was critically raved due to the songs that songwriter and member Nona Hendryx composed. The album is also notable for being the first album released following lead singer Patti LaBelle giving birth to her only child, son Zuri Edwards (she recorded the album while still pregnant with Zuri).
Among notable songs were "Something in the Air"/"The Revolution Will Not Be Televised", in which all three bandmates, Patti LaBelle, Nona Hendryx and Sarah Dash each shared a rap, the biographical "(Can I Speak to You Before You Go to) Hollywood", which was inspired by the events following former member Cindy Birdsong ditching the group during its Blue Belles tenure to join The Supremes and which featured all three members having notable lead vocal parts, mainly from Dash, while Hendryx sang in the beginning and Patti LaBelle sang the following verses, the soulful ballad "Last Dance" and the bossa nova-inspired "Let Me See You in the Light".
Despite RCA releasing the Stevie Wonder composition, "Open Up Your Heart", the album failed to become a success. In spite of its initial failure, the album has gone on to become a cult classic and is considered a revolutionary album because few female groups talked so openly about social issues and other topics. Wonder was uncredited due to contractual reasons - the production credit was listed as "Vicki Wickham and friend". Musicians on this track included members out of a Philadelphia-based band, Buff, and others from a Latin-black band from Queens called Harlem River Drive. Several of them would morph to become Labelle's road band, including guitarist, Eddie Martinez.
Review scores | |
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Source | Rating |
Allmusic | link |
Christgau's Record Guide | B [1] |
All songs written and composed by Nona Hendryx, except where noted.
Labelle was an American all-female singing group who were a popular vocal group of the 1960s and 1970s. The group was formed after the disbanding of two rival girl groups in the area around Philadelphia and Trenton, the Ordettes and the Del-Capris, forming as a new version of the former group, then later changing their name to the Blue Belles. The founding members were Patti LaBelle, Cindy Birdsong, Nona Hendryx, and Sarah Dash.
Patricia Louise Holte best known as Patti LaBelle, is an American singer and actress. LaBelle is referred to as the "Godmother of Soul".
Nona Hendryx is an American vocalist, record producer, songwriter, musician, author, and actress.
Gonna Take a Miracle is the fifth album by New York City-born singer, songwriter and pianist Laura Nyro, with assistance by vocal trio Labelle. It was released on Columbia Records in November 1971, one year after its predecessor Christmas and the Beads of Sweat. The album is Nyro's only all-covers album, and she interprets mainly 1950s and 1960s soul and R&B standards, using Labelle as a traditional back-up vocal group.
Sarah Dash was an American singer and actress. She first appeared on the music scene as a member of Patti LaBelle & The Bluebelles. Dash was later a member of Labelle, and worked as a singer, session musician, and sideman for The Rolling Stones, and Keith Richards.
Nightbirds is an album by the all-female singing group Labelle, released in 1974 on the Epic label. The album features the group's biggest hit, the song "Lady Marmalade", and it became their most successful album to date.
Patti LaBelle is the debut solo album by American singer Patti LaBelle, released in 1977. The first album LaBelle recorded after sixteen years fronting the band Labelle, it is notable for the dance hit, "Joy to Have Your Love", the classic gospel-inspiring ballad, "You Are My Friend" and the Angelo "Funky Knuckles" Nocentelli mid-tempo number, "I Think About You".
It Begins Again is the tenth studio album recorded by Dusty Springfield and the ninth released. Recorded during the middle of 1977, It Begins Again was her first completed and released album since Cameo five years earlier. Two of the album's titles, "Turn Me Around" and "A Love Like Yours ", were tracks from the abandoned 1974 Longing sessions and Springfield decided to record new versions of both songs for It Begins Again, placing Chi Coltrane's "Turn Me Around" as the opening track.
Burnin' is a studio album by American singer Patti LaBelle. It was released by MCA Records on October 1, 1991 in the United States. The album features several prominent all-star collaborations, including duets with Gladys Knight and Michael Bolton and a reunion track with Nona Hendryx and Sarah Dash from Labelle, as well as three Billboard top 5 R&B hits: "Feels Like Another One", "Somebody Loves You Baby " and "When You've Been Blessed ". The album track "Temptation", B-side of the fourth single released from the album, "When You Love Somebody ", was written by Cuban-American singer Martika, who originally released it on her album Martika's Kitchen.
Back to Now is the seventh and latest studio album by American female vocal group Labelle, released on October 21, 2008. The album is the group's first in over thirty years though they had sung on songs together on occasion.
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Phoenix is the fifth album by the American singing trio Labelle. The album was moderately successful, peaking at #44 on the pop charts and #10 on the R&B charts. Only one minor hit was released, "Messin With My Mind", written by Nona Hendryx. The album is most notable for drifting away from the funk style of their previous album, Nightbirds, instead taking on a rock approach.
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"You Are My Friend" is a ballad co-written and recorded by American singer Patti LaBelle, released as the second single off her self-titled debut album, in 1978 on the Epic label. While it only reached as high as number sixty-one on the Billboard Hot-Selling Soul Singles chart upon its initial release, it has gone on to become one of the singer's signature anthems.
"Down the Aisle " is a doo-wop ballad recorded and released by girl group Patti LaBelle and the Bluebelles in 1963. The song became a hit success for the Philadelphia-based vocal group following the controversial release of their "debut hit", 1962's "I Sold My Heart to the Junkman".
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"When You've Been Blessed " is a song by American singer Patti LaBelle. It was written by LaBelle, Nona Hendryx, Nathanial Wilkie, and James "Budd" Ellison for her 1991 album Burnin', while production was overseen by the latter. The song was released as the third single off the album in the spring of 1992.
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