Thanks to sade via lipstickalley

The New First Ladies of Soul

Newsweek: July 21, 1986

by CATHLEEN MCGUIGAN with LINDA BUCKLEY

Music-chart minutiae, like baseball statistics, pack a thrill only for the most rabid of fans. So it may have escaped general notice that for the past four weeks the three top-selling albums on the pop charts have all belonged -- for the first time ever -- to black women singers. WhitneyHouston's slick "Whitney Houston" album has sold more than 6 million copies after 68 weeks on the charts and become the most successful solo debut of all time. "Control," Janet Jackson's funky third album and first big hit, is a professional declaration of independence from the Jackson clan (box). And for rock-soul veteran Patti LaBelle, the glitzy "Winner in You" is the long-awaited reward for 25 grinding years in the business.

The precise alignment of this trio of stars may be coincidental, but it does point to the huge increase of black crossover in popular music. "'Thriller' broke down the door," says Billboard columnist Paul Grein. "Michael Jackson turned the business upside down and rendered the color barrier obsolete." Not only have black music stars increasingly been able to reach a wide white audience via MTV and VH-1, but they've had much more pop-radio air play in the last two years, as Top 40 stations have been forced to compete with the growing strength of urban contemporary radio. Looking at the phenomenal success of Michael Jackson, Prince and Lionel Richie, and at the amazing renaissnce of Tina Turner, record labels have been putting big money behind some of the most resonant, soulful voices of our time -- especially when, as Houston's and LaBelle's albums show, an essesntially earthly, gospel sound is given a lavish California gloss.

Girl Group: The most dramatic example of this new hit-making is Patti LaBelle and her "Winner in You" album. At 42, LaBelle would seem to have had her chance at stardom and missed.Her first hit, "I Sold My Heart to the Junkman," came in 1962, when she was lead singer of the Bluebells. That pop girl group was reborn in the late '60s as the rock-soul trio Labelle, which included Nona Hendryx and Sarah Dash; they won a lot of attention but produced only one hit, the 1974 "Lady Marmalade." LaBelle went solo in 1977, building a small but loyal following with her rousing live shows, which resembled a cross between Las Vegas and a revival meeting.

Two years ago, however, the singer's horizons began to expand rapidly. She had a respectable success with her "I'm in Love Again" album and got on the Johnny Carson show. Then her new record label, MCA, made sure she sang on the sound track of "Beverly Hills Cop"; that single, "New Attitude," became a Top 40 hit. She nearly stole the show on last year's TV special "Motown Returns to the Apollo" and was impossible to ignore at the Live Aid concert. "When I saw Tina finally getting what she deserved, it did give me more confidence," says LaBelle. "I did think, maybe I can do that." MCA Records obviously thought she could do it, too, and reportedly invested $ 1 million in "Winner in You."

Like Houston's album, for which Arista Records president Clive Davis carefully chose each song, LaBelle's album features several hot producers and proven pop songwriters. Love ballads are the staple; including the honey-drenched hit duet with Michael McDonald, "On My Own," and a pair of songs by those enduring Hollywood smoothies Burt Bacharach and Carole Bayer Sager. The title track by Ashford and Simpson is upbeat and sentimental, and "Oh, People" sounds as if the entire Up With People choir is singing backup. The lush layers of sound don't drown out LaBelle's soaring, whooping voice and often enhance itt. Still, the most satisfying numbers have a little grit left in them -- the raucous, Tina Turner-esque "Twisted" and "Beat My Heart Like a Drum."

Jazz element: Millions of fans -- both black and white -- have made the 22-year-old Houston and LaBelle indisputable stars. "You have no new Streisands or Manilows or Diamonds," notes Arista's Davis. "In their place are the LaBelles, the Houstons." But not all black critics are thrilled with the easy-listening style adopted by so many crossover artists whose roots are in gospel and soul. "Winner in You" has "as much street vibe as Rodeo Drive," says Nelson George, who writes the rhythm-and-blues column for Billboard. Much as he believes in the potential of Houston's voice, he says, "There's not a wisp of soul on those singles."

Still, as Aretha Franklin showed on her lasts soulful album, and as Janet Jackson is proving with her current funk sound, success with white audiences doesn't always mean compromise. And with the barriers between musical styles coming down, the big-voiced perennials such as Dionne Warwick and Gladys Knight -- who sang with LaBelle on an HBO special last weekend -- have a new chance to shine. Fresh stars such as Sade have introduced a jazz element to pop, and now Anita Baker, who can count LaBelle among her fans, is moving up the pop charts with "Rapture," an album that combines jazz influences with pop and soul. The record companies are scrambling for new crossover talent. Arista, for one, hopes to promote two black singers onto the pop charts by the year-end: Lala, who wrote Houston's smash "You Give Good Love," and Patrice Rushen, a veteran of eight R&B albums.

Not long ago, Patti LaBelle finally met the young superstar with whom she's been sharing the charts.Whitney Houston and her mother, veteran gospel singer Cissy Houston, came to see LaBelle perform in Atlantic City, and Patti called them to the stage. The three broke into "Over the Rainbow," the signature song with which LaBelle almost always ends her show. "They just sang their faces off," recalls LaBelle. It's an appropriate anthem for Patti and Whitney these days: they both find themselves on the other side of the rainbow and each can claim her pot of gold.