The chorus of "Voulez-vous coucher avec moi ce soir?" is French for "Do you want to sleep with me tonight?" When Labelle performed the song on television, broadcast standards of the day prohibited them from singing the chorus as written, so they changed it to "Voulez-vous danser avec moi ce soir?" which means "Do you want to dance with me?"
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Suggestion credit:
Ekristheh - Halath
This song is about New Orleans prostitutes. The French Quarter is near the city's red-light district.
Bob Crewe wrote this song with Kenny Nolan. Crewe is a producer who worked on many songs in the '60s, including hits by The Four Seasons. "Lady Marmalade" was not typical of Crewe's work, but it was the biggest and last hit he worked on. It became the biggest hit for the songwriting/production team of Crewe and Nolan, and strangely, it replaced another one of their songs, "
My Eyes Adored You" by Frankie Valli, at #1 in America in March 1975.
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Suggestion credit:
Adam - Dewsbury, England
The song was originally recorded by the disco group The Eleventh Hour, which was made up of studio musicians and featured Kenny Nolan's vocals. Their version was released in the summer of 1974 and went nowhere. Labelle recorded the song at the suggestion of their producer
Allen Toussaint, who recorded it with the group in New Orleans at his Sea-Saint studios (he also did the arrangements and played the piano). Their version was released in October 1974 and climbed to #1 in the US on March 29, 1975.
Labelle turned this song into an outrageous party anthem, which went along with their glamorous look and sexy persona, earning them a huge following in the gay community. To anyone paying attention, the song was highly suggestive, and it did ruffle some feathers, partly because it seemed to glamorize prostitution.
In a 1986 interview with NME Patti LaBelle explained: "That song was taboo. I mean, why sing about a hooker? Why not? I had a good friend who was a hooker, and she died. She never took the mike out of my mouth and I never took the mattress from under her. She was a friend, doing her thing. It'd be like discriminating because you're white and I'm black, or you're gay and someone's straight. I don't believe in separating people. If your job is as a hooker, more power to you."
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In the same NME interview, LaBelle claimed she didn't know the real meaning of the song until much later. Said Patti: "I thought people would boo us because we'd gone too far. I was afraid of change. But when we went out and did it, I said 'good!' Three outrageous black women who wore and said anything onstage... Although with 'Lady Marmalade' I swear I had no idea for a while what it meant, until I asked Bob Crewe, who recorded it, 'what's voulez-vous coucher avec moi ce soir?' He told me, 'Oh gosh', I said, 'what will my mother think?'"
This is the only hit credited to Labelle. Patti LaBelle, the lead singer of the trio, recorded in the '60s as Patti LaBelle And The Blue Belles, and in the '80s as a solo artist. Another member,
Nona Hendryx, went on to a very eclectic solo career that included a
Captain Beefheart tribute. The third member, Sarah Dash, had a minor hit in 1979 with "Sinner Man" and toured extensively with Keith Richards.
Labelle were on their way to the airport when Bob Crewe called their producer Vicki Wickham and asked her to bring the girls to his house first. When they got there, Crewe played them "Lady Marmalade" on the piano. "We knew it was a hit," Patti Labelle recalled to Mojo magazine. "Even though we didn't know what 'Voulez-vous coucher avec moi ce soir' meant, it was a statement, and that melody, it kept bouncing in my mind."
In 2001, Missy Elliott produced a new version with Christina Aguilera, Lil' Kim, Mya, and Pink that was used in the Nicole Kidman movie Moulin Rouge. This remake was wildly successful, connecting with a new audience and winning the 2001 Grammy for Best Pop Collaboration With Vocals. It also got the approval of Patti LaBelle, who said that she loved it. Mya said that she used to sing the original version around the house when she was a kid. She never knew what the French part meant, and her mom, who spoke French, didn't tell her.
The Missy Elliott version won Video of the Year at the 2001 MTV Video Music Awards. The video featured the singers dressed as prostitutes, which is how they performed it on the show. That MTV performance is included as an extra on the Moulin Rouge DVD.
The female British pop group All Saints covered "Lady Marmalade" in 1998. Their version got little attention in America, but went to #1 in the UK, one of five chart-toppers for the group from 1997-2000. The producer Timbaland remixed their version for the 1998 movie Dr. Dolittle.
In the UK, both the All Saints and Missy Elliott cover versions went to #1. This was the first time a song topped the UK charts twice but didn't in its original version. In 2005 this happened again when Steve Brookstein hit the top of the UK charts with "Against All Odds (Take A Look At Me Now)" four years after Westlife featuring Mariah Carey did the same; Phil Collins' original reached #2.
Patti LaBelle performed the song with Aguilera, Lil' Kim, Pink, and Mya at the 2002 Grammy Awards.
"Lady Marmalade" is the only song to top both the UK and US charts twice: in the UK by All Saints and Missy Elliott, in the US by Labelle and Missy Elliott.
When the Missy Elliott version hit #1, Lil' Kim became the first female rap artist to appear on a #1 single.
Sheila E. did a cover of this song on her 1991 set
Sex Cymbal. She originally wanted to cover Tower of Power's "
What Is Hip?" but the horn section was unavailable, so she "settled" for this number instead.
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Suggestion credit:
Faundell - Brooklyn, NJ
The song's producer, Allen Toussaint, spiced it up with lots of New Orleans flavor. Toussaint, who died in 2015 at 77, was musical royalty in the city and inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1998. He wrote the Glen Campbell hit "
Southern Nights" and recorded the original version.
In 2021, the Library of Congress announced that "Lady Marmalade" had been entered into the National Recording Registry, making it, officially, a national treasure.
