“Betty Harris has a good claim to soul supremacy. Superlavtives are dangerous and silly but for my money, if risks are to be taken, she is quite simply the best soul singer caught on wax to date”, wrote Clive Anderson in his “Soul Book” from 1975, and many soul fans still agree with him today.
Born on September 9th, 1943 in Orlando, Florida, mostly raised in Alabama, Betty Harris discovered music at an early age. As many other soul and funk artists, she had her start in the church, where she got the opportunity to sing lead once with legendary gospel singer Brother Joe May at the young age of 12. Influenced by the sound of BB King and Bobby Blue Bland, she soon developed an interest in secular music. She decided to leave Alabama to try her luck in New York City, soon finding work as a night club singerbefore being chosen by producer Zell Sanders (of Sally Go Round The Roses fame) as a member of girl group the Hearts. After her short stint as a member of the stints, she came under the wings of legendary R&B singer Big Maybelle, who mentored her and helped her find her own voice.
After a one-off (and now highly collectable) single on a small label out of California, Betty got her big break when she was invited to perform her own arrangement of Solomon Burke’s Cry To Me in front of producer Bert Berns. Feeling a deep connection with the lyrics, Betty had completely reworked Burke’s upbeat original into a slow burning blues ballad. Bert Berns loved what he heard, and Cry To Me, issued by Jubilee records, became Betty’s first hit single, making both the R&B charts and the Hot 100 ! It was followed by two other singles for Jubilee, before Betty was spotted during a gig at the Apollo by producer Allen Toussaint.
From 1965 to 1969, Toussaint would go on to write and produce eleven singles with Betty Harris, generally featuring the backing of quintessential funk group The Meters. These include funk workouts such as the irresistible There’s A Break In The Road and Love Lots Of Loving (a duet with Toussaint protégé Lee Dorsey), as well as several ballads who have now become classics in the deep soul field such as Nearer To You, What’d I Do Wrong and Can’t Last Much Longer, which, in the words of Barney Hoskins in his book “Say it one more time for the brokenhearted”, “revealed a singer of incredibly raw intensity”. A LP collecting 16 of those sides was issued in the UK in 1969 under the adequate title “Soul perfection”.
During this era, Betty also toured with many of the biggest soul stars, sharing the stage with legendary performers such as Otis Redding, Johnnie Taylor, Percy Sledge, James Carr, The Drifters and Arthur Conley. She was also the uncredited duet partner of James Carr on his I’m A Fool For You single.
Disillusioned and unhappy with the business side of music, she decided to put an end to her singing career in 1970. Although she seemed to vanish from the musical scene from that time, her music stayed popular, getting new generations of fans with each passing decade and earning her the title of “Lost Soul Queen of New Orleans” ! There is virtually no compilation of New Orleans soul or funk that does not include at least one of her recordings, and her picture was even used on the cover of the second volume of Soul Jazz Records’ acclaimed New Orleans Funk compilation.
Wild rumours as to her whereabouts abounded during those years, but Betty herself decided to break the silence in 2003. Since then, she has been back on the soul scene, touring the US, Europe and Australia and performing in prestigious places such as New York City’s Lincoln Centre, New Orleans’ Ponderosa Stomp extravaganza and Italy’s Sweet Soul Music Festival. She also got back in the recording studio with producer noted Jon Tiven in 2006 for an album called “Intuition” that was released by Evidence Records in 2007. Recent years have seen her touring all over the world, sometimes with Nashville funk band The Dynamites, sounding stronger than ever and always ready to share with her fans the music that has made her one if the most respected singer in the soul and funk field !
There is only one Betty Harris !