Before hearing the group, Robinson turned them down due to being unimpressed with Patti's looks but upon hearing her singing, he changed his mind and signed the group to Newtown. The Ordettes auditioned by singing the song. The song was credited under the name "The Blue Belles". At the time of the song's release, the group had a hit with the song "Better Tell Him No" and were unable to promote the song due to them being signed to another label. One of the sessions included a cover of the standard, " I Sold My Heart to the Junkman". In 1962, Chicago-based group The Starlets had traveled to Philadelphia to do sessions for producer Bobby Martin and record label owner Harold Robinson, president of Newtown Records. The grouping of Holte, Dash, Hendryx and Birdsong toured the Chitlin' Circuit, gaining a following in the eastern U.S. Bailey and Montague's schedule led to Tucker leaving the group after which another singer, Cindy Birdsong, from Camden New Jersey, joined the group. The group soon began working with musician Morris Bailey. Eventually Hendryx and Dash became official replacements for Brown and Hogan as the Ordettes. Later in 1961, Patti and Sundray's manager Bernard Montague contacted two singers from the Trenton, New Jersey singing group the Del-Capris, Nona Hendryx and Sarah Dash. By 1961, Jean Brown and Yvonne Hogan had ditched the group to get married and Patti and Sundray carried on as soloists. Dawson was eventually replaced by Sundray Tucker. Holte formed the group with singers Jean Brown, Yvonne Hogen and Johnnie Dawson. Following this, she sought to form her own singing group the following year called the Ordettes. In 1959, a fifteen-year-old teenager, Patricia "Patsy" Holte won her first talent contest in high school. They performed together regularly until the death of Dash on September 20, 2021, at the age of 76. The group reunited for their first new album in 32 years, Back to Now in 2008. Nona Hendryx followed an idiosyncratic muse into a solo career that often bordered on the avant-garde Sarah Dash became a celebrated session singer and Patti LaBelle enjoyed a very successful Grammy-winning career, with several top-20 R&B hits between 19, a number-one pop hit with " On My Own", and lifetime-achievement awards from the Apollo Theatre, World Music Awards, and BET Awards. They were also the first black vocal group to appear on the cover of Rolling Stone.Įach of the band members later went on their own after the end of a tour in 1976, going on to have significant solo success. They were the first contemporary pop group and first black pop band to perform at the Metropolitan Opera House. Finally, after adapting glam rock and wearing outlandish space-age and glam costumes, the band found success with the proto- disco smash hit " Lady Marmalade" in 1974, leading to the album Nightbirds achieving gold success. Their funk rock recordings of that period became cult favorites for their brash interpretation of rock and roll and for dealing with subjects not typically addressed by female black groups. After Birdsong departed to join The Supremes in 1967, the band, following the advice of Vicki Wickham, changed its look, musical direction, and style to re-form as Labelle in 1971. The founding members were Patti LaBelle (formerly Patricia Holte), Cindy Birdsong, Nona Hendryx, and Sarah Dash.Īs the Bluebelles, and later Patti LaBelle and the Bluebelles, the group found success with ballads in the doo-wop genre: " Down the Aisle (The Wedding Song)", " You'll Never Walk Alone", and " Over the Rainbow". The group was formed after the disbanding of two rival girl groups in the area around Philadelphia, in Pennsylvania, and Trenton, in New Jersey: the Ordettes and the Del-Capris, forming as a new version of the former group, then later changing their name to the Blue Belles (and further Bluebelles). Labelle was an American girl band who were a popular vocal group of the 1960s and 1970s.
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