Why did Nona Hendryx's solo career not take off?

[BobC]

Hi Guys

I'm a big Nona Hendryx fan and think she is not only a great singer, but also a great song-writer. Even today I am astonished that songs like "I Need Love" and "Women Who Fly" were not enormous hits--since anyone I played them for went out and bought them. I almost never heard Nona on the radio, with the exception of "Why Should I Cry" and even that was seldom. Any ideas why Nona never got that big hit?

[GeeTee(HPK)]

That's a good question, BobC. I'm a fan of her solo material,also. Probably she's a head of her time musically. I did hear some of her music played on radio,and even seen a few of her videos on TV.

[BobC]

I read somewhere that "I Need Love" was one of the first black videos ever played on MTV, but it got yanked almost immediately because drag queens were in the video. I wonder if maybe Nona's gay following was too extreme for middle America at the time. or maybe her image was too much.

[GeeTee(HPK)]

I don't know ... B.E.T. aired her videos.

[luke]

As to a lesser degree with Labelle, Nona couldnt be pigeonholed-funk, rock, soul...and as said above she probably scared middle America back then. What a talent. And I also dont understand why she/Labelle havent even been nominated for Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Nona/Labelle write many of their own songs, were trendsetters, spectacular perfomrers etc etc etc

[jsmith]

Her solo stuff was to rock for soul fans ... and too funk for rock fans.
So next to nobody bought it, so it bombed commercially. End of.

[jobeterob]

Lots of talented people dont make it. You have to be in the right time at the right place and be something special.

When a group breaks up, it's often because things have not gone well and the success has declined.........just about every group breaks up then. And that was Labelle too.

Often the only really successful person to come out of a group is the lead singer and Nona was not identified as that in Labelle. And often the lead singer doesn't last long.

[splanky]

I thought Nona did reasonably well post Labelle. No, she didn't become as big as Patti or a post Rufus Chaka Khan but
she had some hits and quality work. I especially liked her I Sweat [[Going Through The Motions), her cameo on Cameo's
Don't Be So Cool, and her song Baby Go Go written by Prince and featuring Mavis Staples and George Clinton. She also
recorded a duets album with Billy Vera. Still, she did have some very rough spots in her career and at one point, like several
other female artists in the business, a breakdown. Luckily she recovered and though she was rude to me when I met her
more than 10 years ago, I understood where she was coming from and I've forgiven her...

[motony]

being rude to real fans doesn't make any sense.Glad the artists I always loved were genuinely nice & warm just like they came across on record.

[luke]

Cindy Birdsong said that at R and B Hall of Fame Nona was very quiet. She indicated she didnt take this personally but as part of Nona's personality. [[Though I also agree with motony and no excuse for rudeness).

[splanky]

You know now I'm sorry I mentioned my encounter with Nona because I'd forgotten for a moment that there are many
so-called fans and fan club presidents that think their objects of affection have no rights of privacy and that they, the fan, should be privy to every aspect of the artist's life...

[BobC]

Nona's always been extremely sweet towards me--but stars are people and they have bad days just like the rest of us.

Re: Cindy, and Nona being "very quiet" at the R & B Hall of Fame--I find it a bit odd that Nona is picked out as being "quiet" [[Nona, despite her image, is actually very quiet and low key) when it was Patti and Sarah that got into it at that awards show. I wasn't there, but I heard that Patti was basically running the show, and didn't introduce the individual members--so Sarah decided she was going to. Patti turned to her, onstage, and said something to the effect of "See? This is why we didn't used to get along." Sarah was in tears and even did a TV spot crying, saying "she didn't know why Patti acted that way."

Although I have never asked Nona her take on this incident, I would imagine that it was embarrassing to her, and Nona has never been a big one for dredging up the past anyway. The Bluebelles are a million miles away from where Nona went, musically--so maybe she did this show just to acknowledge her past, and to be there for her past band-mates. That doesn't mean she was "into it."

Ironically, when Labelle did their reunion tour in 2008, Sarah took the spotlight at one show and started paying tribute to Cindy Birdsong--giving props to the bluebelles. Patti walked off the stage, and sort of turned around and stared at Sarah until she was finished. I'm not saying Patti walked off the stage because of Sarah's homage to Cindy or the Bluebelles--she was already leaving, but it was quite clear that Patti was not expecting Sarah to go into that monologue.

