The female trio responsible for the proto-disco funk classic "LadyMarmalade," LaBelle's outlandish space-age costumes and brashincorporation of rock & roll were a far cry from their early daysas a typical '60s girl group, not to mention the later solo career offrontwoman Patti LaBelle. While Patti naturally seems like the focalpoint in hindsight, the group was also blessed with a talented andprolific songwriter in Nona Hendryx, who followed an idiosyncratic museinto her own mercurial solo career, which often bordered on theavant-garde.

The group's first incarnation was that of a quartet. Friends PatriciaHolt and Cindy Birdsong had been singing together in a Philadelphiagroup called the Ordettes, and in 1962 they teamed up with Wynona"Nona" Hendryx and Sarah Dash, both members of a rival outfit calledthe Del Capris. At the suggestion of producer Bobby Martin, Holtchanged her last name to LaBelle to match with the group's officialname, the BlueBelles. Strangely enough, Patti LaBelle & theBlueBelles may not have even performed on their first hit; a groupcalled the Starlets cut a single called "I Sold My Heart to theJunkman," which was released with the name the Blue-Belles on thelabel. Some accounts hold that the Starlets actually backed LaBelle, orthat her vocal was overlaid, while others suggest that the lead voicewasn't LaBelle's at all. Whatever the case, "I Sold My Heart to theJunkman" became a Top 20 R&B and pop hit in 1962, and theBlueBelles started touring the R&B circuit behind it. Their nexthit came in 1963 with the dramatic ballad "Down the Aisle," anotherR&B Top 20, and they hit the Top 40 again in 1964 with renditionsof Rodgers & Hammerstein's "You'll Never Walk Alone" and the Irishstandard "Danny Boy," solidifying their penchant for sentimental,classic-style pop. In 1965, the BlueBelles signed with major labelAtlantic, and had some success with a version of "Somewhere Over theRainbow," which remained in Patti LaBelle's concert repertoire fordecades. Despite cutting an early version of "Groovy Kind of Love"(later a number one hit for the Mindbenders, not to mention PhilCollins), though, the BlueBelles' tenure wasn't as commerciallyproductive as hoped.