patti labelle "it's alright with me"

[FrontPage22]

Can anyone fill me in a little more on It's Alright With Me and more specifically, the single? I loved "Music Is My Way Of Life" but this song grew on....a little more subduded and def heading in a more garage flavour than MIMWOL. How did these cuts do on the chart? How rare is the LP?

[FrontPage22]

:( Maybe I skipped past this stuff in the A-Z???

No Patti fans on here at all?

[markydefad]

This is my fave Patti solo LP....along with "The Spirit's In It".

I loved the Skip Scarborough production; about half of the LP was comprised of Scarborough songs along some other gems by Allee Willis & David Lasley, etc.

1 It's Alright With Me (Scarborough)
2 My Best Was Good Enough (Scarborough)
3 What'cha Doin' to Me (Scarborough)
4 Love Is Just a Touch Away (Ellison, LaBelle, Scarborough)
5 Love and Learn (Scarborough )
6 Deliver the Funk (Vaughn, Vaughn)
7 Come What May (Willis, Lasley)
8 You and Me (Golde, Willis )
9 Music Is My Way of Life (Lee, Sharron )

The killer dance track was, of course, "Music Is My Way Of Life" which peaked at #10 on the dance chart; #81 black singles. "It's Alright With Me" peaked @ #34 on the black singles chart.

Fave ballads: "Come What May" (also recorded by Lani Hall with her hubby Herb Alpert) & "Love & Learn"

"It's Alright with Me" is a good one also--more geared for radio than the dance floor, I'd say.

[eddie]

Great topic. Skip is a true genius. I don't have the album but have 8 of the songs on CD compilations of Patti Labelle. It has to be the best and most consistent Lp of 1979. The only one I don't have is "You and me". Is this a track left over from her last Lp? I see the track was written by her former songwriters. I would give the 8 tracks I heard a 9.5 out of 10 which is top tier on my ratings scale.
I thought that "Love is just a touch away" and What 'cha doin to me" were classic midtempo productions geared for Black radio. I have them on the Funky Lady budget compilation.
"Love and Learn" and "Come what may" belong next to "Love need and want, If only you knew, and Isn't it a shame.

I admit I'm not a fan of her early work with Labelle which contains many covers and is too rock oriented like on the Something Silver compiliation. Labelle's 1973Lp on Rca has never put on CD but sounds like the most interesting of the lot.

I have 2 questions. What does "You and me" sound like? Didn't "Come what may" also appeared on her next album too?

[FrontPage22]

She had a lot of LP's released in the late 70's/early 80's. Other than "The Spirits In It", did Patti hit the club charts at any other point pre-"New Attitude"? What are her early 80's LP's like? :(

[eddie]

I have all of her early 1980's stuff on a 2cd from Westside. The I'm in love againLp was an album recorded in 1979 which the same year as "It's alright" but was not released until 1983. The standout were "If only you knew", "Love, need, and want, and a cover of "Loverman". Most of the music was written by Kenneth Gamble and Leon Huff and is much like her work with Columbia. This later material was recorded for Philadelphia International but distributed through Capital because Sony was being too choosy with PIR.
Patti's music of this period is more like Teddy Pendergrass, O'jays, or Lou Rawls. There's more ballads, steppers, and orchestration as opposed to trendy heavy electronic instruments. I consider this period one of her best.

The Spirits in it Lp is a more disco oriented.

Patti was angered that the I'm in love again Lp was shelved for 4 years and left PIR by 1985. The last album titled Patti is the weakest of the set. It includes songs that were a bit more trendy and upbeat. It sounded as if the label but together something in haste to sell in the wake of her success at MCA. There's also a US 2cd set called Anthology on Capital which includes almost all of this material.

[markydefad]

Released is worth checking out. The title song "Release" charted on the Disco charts in 1980 and there are some nice ballads, especially "Don't Make Your Angel Cry," "I Don't Go Shopping For Love" & "Find the Love" of which I'm very fond. :D :D :D

1) Give It Up (The Dawning of Rejection) (Toussaint) 5:39
2) Don't Make Your Angel Cry (Toussaint ) 3:18
3) Release (Toussaint ) 3:59
4) I Don't Go Shopping (Allen, Lasley) 3:54
5) Ain't That Enough (Ellison, LaBelle, Orsborn) 3:46
6) Love Has Finally Come (Ellison, LaBelle, Orsborn) 5:35
7) Come and Dance With Me (Batts, Ellison, LaBell) 4:25
8. Get Ready (Lookin' for Love) (Batts, Ellison, LaBelle) 4:49
9) Find the Love (Ellison, LaBelle, McClean) 5:43

Apparently, This CD was released with "It's Alright With Me" as a double CD in 2003 according to AMG. I must check this out.