Patti LaBelle, New Attitude | Throwback Vibez 🕶️🎶

In the 180^th edition of Throwback Vibez (2023), we recollect and reflect on “New Attitude” by Patti 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 180^th edition of Throwback Vibez 🕶️🎶 (2023), we recollect and reflect on 🎵 “New Attitude”, performed by 🎙 Patti LaBelle.

“Runnin’ 🏃🏾‍♀️ hot 🥵 / Runnin’ 🏃🏾‍♀️ cold 🥶 / I was runnin’ 🏃🏾‍♀️ into overload / It was extreme.” Ooh-wee, 🎙 Patti LaBelle!  The iconic, 🏆 Grammy-winning musician delivered a surefire bop in 1984 with her single, 🎵 “New Attitude”.  Originally, the 🎼 ✍ Bunny Hull, Jon Gilutin, and Sharon T. Robinson penned song appeared on the 🎦 Beverly Hills Cop soundtrack.  One of her most successful hits, it peaked at no. 17 on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1985. Naturally, it performed even better on the R&B charts, peaking at no. 3, one of 13 top 10 R&B hits by the chanteuse.  “Somehow the wires uncrossed,” she sings in the pre-chorus, adding, “The tables were turned / Never knew I had such a lesson to learn.”

Essentially, Patti LaBelle, or the character she portrays, experiences a paradigm shift – changes her attitude.  This is best exemplified in the chorus, the centerpiece:

“I’m feelin’ good from my head to my shoes 👠

Know where I’m goin’ and I know what to do

I’ve tidied up my point of view

I got a new attitude

I’m in control, my worries are few

‘Cause I’ve got love like I never knew

Ooh-ooh, ooh-ooh, ooh

I got a new attitude.”

What a flex 💪! You know what else is a flex? Those powerful vocals by Patti LaBelle! Her performance is commanding, incredibly nuanced, and playful.  There is no shortage of personality and – wait for it – ATTITUDE! Her ad-libs are electrifying to the nth degree with Patti showing off her range.  Beyond the performance and the songwriting, the production (🎛 Howard Rice, Peter Bunetta, and Rick Chudacoff) is another selling point.  Gotta love those boxy 80s drums.  Furthermore, what about that driving synth bass line, and those ear-catching rhythmic synth, all idiomatic of the era.  The guitar 🎸 is rad too.  So much more can be said of 🎵 “New Attitude” but honestly, this Patti classic, which appears on 💿 Patti LaBelle’s Greatest Hits, speaks for itself.

🎙 Patti LaBelle • 💿 Patti LaBelle’s Greatest Hits • 🏷 MCA • 🗓 1996

Patti LaBelle, New Attitude: Throwback Vibez 🕶️🎶 No. 180 (2023) [📷: Brent Faulkner / The Musical Hype; MCA; John Alan Sperry, PIRO via  Pixabay]