Gonna Take a Miracle [Expanded] [Remaster]

Performer: Laura Nyro
Engineer: Ellen Fitton; Seth Foster; Tim Geelan
Producer: Kenny Gamble; Leon Huff; Gamble & Huff; Al Quaglieri (Reissue)
Distributor: Sony Music Distribution (

Notes: Personnel includes: Laura Nyro (vocals, piano); Roland Chambers, Norman Harris (guitar); Lenny Pakula (organ); Ronnie Baker (bass); Jim Helmer (drums); Larry Washington, Nydia Mata (bongos, congas). LaBelle: Patti LaBelle, Nona Hendryx, Sarah Dash (vocals). Recorded in 1971. Bonus tracks recorded live at Fillmore East, New York, New York on May 30, 1971. Includes liner notes by Amy Linden. All tracks have been digitally remastered. Personnel: Laura Nyro (vocals, piano); Nona Hendryx, Patti LaBelle, Sarah Dash (vocals); Norman Harris, Roland Chambers (guitar); Lenny Pakula (organ); Jim Helmer (drums); Nydia Mata, Larry Washington (congas, bongos); Vince Montana (percussion). Audio Mixer: Jack Adams. Liner Note Author: Amy Linden. Recording information: Sigma Sound, Philadelphia, PA (1971). Photographers: Stephen Paley; David Gahr; Jim Cummins. For Nyro, a native New Yorker who grew up on the sounds of girl groups and R&B, GONNA TAKE A MIRACLE was a return to her roots. While she made her name as a visionary songwriter on a par with Joni Mitchell or Neil Young, she was also a gifted interpreter of other people's songs. This is where she proved it, covering classic pop and R&B tunes like "Nowhere To Run," "Spanish Harlem" and "You've Really Got a Hold On Me." As she paid tribute to her influences, she was aided by the soulful backing vocals of LaBelle and the production of Philly soul masterminds Gamble and Huff. With the 1971 release Gonna Take a Miracle, pop composer and vocalist Laura Nyro completed her four-album/four-year deal for Columbia. Nyro's passion for R&B can be traced back to some of her earliest compositions, such as "Wedding Bell Blues" and "Stoned Soul Picnic" -- both of which were covered by the R&B vocal quintet the Fifth Dimension. More recently, her version of "Up on the Roof" was one of the highlights of Christmas and the Beads of Sweat. So, enthusiasts who had paid any attention at all to the course of Nyro's career would not have been surprised by her direction on this project. As much as Gonna Take a Miracle is indeed a Laura Nyro album, it could likewise, and perhaps more accurately, be described as a collaborative effort between Nyro and the female soul trio LaBelle -- featuring Patti LaBelle, Nona Hendryx, and Sarah Dash -- as well as producers Kenny Gamble and Leon Huff. It is ultimately this team that is responsible for the album's overwhelmingly solid results. Leading off in an apropos style is a succulent cover of the Shirelles hit "I Met Him on a Sunday." The vocal performance is structured as a round -- with each woman singing a consecutive line. The song is rightfully returned to the street corner doo wop tradition from which it originated with the simplicity of unadorned vocals creating an inconspicuous a cappella symphony. Nyro has never sounded so comfortable, easy, or "in her element" than she does backed by an all-star Philly soul ensemble that Gamble and Huff assembled for these sessions. The material reaches beyond just the sounds of Philadelphia, with Motown ("You've Really Got a Hold on Me" and "Nowhere to Run") and Brill Building ("Spanish Harlem"), as well as lesser-known covers of the Charts' "Desiree" and the Baltimore-based Royalettes "It's Gonna Take a Miracle." In 2002, Sony/Legacy issued an "expanded and remastered edition" of this album, including four "bonus tracks": "Ain't Nothin' Like the Real Thing," "(You Make Me Feel Like) A Natural Woman," "O-o-h Child," and "Up on the Roof" -- all of which are previously unissued live solo performances. ~ Lindsay Planer

Rolling Stone (1/20/72, p.49) - "...She touches on quite a divergent span while remaining faithful to a single, very individual vision...GONNA TAKE A MIRACLE succeeds..." -Lenny Kaye Q (10/02, p.131) - 3 stars out of 5 - "...Has Nyro letting her hair down on such street corner teen anthems as 'Jimmy Mack' and 'Spanish Harlem'. Always a woman apart."

Laura Nyro was one of the true innovators of 1960s pop, an influential singer-songwriter who merged jazz, gospel, R&B, and girl-group sounds and created an oeuvre that was both highly sophisticated and instantly accessible. Although she wrote several classic and somewhat straight-ahead songs for others in the `60s and `70s ("And When I Die" for Blood, Sweat & Tears and "Stoney End" for Barbra Steisand, among many others), her solo work was notable for its eccentricity, with unusual lyrics, shifting time signatures, and a deeply confessional nature. After her initial prolificacy, Nyro recorded only sporadically through the `80s and `90s, and passed away in 1997.

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