LaBelle, Lady Marmalade | Throwback Vibez 🕶️🎶

In the 176^th edition of Throwback Vibez (2023), we recollect and reflect on “Lady Marmalade” by LaBelle. 

The vibes, the vibes, those Throwback Vibez 🕶️🎶! Throwback Vibez 🕶️🎶 is a column that celebrates awesome songs from the past.  The records that grace this column are older, but that doesn’t necessarily mean that they’re ancient – no fossils 🦴! All genres of music are welcome. In the 176^th edition of Throwback Vibez 🕶️🎶 (2023), we recollect and reflect on “Lady Marmalade”, performed by LaBelle. 

“Hey sister, go sister / Soul sister, go sister.” WOO! LaBelle, prior to Patti LaBelle going solo, dropped a hot one in “Lady Marmalade”, like, “Gitchie gitchie ya ya da da” and, of course, “Voulez-vous coucher avec moi, ce soir?” When it comes to funk/R&B/soul classics, “Lady Marmalade” is a go-to – it’s entertaining and infectious to the nth degree.  It should come as no surprise that the record spent one week at no. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 💪. Furthermore, both the single, and the parent album, 💿 Nightbirds, was certified gold by the RIAA. LaBelle, which also included Nona Hendryx and Sarah Dash, neither wrote nor originally recorded “Lady Marmalade” 🤯. The original was recorded the same year as LaBelle, courtesy of The Eleventh Hour. Bob Crewe and Kenny Nolan penned this masterpiece. Allan Toussaint produced this ‘cover,’ alongside Vicki Wickham.

So, what is “Lady Marmalade” about? A New Orleans prostitute 🤯 🤯 🤯. “He met Marmalade down in old New Orleans / Strutting her stuff on the street,” Patti LaBelle sings in the first verse, continuing, “She said, ‘Hello, hey Joe’ / You wanna give it a go?” Risqué! Well, the second and third verses push the envelope ✉️ more with the likes of “On her black satin sheets / Where he started to freak,” and, “Touching her skin, feeling silky smooth / Color of café au lait / Made the savage beast inside / Roar until it cried / ‘More, more, more!’” Damn! So, what exactly does the Voulez-vous coucher avec moi, ce soir translate to in English? Do you want to sleep with me tonight? Oh, snap 🫰! Patti LaBelle had no clue what the chorus of the song was about.  To this day, “Lady Marmalade” is a recording that is a big deal.  Also, throwing it out there, it’s a beloved gay anthem 🏳️‍🌈.  A remake of the song for the film Moulin Rouge, recorded by Christina Aguilera, Lil Kim, Mya, and P!nk spent five weeks at no. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 in 2001. That’s a testament to the excellence and strength of the original arriving 27 years earlier 💪.

🎙 LaBelle • 💿 Nightbirds • 🏷 Sony Music Entertainment Inc. • 🗓 1974

LaBelle, Lady Marmalade: Throwback Vibez 🕶️🎶 No. 176 (2023) [📷: Brent Faulkner / The Musical Hype; Sony Music Entertainment Inc.; John Alan Sperry, PIRO via  Pixabay]