Over The Rainbow (US Release)

by Andrew HamiltonPatti LaBelle & the Bluebelles had only moderate success at Atlantic records. It was a good run, but lowly pop entries and a few R&B hits was as good as it got. The label was far more successful with Aretha Franklin, who signed a couple of years after Patti LaBelle & the Bluebelles. Atlantic made the same mistake with the the Bluebelles that Columbia did with Aretha: too sophisticated. Instead of energizing the Bluebelles' innate, raw soul, Atlantic softened their earthy expressions with strings, brass, fancy arrangements, and too many pop songs; hence this album, which features Patti LaBelle & the Bluebelles' stirring rendition of "Over the Rainbow" and many similarities, i.e., "More," "People," "Ebb Tide," and "Try to Remember." Only Bob Finiz's "Patti's Prayer" deviates. Good, but hardly the cutting-edge sounds they later unleashed as LaBelle, minus Cindy Birdsong.