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this has come up before - and they really should be separate artists, I believe. it is true that the group was largely built off of Labelle's voice and name - and also true, unlike Diana & the Supremes, for example, that the group did not make any recordings after Patti left...
but both sarah dash and nona hendryx were not insignificant contributors to the sound, nona wrote many of the songs they recorded - and both have recorded substantially as solo artists. kind of weird to have them be "members" of another person - they were key members of a group. we would never consider "Sting" to be the common name for "The Police" even though he was clearly front and center as the lead person.
i would suggest that "Patti Labelle and the Bluebelles" and "Labelle" be considered part of the same act, because "Labelle" was just a three member version of the previously four member Bluebelles, with "Labelle" being considered the more "common" name (even though they recorded for a longer period of time as Bluebelles). But once Labelle breaks up in 1976/77, then I think each member of Labelle should be considered solo...
yes, looks good...we'll need to add "Patti LaBelle & the Bluebelles" as an alternate name for "Labelle" and I'll have to shift some of the duets between Patti and other solo singers to the Patti Labelle page rather than the Labelle page...but I do think this is the most accurate way to set it up.
Thanks!
Patti Labelle & The Bluebells (The Bluebelles, Labelle) is a joint performance... is that ok?
No, I don't think that should be a joint performance.
It looks like this whole artist is still kind of messed up.
Right now there seem to be separate artists set up for:
The Bluebelles
Labelle
And Patti Labelle & the Bluebelles is a page capturing joint performances of the above, but also listing its own aliases.
Then members Patti LaBelle, Nona Hendryx and Sarah Dash all have their own solo pages.
I'm a bit of a Patti Labelle historian - have interviewed her, collected her works. Here's the chronology:
1st single - Blue-Belles/Bluebelles - group comprised of Patti Labelle, Nona Hendryx, Sarah Dash, Cindy Birdsong
Rumor has it, as noted on the performance page, that 'I Sold My Heart to the Junkman' was actually recorded by a another group named the Starlets - but since they were under contract at the time to another label, the producer slapped the Bluebelles name on the record, and as it started becoming popular, had to find a group to perform the song.
With the same members, they were renamed Patti Labelle and the Bluebelles - and recorded under that name thru the mid-60s.
When Cindy Birdsong left to join The Supremes, the quartet became a trio, subsequently renaming themselves Labelle (and radically changing their musical style) up through the mid-'70s.
At that time the remaining three went solo, though on rare occasion have reunited as Labelle in the years since then.
Because Dash and Hendryx did have solo careers, and because Hendryx wrote a lot of Labelle songs - I always thought it appropriate not to list the whole group as simply an alias of Patti Labelle - these two are not like Tom Petty's Heartbreakers, simply there to serve as backup.
So, I thought that the appropriate way of listing it was to use the most prominently successful incarnation - Labelle - as the main name for the group, and then using all the others:
The Blue-Belles
The Bluebelles
Patti Labelle & Her Bluebelles
Patti Labelle & The Bluebelles
as aliases of Labelle. None should be joint performances.
And then let the solo careers of each member stand on their own.
Does this sound right to you guys?
Yes, and I tihink it's the way we have it now. Check it out.