Sarah Dash (August 18, 1945 – September 20, 2021) – Peace With Yourself (1972)

The sadly departed founding member of Labelle wrote this funky inspirational jam for their Moon Shadow album.

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The late great Sarah Dash was one of the three founding members of Labelle, and before that, a member of the Blue Belles who started singing with Patti Labelle in the early sixties.

Born in Trenton, New Jersey, Dash started out singing gospel in church, then formed a vocal duo called the Capris when she was in middle school.

In 1962, she and Nona Hendryx joined Patti Holte and Cindy Birdsong in the vocal group the Ordettes, who soon changed their name to the Blue Belles.

See our earlier post on Patti Labelle for more on the history of the Blue Belles and how they became Labelle in the early seventies.

For their second album Moon Shadow, released in 1972, Dash wrote the superb, funky jam “Peace With Yourself.”

Co-produced by Jack Adams and Labelle’s manager Vicki Wickham, its inspirational message made it a self-empowerment anthem for the ages.

Also on the same album was the phenomenal socially conscious jam “I Believe That I've Finally Made It Home” in which Dash traded leads with Nona Hendryx and Patti Labelle. They memorably performed it live on Ellis Haizlip’s SOUL! public television show in 1972.

After Labelle broke up in 1977, Dash recorded her self-titled solo debut album, released in 1978. Its single was the stellar disco workout “Sinner Man,” mixed by Tom Moulton, which was a club hit and reached the top ten on disco charts. It was released on Kirshner Records, the label led by Don Kirshner whose live music TV show Don Kirshner’s Rock Concert featured Labelle multiple times. Dash performed “Sinner Man” live on the show in 1978.

On that same episode, she also performed another superb track from her debut LP, the laid back disco jam “(Come And Take This) Candy From Your Baby.”

In 1983, Dash released one of the last songs ever produced by the genius synthesizer wizard Patrick Cowley. The Hi-NRG anthem “Lucky Tonight” was co-written by Cowley and featured Sylvester on backing vocals.

#soul #funk #disco #Labelle #SarahDash