LAURA NYRO, LABELLE AND LUMINOSITY
The 'Miracle' Of Timeless Musical Magic
First off, the choice to create this particular post has been inspired to the positive response to “Soul Has No Colour,” which focused on the great Dusty Springfield. I posted the link to it on a Laura Nyro group on Facebook and was delighted by the comments such that I was reminded of Laura and her immense contribution to contemporary music; and most assuredly, my own deep admiration for her work.
I had the distinct joy of meeting Laura Nyro in person in Los Angeles some time after a concert review did for Billboard magazine which is reprinted at the end of this post.
The meeting was brief. She was quiet, unassuming, thoughtful. She thanked me for the review and I recall sharing with her how much I loved Gonna Take A Miracle, her 1971 landmark album with the trio, Labelle; that I hoped she would consider recording more of the songs she loved from her youth, songs that also resonated with me too, such as “Walk On By,” “Dedicated To The One I Love”, “Ooo Baby Baby” and “I’m So Proud.” She listened attentively…
Some albums stay with us forever.
Gonna Take A Miracle, the 1971 ten-song collaboration between Laura Nyro, the reimagined ’from-a-quartet-to-a-trio’ Labelle (Sarah Dash, Nona Hendryx, Patti LaBelle) and then-emergent Philly-based hitmakers Kenny Gamble & Leon Huff, endures - from the time I bought the original LP through a 2002 expanded edition to a Spotify playlist.
I first became aware of Laura Nyro in 1968 with her milestone LP, Eli & The Thirteenth Confession. Since 90% of my record collection was by R&B and soul music artists, it was a bit of a mystery just how I acquired it! A phone call to my dear friend Patricia, one of my very first London flatmates back in ‘68, confirmed that not only did I have the album but, she recalled, I played some of the tracks consistently on the record player in my bedroom!
One possible explanation for my interest in Laura’s LP might lie in the fact that The 5th Dimension released their version of “Stoned Soul Picnic” (one of the tracks on Laura’s album) and it became a US massive hit; no doubt working at the time at Soul City Records (the shop I co-owned with Dave Godin and Robert Blackmore), we had copies of The Fifth Dimension single!
My favourite tracks on Eli & The Thirteenth Confession included “Eli’s Comin,’” “Sweet Blindness,” “Poverty Train” and “Lonely Women” (one of my particular favourites, with its fascinating time changes, reminiscent of producer Burt Bacharach’s penchant for shifting tempos mid-song) and of course, “Stoned Soul Picnic.”
I don’t recall buying the next Nyro album, the 1969 set New York Tendaberry which included her original versions of “Save The Country,” covered by Thelma Houston on her famed Sunshower LP, a firm DN favourite; and “Time And Love,” a Nyro-penned hit for Barbra Streisand in 1971, also recorded by Diana Ross in 1970 - but never released until 2002.
I somehow missed Christmas and The Beads Of Sweat, released in 1970 (with production by brilliant maestro Arif Mardin - who had already masterminded arrangements on Aretha Franklin’s first few Atlantic classic albums) - and Felix Cavaliere of The Rascals.
Then came a wonderous celebration of the music that Laura had enjoyed since her teen years in The Bronx: “I would go out singing, as a teenager, to a party or out on the street, because there were harmony groups there, and that was one of the joys of my youth,” she said of her musical roots.
In live performances, she would include songs such as “Spanish Harlem,” “He’s Sure The Boy I Love” and “Walk On By” so the idea of making an album in tribute to the harmony groups and R&B vocalists who had inspired her felt ‘right.’
What better place to record than the famed Sigma Sound Studios in Philadelphia, working with Kenny Gamble & Leon, at the time making a mark as producers and songwriters with artists such as Jerry Butler, Wilson Pickett, The Sweet Inspirations, The Intruders and, just a year or so earlier, with Britain’s Dusty Springfield, a positive experience by all accounts for the singer and the producers.
Of note, it was Vicki Wickham, the pioneering producer of the popular British television programme, Ready Steady Go! (often a showcase for US artists such as Betty Everett, Dionne Warwick, Lou Johnson, Inez & Charlie Foxx, Doris Troy, Nina Simone and Patti LaBelle & The Bluebelles), who was responsible for introducing Laura to Patti LaBelle…
In an article she wrote for Hit Parader in 1972, Vicki shared, “It all started back in May 1971 when Laura and Patti LaBelle met, sat at a piano in Laura's apartment on the Upper West Side of New York and started singing their way through some of the songs Laura had in mind for her "memory" LP…” She noted, “Laura would play the song and Sarah, Nona and Pat would pick up and start singing their parts, so that by the end of a couple of run throughs they had their parts and then just had to work out harmonies to fit in and around Laura's.”
