''Pressure Cookin is the third album by American singing trio

Labelle Labelle was an American funk rock band that originated out of the Blue Belles, a girl group who were a popular vocal group of the 1960s and 1970s. The original group was formed after the disbanding of two rival girl groups in the area around ...

, released in August 1973. This release was their first and only for

RCA Records RCA Records is an American record label owned by Sony Music Entertainment, a subsidiary of Sony Group Corporation. It is one of Sony Music's four flagship labels, alongside Columbia Records (its former longtime rival), Arista Records and Epic R ...

, and was critically raved due to the songs that songwriter and member

Nona Hendryx Nona Bernis Hendryx (born October 9, 1944) is an American vocalist, record producer, songwriter, musician, and author. Hendryx is known for her work as a solo artist as well as for being one-third of the trio Labelle, who had a hit with "Lady Ma ...

composed. The album is also notable for being the first album released following lead singer

Patti LaBelle Patricia Louise Holte (born May 24, 1944), known professionally as Patti LaBelle, is an American Rhythm and blues, R&B singer and actress. She has been referred to as the "Honorific nicknames in popular music, Godmother of Soul". LaBelle began ...

giving birth to her only child, son Zuri Edwards (she recorded the album while still pregnant with Zuri). Among notable songs were " Something in the Air"/"

The Revolution Will Not Be Televised "The Revolution Will Not Be Televised" is a satirical poem and Black Liberation song by Gil Scott-Heron. Scott-Heron first recorded it for his 1970 album ''Small Talk at 125th and Lenox'', on which he recited the lyrics, accompanied by congas a ...

", in which all three bandmates, Patti LaBelle, Nona Hendryx and Sarah Dash each shared a rap, the biographical "(Can I Speak to You Before You Go to) Hollywood", which was inspired by the events following former member

Cindy Birdsong Cynthia Ann Birdsong (born December 15, 1939) is an American singer who became famous as a member of The Supremes in 1967, when she replaced co-founding member Florence Ballard. Birdsong had previously been a member of Patti LaBelle & The Blue ...

ditching the group during its Blue Belles tenure to join

The Supremes The Supremes were an American girl group formed in Detroit, Michigan, in 1959 as the Primettes. A premier act of Motown Records during the 1960s, the Supremes were the most commercially successful of Motown's acts and the most successful Amer ...

and which featured all three members having notable lead vocal parts, mainly from Dash, while Hendryx sang in the beginning and Patti LaBelle sang the following verses, the soulful ballad "Last Dance" and the bossa nova-inspired "Let Me See You in the Light". Despite RCA releasing the

Stevie Wonder Stevland Hardaway Morris (; Judkins; born May 13, 1950), known professionally as Stevie Wonder, is an American and Ghanaian singer-songwriter, musician, and record producer. He is regarded as one of the most influential musicians of the 20th c ...

composition, "Open Up Your Heart", the album failed to become a success. In spite of its initial failure, the album has gone on to become a cult classic and is considered a revolutionary album because few female groups talked so openly about social issues and other topics. Wonder was uncredited due to contractual reasons - the production credit was listed as "Vicki Wickham and friend". Musicians on this track included members out of a Philadelphia-based band, Buff, and others from a Latin-black band from

Queens Queens is the largest by area of the Boroughs of New York City, five boroughs of New York City, coextensive with Queens County, in the U.S. state of New York (state), New York. Located near the western end of Long Island, it is bordered by the ...

called Harlem River Drive. Several of them would morph to become Labelle's road band, including guitarist, Eddie Martinez.

Track listing

All songs written and composed by

, except where noted.

Side A

#"Pressure Cookin'" - 3:00 #"Medley: Something in the Air/

" ( Speedy Keen/ Gil-Scott Heron) - 5:50 #"Sunshine (Woke Me Up This Morning)" - 3:18 #"(Can I Speak Before You Go To) Hollywood" - 6:38

Side B

#"Mr. Music Man" - 4:05 #"Goin' On a Holiday" - 3:21 #"Let Me See You in the Light" - 6:13 #"Open Up Your Heart" (

) - 3:25 #"Last Dance" - 4:15

Personnel

;LaBelle *

vocals Singing is the art of creating music with the voice. It is the oldest form of musical expression, and the human voice can be considered the first musical instrument. The definition of singing varies across sources. Some sources define sing ...

- vocals * Sarah Dash - vocals ;Musicians * Buzz Feiten, Eddie Martinez, Hank Redd -

guitar The guitar is a stringed musical instrument that is usually fretted (with Fretless guitar, some exceptions) and typically has six or Twelve-string guitar, twelve strings. It is usually held flat against the player's body and played by strumming ...

s *Leroi Conley - guitars,

percussion A percussion instrument is a musical instrument that is sounded by being struck or scraped by a percussion mallet, beater including attached or enclosed beaters or Rattle (percussion beater), rattles struck, scraped or rubbed by hand or ...

(

conga The conga, also known as tumbadora, is a tall, narrow, single-headed drum from Cuba. Congas are staved like barrels and classified into three types: quinto (lead drum, highest), tres dos or tres golpes (middle), and tumba or salidor (lowest ...

tambourine The tambourine is a musical instrument in the percussion family consisting of a frame, often of wood or plastic, with pairs of small metal jingles, called "zills". Classically the term tambourine denotes an instrument with a drumhead, thoug ...

) * Andre Lewis -

organ Organ and organs may refer to: Biology * Organ (biology), a group of tissues organized to serve a common function * Organ system, a collection of organs that function together to carry out specific functions within the body. Musical instruments ...

electric piano An electric piano is a musical instrument that has a piano-style musical keyboard, where sound is produced by means of mechanical hammers striking metal strings or reeds or wire tines, which leads to vibrations which are then converted into ele ...

clavinet The Clavinet is an electric clavichord invented by Ernst Zacharias and manufactured by the Hohner company of Trossingen, West Germany, from 1964 to 1982. The instrument produces sounds with rubber pads, each matching one of the keys and respond ...

bass guitar The bass guitar (), also known as the electric bass guitar, electric bass, or simply the bass, is the lowest-pitched member of the guitar family. It is similar in appearance and construction to an Electric guitar, electric but with a longer nec ...

drums The drum is a member of the percussion instrument, percussion group of musical instruments. In the Hornbostel–Sachs classification system, it is a membranophones, membranophone. Drums consist of at least one Acoustic membrane, membrane, c ...

, percussion, arrangements *Luther Eaddy - organ * Carmine Rojas - bass guitar *Larry Davis, Emry Thomas - drums *Daniel Ben Zebulon - percussion ;Technical *Mike Moran, Tom Brown - recording engineers *Roger Williams - artwork, design * Bob Gruen - photography

References

External links

*
''Pressure Cookin
on

Discogs.com Discogs ( ; short for "discographies") is a database of information about audio recordings, including commercial releases, promotional releases, and bootleg or off-label releases. Database contents are user-generated, and described in ''The N ...

{{Authority control 1973 albums Labelle albums Albums produced by Vicki Wickham Albums produced by Stevie Wonder RCA Records albums