Patti LaBelle released the ballad “You Are My Friend” in 1978. The song was included on her first solo album after leaving the band LaBelle, known for their classic hit, “Lady Marmalade.”
“You Are My Friend” became one of LaBelle’s signature songs, which she frequently performs at concerts. She even performed it at her mother’s funeral in 1978. However, it never reached No. 1 on the charts. It peaked at 61 on the Billboard Hot Soul Singles chart.
“You Are My Friend” was written after LaBelle read a journal entry written by her husband, Armstead Edwards. He had scribbled the words in his journal after an emotional day with their son, Zuri. Noticing he was upset, his son tried comforting him by stroking his forehead and saying, “It’s okay, Daddy. You my friend.”
When LaBelle eventually read the entry along with her musical director, James “Budd” Ellison, her husband was furious. “We had no right to invade his privacy,” LaBelle said in Don’t Block The Blessings: Revelations Of A Lifetime, her 1996 autobiography. “Later, when Armstead cooled off, we all wound up agreeing that his words were the makings of a beautiful song. While I was in the kitchen cooking, Budd was at the piano composing. By the time we finished dinner, the three of us had finished the song Zuri inspired: ‘You Are My Friend.'”
Her son, Zuri, is now her business manager. As she told Philly Mag, “I trust him, and it’s wonderful. We have lots of fights — he’ll tell me I shouldn’t wear something I want to wear, or he’ll tell me not to try something I want to try. Do this. Don’t do that. But I usually win.”
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LaBelle had other hits over her career, including “If Only You Knew,” “Stir It Up,” and “New Attitude.” She has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame and was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame.
LaBelle is currently 82. She is still actively touring across the United States.