Vicki had moved to New York and was managing the group Labelle, working with Patti, Sarah Dash and Nona Hendryx in transforming them into a re-imagined trio. The bonding between Laura and Patti at that initial meeting was instant. It is no surprise that Patti LaBelle would later state, “Once we met, we became like soul sisters…” That the trio Labelle had recorded one of Laura’s songs, “Time And Love” (with Judy Clay and The Sweet Inspirations providing backgrounds) for their 1971 Warner Brothers’ debut didn’t hurt…
According to an article for the website Best Classic Bands penned by Mark Leviton, “Nyro worked up the arrangements, based on her piano parts and judicious re-imagining of the original material, with Gamble and Huff in a supporting production role, with string and horn arrangements by Bobby Martin, Lenny Pakula and (Thom) Bell.”
The recording sessions weren’t as speedy as planned. Vicki Wickham, 1972: “Recording took much longer. Songs like 'Spanish Harlem' were redone at least three times before Laura was satisfied and 'Cowboys to Girls' was recorded but then rejected. The band would run a song through and after each take Laura would be in the control room listening and commenting on the take…”
Wickham added, “By the end of almost two weeks in the studio Labelle still hadn't put their parts on because the time had been taken up just getting the very basic tracks down. It was the last day booked at Sigma Sound for recording and Kenny and Leon called Labelle and said that they would "start" putting their parts on that evening.
Patti was enraged. "Start," she told Leon. "You're joking. We'll finish in one evening." Leon bet her a $1,000 they couldn't do it in the five hours booked. Four hours and thirty minutes and ten songs later, Labelle had finished all their work and were ready to go home. Leon was nowhere to be seen in the whole city of Philadelphia!”
I conducted an extensive audio interview with Kenny Gamble & Leon Huff in 2005 and asked for their memories of working with Laura and Labelle on Gonna Take A Miracle. Here’s an exclusive snippet…
Postscript: At a May 30, 1971 concert Laura did at The Fillmore East virtually on the eve of her recordings with Labelle, her performance included medleys of “Ain’t Nothing Like The Real Thing” and Aretha’s “(You Make Me Feel Like) A Natural Woman” ; “Walk On By” and “Dancing In The Street”; one that included The Five Stairsteps “O-o-h Child” and The Drifters’ “Up On The Roof” (Laura’s only US pop hit single released in 1970). She also sang “Spanish Harlem,” the one track that she would record with Labelle for the Gonna Take A Miracle masterpiece that would hit the streets in November 1971. A 2002 expanded edition CD included four tracks from the ‘live’ recording as bonus tracks, although none include Labelle.
Laura and Labelle did some limited touring together after completing the album including a concert at New York’s Carnegie Hall on Christmas eve of 1971 and by all accounts, the combination was amazing!
According to Vicki Wickham, 1972, “Laura [would] come with Labelle and they'd do first 'The Wind' then the 'Dancing In The Street' medley. Then Laura would announce her "three lovely girlfriends, Nona, Sarah and Patti LaBelle." Then it would be 'The Bells' with Patti soaring above the song and getting her own personal standing ovations…that part of the show would usually end with '[Gonna Take A] Miracle'“
Gonna Take A Miracle is a permanent fixture on my Spotify app.
Buy at Amazon.com / Buy at Amazon.co.uk
Virtually every track - from the opening handclaps and Labelle harmonies on “I Met Him On A Sunday” (originally recorded by The Shirelles) to the gorgeous version of the title track (a 1965 hit for The Royalettes) - holds personal memories for me.
“Monkey Time” reminds me of the song’s original recording artist, Major Lance, who played a role in my Soul City Records’ tenure since our little label released another of his Northern Soul classics, “The Beat.”
Laura chose three songs popularized by Martha (Reeves) & The Vandellas. I suspect the trio was among her favourites. Me too! I bought the joyful “Dancing In The Street” as soon as it came out in 1964 and “Nowhere To Run” in ‘65. I’ve always loved the group’s “Jimmy Mack” and Laura & Labelle’s rousing rendition is a prompt for the year 1967, when I was 19, traversing the rocky terrain of love and lust for the first time. Let’s just say I knew a ‘Jimmy Mack’ or two…
I was unashamedly a Beatles’ fan as a teen in ‘63 and one of my favourite songs on the With The Beatles LP was “You Really Got A Hold On Me”: I didn’t hear The Miracles’ original for sometime after. Laura and Labelle’s uptempo groove of the song always has me singing, often out loud with my earbuds in, when I’m out and about in London….
