April 24, 1962 Patti LaBelle makes her debut on the pop charts, sort of
Patti LaBelle and the Blue Belle’s “I Sold My Heart to the Junkman” first enters the Billboard Hot 100 on this day in 1962. In a move that was far from unprecedented at this time—the same thing happened with The Crystals’ “He’s a Rebel” (1961), for instance—Patti and her cohorts were credited with a hit record they had nothing to do with creating.
Patti LaBelle was still going by her given name, Patricia Holte, when she first teamed up in 1961 with fellow Philadelphians Cindy Birdsong (a future Supreme), Nona Hendryx and Sarah Dash to a called the Ordettes. In the meantime, a Chicago called the Starlets was touring with the likes of Jackie Wilson and the Spinners on the strength of a minor hit called “Better Tell Him No.” While visiting Philadelphia, the Starlets somehow found themselves in a recording studio located on a used-car lot operated by a salesman named Harold Robinson.
Among the tracks Robinson had the Starlets record that day was the Leon René song “I Sold My Heart to the Junkman.” While the details of what followed remain murky, the upshot was that while the Starlets went on about their business elsewhere, Newton Records released “I Sold My Heart to the Junkman” in early 1962 under the new name of the former Ordettes: the Blue Belles. After entering the pop charts on this day in 1962, the record went on to peak at #15 on the Hot 100 and #13 on the Billboard Lady Marmalade.