By Karu F. Daniels for URL Media. Republished under the Creative Commons Attribution license.
Every year after the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame announces its latest class of inductees, a flurry of critical debate ensues about the validity of the music acts selected.
And like many years before, Labelle didn’t make the cut this year.
The groundbreaking, genre-defying vocal trio — comprising Patti LaBelle, Sarah Dash and Nona Hendryx – has yet to receive consideration for the prestigious music honor.
The glaring omission hasn’t escaped Hendryx, Labelle’s co-founder and chief songwriter, who has kept the group’s legacy alive since they first hit No. 1 on the pop charts with 1974’s “Lady Marmalade,” more than a decade after establishing themselves as one of the premier girl groups of the 1960s.
“You know, at one point, we were like, ‘Wow, why aren’t we even nominated?’ I don’t think we’ve ever received a nomination, but you get to a point where these things don’t really matter in a way,” Hendryx exclusively tells URL Media. “I think maybe having ‘Lady Marmalade’ and Labelle, and our accomplishments recognized by the Smithsonian in the National Museum of African American History and Culture, and listed on the Library of Congress’ [National Recording Registry] become, in a sense, kind of more meaningful to me than the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame. I mean, it’s like, you know, I know what we did.”
She continued: “I don’t know whether it has the same meaning to me specifically. I have to ask my sister Patti how she feels about that. She may have other words, but it doesn’t feel like, ‘Oh, we need to be there,’ or if it’s something that’s going to sort of solidify who we were and who we are. I don’t know, I don’t feel like there’s a need to be there.”
The trio — originally formed in Philadelphia as a quartet — went on to launch solo careers following their disbandment in the late 1970s. But before doing so, Labelle broke barriers for women in music equipped with their Afrofuturistic costumes and tackling then-taboo subject matter in their songs.
“We were kind of this odd musical entity,” Hendryx said of the snub. “We were gospel, funk, R&B, rock and theater. I don’t think people really could go like, ‘Oh, they’re a rock band,’ or ‘Oh, they’re this.’”
“Although the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame has now widened its lens on who it includes, Labelle has always existed in a category of its own, at least from my perspective looking back on it,” she added.
The 81-year-old singer, songwriter and tech visionary isn’t concerned with validation. She continues to carry the torch and will celebrate the legacy of Labelle during Lincoln Center’s “Summer For The City” series on June 28 in New York City. The star-studded concert will feature Grammy Award winner Ledisi, Tony Award winner Adrienne Warren, former Family Stand frontwoman Sandra St. Victor and vocal powerhouse Kimberly Nichole, among others.
Patti LaBelle will serve as a special guest co-host for the David Geffen Hall event, officially titled “Nightbirds, The Music of Labelle.” Produced by Hendryx and her Dream Machine Studio, the robust program will include performances of “Lady Marmalade” alongside songs from the group’s seminal albums: 1973’s “Pressure Cookin,’” 1974’s “Nightbirds,” 1975’s “Phoenix” and 1976’s “Chameleon.”
Hendryx described the concert as a prelude to the forthcoming rock musical she is developing with two-time Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Lynn Nottage. The script is in its final stages. The team plans to hold its first workshop at Dartmouth College this summer. Producers are eyeing a Bro
“How it began was that I realized people had never really heard the full story of Labelle. “They knew certain things about Patti, Sarah and me, but they didn’t really know the story of Labelle,” she shared. “We’ve done many interviews about what we’ve done. But we sort of disbanded at the height of our success, so we never revealed much of the story.”
