“Marked with triumph and tragedy, picket lines and sit- ins,” 1960’s and 70’s America can be defined as a time in which humanity was torn at the seams between maintaining traditional values and fighting for liberating change (Hull). In an environment constantly teetering on the edge of explosive, music served as a catalyst. Bands’ use of controversial lyrics, call to action messages, and contentious visuals encouraged individuals to take a stand for their rights. One of the most prominent bands that emerged from Trenton, New Jersey, known for its unmatched talent as well as its cultural influence, is Patti LaBelle and the Blue Belles. During a time characterized by social injustice, Patti LaBelle and the Blue Belles broke boundaries that society previously would have never imagined possible.

In American history, these decades are notably remembered for their rebellious youth culture. Growing up in the 60’s, the youth questioned their parents’ traditional values. No longer were teenagers and young adults accepting the status quo as the only viable path, and they made their contention heard. The boldest of the youth revolted through protests, famously known for anti-Vietnam War demonstrations. In October of 1967, 100,000 individuals came together at the Lincoln Memorial to stand in solidarity against the government that supported the war. Those who did not engage in active protests turned to marijuana and hallucinogenic drugs, sparking a psychedelic era. Others chose to listen to the counterculture preachings of Rock n’ Roll music (Cummins). No matter the vice, the youth were all finding ways to “go against the man”.

In addition to the youth culture, America’s civil rights movements served as a cornerstone of the 60’s and 70’s. After spending decades as the victims of unequal treatment, people of color were no longer were willing to sit idly by and accept the lesser status that society had assigned to them. Beginning in the mid 1950’s, Rosa Parks ignited a revolution by refusing to give up her seat in a white section of a bus (Morris, 51). Although this led to her arrest, it sparked a fire in the angry Americans who had been in Park’s position before. The 60’s then followed with mass protests, lunch counter sit-ins, and non-violent disobedience to the country’s racist beliefs. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. served as the iconic face of the anti-segregation movement, organizing massive marches to rally for equality.

Along with people of color, women were no longer satisfied with the traditional gender role that they were expected to fulfill. Viewed as submission and inferior, an ideal woman was one who could raise the kids and ensure a warm meal was always on the table for her husband when he returned from work. Sara Margaret Evans, author of Personal Politics: The roots of women’s liberation in the civil rights movement and the new left, details the changing views of marriage that women held when she writes,

“Led to fantasize that marriage would provide them with total emotional and intellectual fulfillment, more and more women experienced acute disappointment and then guilt when it fell below the mark. In particular, educated suburban housewives, the women who attempted to live out the mystique in its fullest form, found that their goal had become a trap” (Evans, 7).

In response to the frustration, women starting meeting in “consciousness-raising groups” (Napikoski). They shared their individual experiences with sexism while offering each other support and attempting to brain storm solutions. In addition to group meetings, many women engaged in protests and sit-ins to fight for fair pay, reproductive freedom, and overall equal treatment. The 60’s attitude was contagious, and it eventually worked its way into the music industry, ushering in another opportunity for humanity to stray from the norm.

Previously, music was a male dominated industry, but the 60’s birthed a new culture of rule breaking. Its departure from the “classic standards and big band” paved way for the rise of girl groups (Hull). Consisting of 3-4 teenagers, girl groups were typically African American, and while there had been girl groups in the past, this era stood out due to its distinctive sound. With over 1,500 girl groups recording in the 1960s, it is no surprise that some of the most influential music to emerge from that time was sung by groups of females (Doyle). They took the country by storm, and soon, it was every girl’s dream to start a band and become famous.

In 1961, Nona Hendryx and Sarah Dash, both 14-year old girls growing up in Trenton, NJ, had dreams of musical fame. First meeting in a church choir, they decided to pursue music together under the band-name, The Del Capris. It was not until they were approached in the early 60’s by a local manager for Newton Records that they were connected to Patti LaBelle and Cindy Birdsong, two teenage girls who were singing for their own band, The Ordettes. Together, the four of them formed Patti Labelle and the Blue Belles (Amorosi).  

The band realized immediate success in 1962 with its first song release of I Sold My Heart to the Junkman when it hit Top Twenty for pop and R&B. Like most other girl groups of that time, Patti Labelle and the Blue Belles operated within the doo-wop genre singing ballads. Three years later, after two more chart-hitting songs, they were signed by Atlantic (Thomas). Although the group was quickly seeing real fame, they were not exempt from the social injustices of the 60’s.

