| I'm In Love Again | ||||
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| Studio album by Patti LaBelle | ||||
| Released | November 21, 1983 | |||
| Recorded | 1981 (tracks 1, 3, 4, 5, 7) 1983 (tracks 2, 6, 8) |
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| Genre | R&B, pop | |||
| Length | 38:41 | |||
| Label | Philadelphia International/CBS | |||
| Producer | Kenny Gamble, Leon Huff, Bunny Sigler, Cecil Womack, Dexter Wansel, Cynthia Biggs Joseph Jefferson | |||
| Patti LaBelle chronology | ||||
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I'm In Love Again is the sixth solo album released by singer Patti LaBelle in late 1983. Featuring the hits "If Only You Knew" and "Love, Need and Want You", this album is credited with reviving the singer's career after years of chart struggles on both the pop and R&B charts.
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Patti LaBelle had endured a 20-year recording career, full of marginal highs and lows, only achieving major success once, as lead singer of the pop-funk trio Labelle. By 1981, she had recorded five studio albums as a solo artist starting with her self-titled debut in 1977, but failed to win a successful hit on either the pop and R&B charts. LaBelle's fifth solo album - her first release with Philadelphia International Records, the rushed The Spirit's In It, failed to win new fans even though she was getting rave reviews for her live performances.
By 1983, Philadelphia International and LaBelle were in the midst of searching through material to put on the singer's next release. At the time, LaBelle was working on the Broadway play, Your Arms Too Short to Box with God, and was also working on two more plays, For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide When the Rainbow Is Enuf and Working (both would be seen on PBS), as well as filming her role on A Soldier's Story, which would be released in 1984. LaBelle had also gained headlines when, at the end of 1981, she decided to do plastic surgery on her nose, which she said initially was to "sing higher notes". Due to these changes, LaBelle only recorded intermittently between 1982 and 1983.
PIR assembled a list of recordings dating back to 1981 to fill in the set list of her next album. Among the most notable of the 1981 recordings was a string-laden, keyboard heavy pop ballad titled "If Only You Knew". Kenny Gamble decided to include it on the album because he felt the song "had potential to be a really big hit". Few other inclusions were the Bunny Sigler pop ballad, "Love, Need and Want You" and the country-tinged Cecil Womack ballad, "Love Bankrupt". Prior to the album's release, LaBelle returned to Sigma Sound Studios in 1983 to record three additional songs including the mid-tempo R&B number, "When Am I Gonna Find True Love", the synthpop-flavored "I'll Never, Never Give Up", an early predecessor to LaBelle's later breakthrough pop hit, "New Attitude", and a cover of the jazz standard, "Lover Man (Oh Where Can You Be?)".
A notable song that was originally included on the set-list but then taken off was the pop ballad, "Hero", which was recorded by LaBelle in 1982.
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| Source | Rating |
| Allmusic | [1] |
| Rolling Stone | [2] |
I'm In Love Again was released in November 1983. The album received critical success and later commercial success after the album became LaBelle's first to chart the top 40 of the Billboard 200, peaking at number-forty and reaching number-four on the R&B albums chart, her highest to date at the time. With sales of over 500,000 copies, I'm in Love Again was certified gold by the Recording Industry Association of America by the end of 1984.
The album launched two singles - "If Only You Knew" and "Love, Need and Want You". The former track reached number-one on the R&B singles chart - LaBelle's first to do so, while also reaching the lower regions of the top 50 on the Billboard Hot 100 peaking at a respective number 46. "Love, Need and Want You" peaked at number ten on the R&B singles chart though it never crossed over to pop charts. The first song's b-side, "I'll Never, Never Give Up" was only a minor hit on the dance charts.