6
by a Chicago group, The Starlets),
but their Newtown followup charter
Down The Aisle (Wedding Song)
did
the next year.
Patti rattled the rafters on the
bravura
You’ll Never Walk Alone
and
Danny Boy
, both hits for the
quartet in 1964 on Parkway. The
group’s mid-‘60s stint on Atlantic
was comparatively uneventful from
a commercial standpoint, and Cindy
split to replace Florence Ballard in
The Supremes in 1967, leaving
Patti, Nona, and Sarah a trio. It
had been ages since they’d had a
major hit by the time Wickham
convinced a reluctant Patti to go
the Labelle route in ‘71 - a new
image for a new decade.
Newly signed to Epic, the trio
embarked for the Crescent City in
1974 to work with pianist/producer
Toussaint, whose list of hit
productions was endless. A ribald
song about Creole hookers complete
with an R-rated French-language
phrase dominating the chorus,
Lady
Marmalade
seemed an unlikely
choice for an across-the-board
chart-topper in early ‘75, but it
turned out to be exactly that.
Written by longtime 4 Seasons
composer/producer Bob Crewe and
singer Kenny Nolan,
Lady
Marmalade
saw Labelle backed by
The Meters’ Art Neville on organ,
Leo Nocentelli on guitar, and
George Porter, Jr. on bass, with
New Orleans drummer Herman
