Betty Wright, Soul Singer Who Mentored a New Generation, Dies at 66
She had her first hit, “Clear Up Girl,” when she was solely 17 and have become a key participant within the Miami funk sound of the 1970s.
Betty Wright, a strong singer who had a breakout hit single when she was 17, went on to be a key participant within the Miami funk sound of the 1970s and labored intently with music stars within the following 4 a long time, died on Sunday at her residence in Miami. She was 66.
Her demise was confirmed by Steve Greenberg of S-Curve Information, who mentioned Ms. Wright was discovered to have most cancers within the fall. “She was an unbelievable author, producer and mentor to younger artists,” Mr. Greenberg mentioned.
Ms. Wright’s 1971 hit, “Clear Up Girl,” anticipated funk music’s transition to disco, and its syncopated, soulful sound created a template that discovered nice chart success for the remainder of the last decade.
“Clear Up Girl” peaked at No. 6 on the singles chart. Although she by no means once more matched that mainstream success, Ms. Wright remained a mainstay on the Billboard R&B chart, and as lead singer, duet accomplice or distinguished background vocalist, positioned 20 totally different singles within the R&B Prime 40.
As not too long ago as 2007, she was on the R&B and dance charts with “Baby,” a duet with the next-generation soul singer Angie Stone.
“She is a perfectly rhythmic vocalist, pushing in opposition to the beat and negotiating the music’s difficult rhythmic crosscurrents with ease,” Robert Palmer wrote in reviewing a 1977 present for The New York Occasions. “Her gospel melismata are employed in a conservative, musical method, not as mannerisms or tics.”
In 2011, Ms. Wright teamed with the Philadelphia hip-hop group the Roots for an album known as “Betty Wright: The Film,” which included visitor appearances by Snoop Dogg and Lil Wayne.
“Betty can lay higher declare to being the voice of ‘each girl’ than, say, Chaka or Aretha,” Nick Coleman wrote, reviewing the album for the British newspaper The Impartial, referring to Chaka Khan and Aretha Franklin. James Reed, in The Boston Globe, known as it “sensible, probing R&B for grown-ups,” and an extension of “the fierce, funky sound that made Wright so irresistible within the 1970s.”
Ms. Wright had an everlasting profession as a songwriter, arranger and producer. She labored with, amongst others, Stevie Surprise, Stephen Stills, David Byrne, Alice Cooper, Jennifer Lopez, Erykah Badu, Bob Marley, Gloria Estefan and Miami Sound Machine, Keyshia Cole, P. Diddy, Kelly Clarkson and Nas.
She was generally known as an adviser to a brand new technology of soul artists, serving to to supply albums by the British singer Joss Stone, carrying on a legacy of mentorship that started in her profession’s early days. As a teen, she helped George and Gwen McCrae signal with Alston Information; within the late 1970s she gave a lift to Peter Brown’s profession and sang backing vocals on his hit “Dance With Me.”
Bessie Regina Norris was born on Dec. 21, 1953, in Miami, the youngest of seven kids. She started singing professionally when she was 2, within the Echoes of Pleasure, a gospel group her siblings had based.
In 1978, Dick Clark interviewed Ms. Wright on “American Bandstand.” When he requested if she’d been a “church singer,” she replied: “Completely. I nonetheless am.”
