Robbed Hit of the Week 6/24/13: Patti LaBelle's "If Only You Knew"...

Patti LaBelle - "If Only You Knew"
from the album I'm In Love Again (1983)
Billboard Hot 100 peak: #46

This week's "robbed hit" is by the R&B vocal legend Patti Labelle, a Philadelphia native that started out as frontwoman for a group the Bluebelles. Their big break in 1962 was "I Sold My Heart To The Junkman", which made the top-20 on the pop and R&B chart. Patti, whose real surname is Holt, changed her recording last name to LaBelle, and together they had a couple more top-40 hits as Patti LaBelle and her Blue Belles.

After shortening their name to LaBelle and changing their musical style from girl-group to a rock/soul hybrid, the trio (Labelle along with Nona Hendryx and Sarah Dash) put out a few well-reviewed but insufficiently selling album before a little song about a whore brought them to the top of the charts in 1974. "Lady Marmalade", with its seductive French-language hook, and eventually would land in the Grammy Hall of Fame. After a lack of followup pop success, Patti left the group, and released her self-titled debut solo album in 1977. From the set the first single "Joy To Have Your Love" (co-written by Ray Parker Jr.) became her first solo top-40 R&B hit, while another track from the set, "Dan Swit Me", reached the dance club chart top-40. On her third release, It's Alright With Me, Patti went top-10 on the "Disco" chart with "Music Is My Way Of Life".

The 80's found Patti having some minor R&B hits, including a top-20 collaboration with Grover Washington Jr. on "The Best Is Yet To Come" in 1982. The following year, she put out her sixth solo album I'm In Love Again. The first single released from the effort, the ballad "If Only You Knew", was written and produced by Philly soul producing powerhouse Kenneth Gamble along with Cynthia Biggs and Dexter Wensel, and finally got LaBelle back on pop radio...

While "If Only You Knew" went to #1 on the R&B charts, it stopped just under the top-40 in the new-wave and rock-inundated pop chart. The album did go on to sell over a half million copies, and paved the way for her upcoming pop success later in the eighties.

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In 1995, singer Phil Perry covered the song and went to #43 on the R&B chart, and I personally love this version...

KeKe Wyatt also took on the track in 2001...

...and lastly, here's the queen herself live with the song (and asymmetrical 'shroom hairdo)....

That's it for today....tomorrow I'll have another Song of the Day and my French and German chart sweeps...Have a great night!