“It seems like when we traveled below the Mason Dixon line, it was like we were in another country. Another world,” said Dash. “We were black women living in times where, when we toured, we could not stay in the same hotels at the white acts… We couldn’t walk into a restaurant and get a glace of water. Couldn’t walk through the same door as white people” (Dash).

By the late 1960’s, racial tensions had transformed into what seemed to be endless riots. In July of 1967, a riot ensued in response to police brutality in Newark, New Jersey. For five days straight, shops were looted, windows were broken, fires broke out, and in the end “26 people, mostly African Americans, were killed, another 750 were injured and over 1,000 were jailed. Property damage exceeded $10 million” (Wang). This riot served as the worst act of civil disorder that New Jersey had ever seen.

At the same time, riots were also going on in Detroit, Michigan over the police raid of a veteran party for two serviceman who had recently returned from war. Onlookers watched in outrage as the police forced the patrons to leave the illegal club. Similar to the Newark riots, looting, breaking, and fires began and lasted for four days. Serving as the third worst riot in U.S. history, “more than 7,000 people were arrested… 43 people were killed. Some 1,700 stores were looted and nearly 1,400 buildings burned, causing roughly $50 million in property damage. Some 5,000 people were left homeless” (History.com Editors).

On July 28, 1967, President Johnson organized a 11-member team to discover the underlying cause of the riots and provide recommendations for next steps. With the goal of answering three basic questions, he directed the group to investigate and publish a report detailing what happened, why it happened, and what can be done to prevent it from happening again (“‘Our Nation Is Moving Toward Two Societies, One Black, One White–Separate and Unequal’: Excerpts from the Kerner Report”). Expecting the report to blame the black society for inappropriate aggression, Johnson waited on the conclusions, but on February 29^th, 1968, the Kerner Report was published, and its results were not what any of the supporters of the research had expected.

“Our nation is moving toward two societies, one black, one white—separate and unequal,” the report explained. “Discrimination and segregation have long permeated much of American life; they now threaten the future of every American” (“‘Our Nation Is Moving Toward Two Societies, One Black, One White–Separate and Unequal’: Excerpts from the Kerner Report”). In reference to the ghettos and the violence within them, the Kerner report powerfully continued on to state, “White institutions created it, white institutions maintain, and white society condones it” (“‘Our Nation Is Moving Toward Two Societies, One Black, One White–Separate and Unequal’: Excerpts from the Kerner Report”). Johnson was floored, and highly criticized for allowing such information that blamed the white society to be publicized.

That very same year, Cindy Birdsong decided to quit Patti Labelle and the Blue Belles, leaving the successful band one member short. At this point, the band was in the middle of touring through Europe, so with the sudden departure of Birdsong, they were forced to rethink their next moves (Amorosi). Both America and Patti Labelle and the Blue Belles were in need of a revolution to their current states if they wanted to survive, and this became the precursor to the formation of Labelle.

Without Birdsong in the picture, Dash, LaBelle, and Hendryx rebranded themselves as Labelle. Consisting of 3 strong, female singers, a female manager, and a female attorney, this new band represented a woman dominated and empowered company.

“‘Oh, people won’t remember us. We’re Patti Labelle and the Blue Belles, and now you want to take us and do this? I don’t know if I can make that change’,” Dash jokes, imitating LaBelle’s worries over the band’s transformation. “Patti was really resistant, but she packed her bags and came along” (Dash).

Re-entering America in the early 70’s as Labelle, Dash speaks of how this type of band was hard for America to accept but that it came with undeniable perks. Without the presence of an authoritative male leader, the band was allowed more control over its image and music. “I thought that we were singing better because we sort of stripped ourselves of the old fashion girl group singing,” says Dash. “Not so cutesy and not so soft…We were about social change” (Dash). The band began approaching topics with their lyrics that many other bands would not have dared to sing about, and Labelle was excited to do so. Hendryx reminisces the beginning of Labelle in stating that the three were “pleased to be moving into the funky and socially and sexually aware present” (Amorosi).

In 1974, Labelle hit the charts with its release of Lady Marmalade. Unlike other song topics of that time, the hit painted a picture of a prostitute, Lady Marmalade, living in New Orleans and a man from Wall Street who could not get his mind off of her. The song immediately stirred controversy over not only the premise but also the French chorus line that translated to, “Will you sleep with me tonight?” (Dash). At that time, overt sexuality was not in line with the traditional values that parents were preaching to their children, so they were outraged when they heard their children singing about sleeping with each other. “How dare you have our kids walking around going Voulez-vous coucher avec moi?” Dash laughs, impersonating the angry parents. The adults would not budge from the values they were raised on. For them, the catholic church served as the determinant on what was and was not okay, and Lady Marmalade was far from okay, but Labelle neither apologized nor changed.