Patti has a bad habit of telling people, including reporters, what she thinks they want to hear and that sometimes causes a lot of problems and hard feelings. She also has a very creative memory [[read Gladys Knight's book and see the totally different version of events that Gladys saw from her viewpoint regarding the "Superwoman" tour she did with Patti and Dionne Warwick). Back in the 90's Patti told reporters over and over again that Labelle was reuniting for an album and tour--and neither Nona not Sarah knew anything about it. It took well over a decade for it to happen--and it came to be only because Nona called Patti and said they either had to do the record and tour, or stop talking about it. So they did it. The weirdest part of Patti's incessant claims of a reunited Labelle was her mentioning several times that Cindy Birdsong was going to be a part of it. It wasn't true--it was never even discussed. Cindy was never in Labelle, and the way she left didn't help matters--although I sincerely doubt any of the Labelle women holds a grudge at this point. That would be ridiculous. Obviously Sarah doesn't hold a grudge.

[luke]

Intersting! On one of the talk shows during reunion Sarah made some comment that Nona and Patti get on her about something-couildnt hear it all but I think it was that she tended to talk a lot sometimes. Sarah said she has learned to not let it bother her. There were a number of reports that Nona had stopped talking to Cindy at least up to the Rand B Hall of Fame. I saw their first reunion show at Apollo and others performances on youtube and it sure seemed like Nona and Patti had a connection but Sarah seemed like odd one out.

[motony]

LOL, and ya'll think the Supremes are bad or had arguements & issues.

[jobeterob]

You know reading this kind of BS makes me think any of these women that truly have a beef at this stage need a fairly big dildo..........

And the fans that buy into it, be they Supremes, Labelle, Beach Boys or Beatle fans, need similar assistance.

[BobC]

Hope you aren't referring to me--I have never once pried into the personal lives of any of them. Everything I've posted here has already been in the press.

One of the reasons I love reading show-biz memoirs is that I like to see how fame changes people. I find that fascinating.

[jobeterob]

Heavens no. Not referring to anyone in particular.

It's just when I read that stuff about how bad the bitterness can be and how it infects a few fans, it makes me shake my head. I hadn't realized it was quite that bad in Labelle too although you definitely hear about Patti Labelle having a big head and ego; but she ain't no match for Aretha!

[mr_june]

Here is a Nona story. Back in the late 70's I drove a cab for the Yellow Cab Company. I was at Ohare airport and unknowingly picked up Nona and her a couple of other folks and took them to some hotel in down town Chicago. I dropped them off and picked up another fare who told me that someone left a purse in the cab. I took it back to the hotel and gave it to someone [[can't remember if it was Nona or someone else). In return I got a complimentary ticket to see the show that night. I remember the show being very good and particularly remember Nona wearing those thigh high boots that she known to wear. I wound up sitting next to a Sun-Times reporter who was covering the show. I told him how I got to see the show but he didn't seem too enthused about it. I guess I thought he might find a way to use it in the review like some writers do. As for Nona, this happened when she was on her own and not with La Belle.

[carlo]

You know reading this kind of BS makes me think any of these women that truly have a beef at this stage need a fairly big dildo..........

Uhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh??????????

[BobC]

June--good story--here's one of mine. I went to see Nona in 1981 before she got kinda popular. She was playing a tiny club in Rochester NY and there was this huge blizzard going on. I am talking complete white-out and 10 below zero--you know, typical upstate NY Indian Summer weather. I got to the club really early, and only one person was in front of me in line--this tiny, four ft tall person wearing one of those old airline pilot hats that you wear under a helmet , you know with ear flaps. This person was yapping on and on and on with the doorman as I was freezing to death and I was about to throttle her with her own ear flaps! After what seemed like five hrs later with hypothermia setting in, this woman finally went into the club. I was swearing under my breath, went inside, and immediately the yapster in front of me turned around--it was Nona! It was her the whole time! I was so shocked, not only because it was her but because she was so tiny as compared to how she looks on TV, that all I could think to say was "You're Nona Hendryx."

"Yes," she replied, simply....