Her parents and three sisters are all dead now, and Patti LaBelle feels driven by thoughts of them.
”I feel that with my sisters and parents gone, I`m the only one here to carry the family name,” LaBelle said. ”So I have to work that much harder because it`s not just for me, it`s all of them that I`m representing.”
Last year, the last of her three sisters, Jackie, died of cancer. Her mother and two other siblings previously died of cancer. Shortly after Jackie`s death, her father died after suffering from Alzheimer`s disease.
LaBelle`s plan to expand her audience hit a snag with the release last year of the album ”Be Yourself,” which included Prince, Burt Bacharach and Full Force as producer-songwriters. Despite the hits ”If You Asked Me To”
and ”Yo, Mister,” the album was a disappointment, she said.
”It was one of my better albums,” LaBelle said. ”But it wasn`t marketed right.”
Her hopes for the widespread crossover success she desires now rest on her new album, ”Burnin`,” out this month. The album also includes a reunion with her old band mates, Sara Dash and Nona Hendryx.
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Despite five Grammy nominations, three Emmy nominations, one gold and one platinum album, roles on television and film, and a McDonald`s commercial, LaBelle doesn`t believe she`s a big star.
”I don`t feel like a star. . . . I know that I make a lot of people happy, but I`m not a superstar like Madonna or Michael Jackson.”
By her own count, the 47-year-old LaBelle said she has only had about three hit records in a career that spans three decades.
As the Bluebells, she, Dash and Hendryx had the chart-topping ”Sold My Heart to the Junkman.” When the group was reborn as LaBelle, their 1974 album, ”Nightbirds,” went gold on the strength of the single ”Lady Marmalade.” The group disbanded in 1976.
LaBelle`s solo career waned until she gained critical acclaim in the Broadway production of ”Your Arms Too Short to Box With God” in 1982.
Then, in 1984, the song ”New Attitude”-from the film ”Beverly Hills Cop”-became a hit and ”sparked a resurgence in my career,” she said.
Her 1986 release ”Winner in You,” which included her Grammy-nominated duet with Michael McDonald, ”On My Own,” went platinum. She performed at Live Aid and ”Motown Salutes the Apollo” on television.
She was the hostess of her own network and cable television specials. She was on the big screen in the movies ”A Soldier`s Story” and ”Sing,” and on the small screen in her recurring role on the NBC-TV show ”A Different World.”
She`ll be back on the show this fall as Adele Wayne, mother to Dwayne Wayne.
”I always want to be noticed,” she said. ”Some people have to go out incognito, looking raggedy. Once I went to the store and I had on a real clean outfit. And these women were whispering, `Doesn`t she look like Patti LaBelle?` And I said, `I am.` When they stop recognizing me, then I`ll know I`m not successful.”