Of the other tracks, I confess I knew nothing of the song “Desiree” (originally cut by vocal group The Charts in 1957) until I heard it on Gonna Take A Miracle; likewise, “The Wind,” from ‘50s doo-wop group, Nolan Strong & The Diablos.
In my world of synchro-destiny, I found an at-the-time previously unreleased version of the song by ‘Queen Of Soul’ Aretha Franklin in the vaults of Arista Records many years later when I was doing tape research; just like Laura, Aretha had great love for the harmony groups she heard during her teen years.
In another Aretha reference, she took “Spanish Harlem” to a whole new funky place in 1971, the same year that Laura and Labelle tackled Ben E. King’s first hit as a solo artist a decade earlier.
Saving ‘the best to last’: I recall when “The Bells” was released as the follow-up to Motown group The Originals’ 1969 hit “Baby I’m For Real,” both tracks produced and co-written by labelmate Marvin Gaye. We can deduce that Laura Nyro and Labelle heard “The Bells” on the pop and R&B radio in 1970.
The rendition on Gonna Take A Miracle with Laura’s ‘angelic’ opening, along with soulful harmonies of Sarah Dash, Nona Hendryx and Patti LaBelle would be enough to make this a standout. When Patti steps out with a soaring solo, Laura is a note or two away and the vocal combination is beyond, beyond.
With wistful melancholy, I can say that I have seldom heard ‘the bells’.
Speaking of Laura Nyro and the subject of bells: the classic “Wedding Bell Blues” from Laura’s 1966 debut album…
The lyrical question posed therein- “am I ever gonna see my wedding day?” - hangs in the air for me from time to time, recalling love affairs that didn’t endure and a comment from a friend many years ago when asked why he hadn’t introduced me to potential mates, he said with a smile, “You’re just not the marrying kind…”
I remember seeing Laura Nyro at one of her last performances. It was at McCabe’s Guitar Shop in Santa Monica around the time of my 47th birthday in February 1995, a perfect setting for an intimate musical experience.
Dressed in black, with her hair cascading down, she walked onto the small stage as the rapt audience cheered, sat the piano. She said little throughout the show. She didn’t need to….
My 1988 concert review for Billboard
Laura Nyro: Mayfair Theater, Santa Monica CA, October 1st
“BACK ON tour after a lengthy hiatus, innovative singer/songwriter Laura Nyro has been reminding audiences that she is a unique and exceptionally gifted artist. At this intimate venue, she thrilled devotees for a record-breaking eight sold-out shows.
Nyro's band featured Jimmy Vivino (mandolin, guitar, vocals), Frank Pagano (drums, vocals), David Wofford (bass), Diane Wilson (backgrounds), and Nydia Mata (percussion, vocals). Their musical skills fully complemented Nyro's often haunting, crystal-pure yet soulful vocals.
During her 16-song set, Nyro weaved the same musical magic that enchanted audiences earlier in her illustrious career. Material from such past albums as 'Wind', 'My Innocence', 'Emmy', and 'The Confession' demonstrated her art with a deftness and mastery that proved compelling. Such timeless items as 'Wedding Bell Blues', 'And When I Die', and 'Stoned Soul Picnic', were irrefutable proof that Nyro has a very rich musical well from which to draw.
New songs like 'Women Of The One World', 'Roll Of The Ocean', and 'Down South' illustrate Nyro's innate ability to paint moods of many hues. She draws on a variety of themes for subject matter — social, cultural, and personal. Another new tune, 'Wild World', was dedicated, as is Nyro's current tour, to the animal-rights movement.
A new Nyro album, due by the end of the year, will likely include some of the songs previewed in her show.
Nyro's appeal lies as much in occasional on-stage glimpses of her offstage persona as it does in her pointed, image-provoking material; her easy camaraderie with both musicians and audience and a wry humor are very endearing. But it was Nyro's poetic imagery coupled with her distinctive vocal delivery that made her show simply spellbinding.”
Per Nina Simone, one of the artists who Laura admired, ‘nuff said!
© 2025, David Nathan/Blue Butterfly Entertainment Ltd. (UK); all rights reserved.
Really interesting, I would have put my money on Labelle completing all the tracks in 5 hours xxx