If the music business turns out to be just as fickle as its reputation, try pie.
That’s what Patti LaBelle did. Since she launched a singing career in the mid-1960s, first leading a Philadelphia girl group called the Bluebelles and then as a solo artist, her fortunes have risen and fallen and risen again.
There were early hits like “Down the Aisle” and “You’ll Never Walk Alone,” a monster mid-career soul smash with “Lady Marmalade,” and later crossover dance-party and movie-soundtrack hits like “New Attitude” and “Stir It Up.” Last year, LaBelle even released two new albums — one jazz, called “Bel Hommage,” and one full of seasonal holiday sounds, called “Patti LaBelle and Friends, Home for the Holidays.”
But it’s never been easy for LaBelle. Even though she’s won two Grammys and been nicknamed the Godmother of Soul for her dramatic singing style, LaBelle has also feuded with managers and left labels over her career trajectory. Somewhere along the line, she also started acting and cooking on TV, writing lifestyle and recipe books and promoting Patti’s Good Life, a product line that includes sauces, cobblers, cakes — and the sweet potato pie that has blown some unexpected new wind into her career sails.