BY DAN DELUCA
PHILADELPHIA INQUIRER/MCT

NEW YORK – Before there was Labelle – the ‘70s glam/R&B trio of Patti LaBelle, Nona Hendryx and Sarah Dash, who have just reunited with “Back to Now,” their first album in 32 years – there was Patti & the Bluebelles.

From their feathered headdresses atop glittery spacesuits, the group Labelle – best known for “Lady Marmalade,” the 1974 hit that gave a risque French lesson to a generation of pop fans – has always been outrageously over-the-top.

By contrast Patti & the Bluebelles were a demure, traditional ‘60s girl group, albeit one with an octave-leaping singer who would go on to become Philadelphia’s most recognizable R&B star.

Less girl group, more of a band
“We wore matching dresses and tiaras” in the Bluebelles, recalled LaBelle. “We were real prom queens.”

A few days before taking flight (and liberties) with “The Star-Spangled Banner” at game four of the World Series, LaBelle and her soul sisters, Hendryx and Dash, were in a green room at Sirius Satellite Radio in Manhattan.

By the late ‘60s, Patti and the Bluebelles “weren’t growing,” Hendryx recalled.

Vicki Wickham, the Bluebelles’ British manager, decided a change was in order: “More of a band,” Hendryx recalled. “Less of a girl group.”

Metamorphis came in 1970
“And I said, ‘Hell, no!’” recalled LaBelle. “I resisted. Because I said if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it. We were stagnant. But it wasn’t broke. And I was

afraid of losing our fan base.”

LaBelle relented, however, and in 1970 the trio moved to London and began the metamorphosis into Labelle.

“It was like we went into a cocoon,” Hendryx said. “And grew into something else.”

Labelle were indeed something else. Even in an extravagant ‘70s Black pop scene, where it was almost de rigueur to arrive on stage as if dropping in from another planet, Labelle was out there, from their architecturally improbable hairstyles to their boundary-disrespecting music.

‘Lady Marmalade’ was monster hit
In the 1970s, Labelle recorded “Gonna Take a Miracle” as backup vocalists for Laura Nyro, and hit their peak with 1974’s “Nightbirds,” with New Orleans piano man Allen Toussaint and funk-masters The Meters.

“Lady Marmalade,” the tale of a French Quarter prostitute – with the en Francais line, “Voulez-vous couchez avec moi, ce soir?” – was a monster hit that’s been covered many times, most prominently by Christina Aguilera, Mya, Pink and Lil’ Kim, for the 2001 film “Moulin Rouge.”

Just a few years after their biggest success, however, the women of Labelle split. “I wanted to be a Diana Ross,” LaBelle said, joking. “No, we all wanted to go our separate ways. Nona did, and Sarah did, and so did I.”

LaBelle has had the most successful career. At first, though, she felt uncertain.

“I was afraid people were going to say, ‘She broke up the group,’ and throw eggs at me,” she noted. “But the thing I missed most was Nona and Sarah. Blaming them for bad notes. Now I had only me to blame: ‘Patti, did you sing a bad note?’ Yes, you did, ‘cause you’re by yourself.”