“The nuns came out in the newspapers saying they were gonna make a border around our show,” remembers Dash about the band’s show in Seattle. “Who is gonna go against the catholic chuch? But they actually helped us sell the place out because people wanted to know what the nuns didn’t want them to see! We weren’t trash, we were just messengers of life. Women’s life. People’s life” (Dash).

In addition to controversial lyrics, Labelle used its fame to call the public to action. The band’s song Something In The Air / The Revolution Will Not Be Televised spoke out against American consumerism, big business and discrimination. It turned into a revolutionary call to war and an anthem for black activism (“Songfacts”). “It made people pay attention,” Dash states (Dash). Through its music, Labelle found a way to touch the lives of all walks of life and encourage them to be themselves and break society’s boundaries in the same way that Labelle was in the music industry.

“We couldn’t be the Supremes, so why follow someone who had something we cannot? Let’s have our own flag and wave it,” Dash said, explaining the mentality Labelle worked under. “Black people, gay people, broken homes, love lives, men, women. That mentality really did affect society” (Dash).

Taking a final step further, Labelle rebelled against the stereotypical image that the music industry forced upon female groups. Discarding the long gowns and wigs that served as staples for Patti Labelle and the Blue Belles, Dash, LaBelle and Hendryx each took on their own individual styles. During their first show as Labelle, Dash remembers some of the audience members looking similar to deer in headlights. “‘How dare they wear pants? And she looks like she belongs to another group’,” Dash quotes the confused fans. “But this is the premise that we built,” Dash explains, “We were the innovators” (Dash).

In her autobiography Don’t Block the Blessings, Patti LaBelle describes the group’s legendary entrance onto the stage of NYC’s Metropolitan Opera House in 1974. She states, “Somebody said we looked like African goddesses ready for some erotic ceremony,” (Royster, 80).

Throughout the band’s life, it collected numerous awards for a ground-breaking career. Labelle had nine hits make it to Top 20 status between 1963 and 1976 and was the first contemporary pop group and first black pop group to perform at the Metropolitan Opera House. Additionally, they were the first black vocal group to appear on the cover of Rolling Stone Magazine (Dash). On the lasting significance of Labelle, Portia K. Maultsby, Ph.D. and researcher of African American music, states, “Labelle established new trends in R&B both musically, visually, and culturally that others, including rock musicians imitated” (Maultsby).

Today, these trends can still be felt. In the song Hold Me by Mashonda, Kanye West, the featured rapper in the song, samples an entire line from Sarah Dash’s single I Can’t Believe Someone Like You Could Really Love Me. In addition, rapping duo Nice and Smooth references Sarah Dash in hit song Let’s All Get Down. Famous Labelle song, Lady Marmalade, was also entirely remade by Christina Aguilera, Lil’ Kim, Mya, and Pink, bringing it back into relevance for the next generation (Dash). Dash feels that the path Labelle paved has been successfully carried on by the newer artists of today. “They watched, and they learned,” Dash said (Dash).

Just as Patti Labelle and the Blue Belles were able to transform themselves into a force, driving positive change into the world, the Kerner Report offered hope for America’s future.

“This deepening racial division is not inevitable. The movement apart can be reversed… What the rioters appeared to be seeking was fuller participation in the social order and the material benefits enjoyed by the majority of American citizens. Rather than rejecting the American system, they were anxious to obtain a place for themselves in it” (History.com Editors).

With decades having passed since the publication of the Kerner Report, progress has definitely been made, but there is still room for improvement. America can thank the rebellion of the 60’s and 70’s for ushering in change and daring bands such as Labelle for serving as a catalyst to not only speed up that change but propel it into the everlasting future.

 

Works Cited

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Morris, Aldon D. The origins of the civil rights movement. Simon and Schuster, 1986.

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2018, www.thoughtco.com/1960s-feminist-activities-3529000.

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       Studies, vol. 52, no. 4, 2013, pp. 77–98., doi:10.1353/ams.2013.0120.

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Thomas, Bryan. “Patti Labelle & the Bluebelles | Biography & History.” AllMusic,

www.allmusic.com/artist/patti-labelle-the-bluebelles-mn0000018264/biography.

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