MARRY ME, LAURA!

GONNA TAKE A MIRACLE by Laura Nyro with Labelle  (1971, Columbia)

When I was in high school, dating Cindy, every time The Fifth Dimension’s Wedding Bell Blues came on the radio, with it’s repeating plea - “MARRY ME, BILL!” -her family would tease us mercilessly. I couldn’t escape the power of that record. Later, I realized that that song was created by the ultimate singer-songwriter’s singer-songwriter, Laura Nyro, who’s other familiar hit compositions include Eli’s Coming (3 Dog Night), and And When I Die (Blood, Sweat, and Tears). Laura herself, however, remained a cult attraction. 

The benighted Nyro (born Nigro, the child of Russian-Polish parents in the Bronx) died young, like her mother, of ovarian cancer at the age of 49. Prior to the ordeals that characterized her later life, the musical atmosphere of that borough bathed the budding songsmith - (as it did Dion DiMucci) - in deep, resonating waves of doo-wop, soul, R&B, and pop. This album of covers is a trembling masterwork of tribute to those influences, assisted by the one and only Patti Labelle, who had become a sort of caretaker for the fragile Nyro. On the tour that preceded this recording Labelle would cook for her friend. 

Laura’s love life was fraught, her careerist stumbles are the stuff of legend: (Best friend David Geffen was heartbroken when she re-signed with Columbia, instead of joining him on his fledgling Asylum label), but her music remained pure, and timeless. 

This recording has always been my favorite of mine - a time traveler’s dream, since I first heard it. R&B titans Gamble and Huff oversaw the production from their seat of soul, in Philadelphia - (although, reputedly, Laura was the one fully in charge throughout the proceedings). However it came to be, GONNA TAKE A MIRACLE is a true miracle. Every cut brings tears to my eyes, and delight to my ears.