Matt Allen

Remembering Betty Wright (Monday, December 21, 1953 – Sunday, May 10, 2020) Born Bessie Regina Norris in Miami, Florida, Betty Wright came out of a deeply musical family and began singing as a child with her siblings in the gospel group “Echoes of Joy.” By her early teens, she had already moved into secular music, signing young and reaching the national charts with “Girls Can’t Do What the Guys Do,” which became her first Top 40 pop hit. Wright fully broke through with “Clean Up Woman,” written and produced by Clarence Reid and Willie Clarke, which became her signature record, reaching No. 6 on the national pop singles chart and No. 2 on the national R&B singles chart. She earned a gold certification and later, the song entered the Grammy Hall of Fame in 2021. Its guitar line and vocal attitude would echo across generations, sampled and referenced by artists from Mary J. Blige to Chance the Rapper. Her voice carried church, Soul, Funk, Miami groove, and woman-to-woman testimony all at once. Songs like “Tonight Is the Night,” “No Pain, No Gain,” “After the Pain,” and “Where Is the Love” showed her gift for turning private emotion into a public language. In 1976, “Where Is the Love” earned her the Grammy Award for Best R&B Song. Across her career, she received 1 Grammy win and 6 nominations. Betty Wright was also more than a vocalist. She was a songwriter, producer, background singer, vocal coach, mentor, and music business strategist. She was known for her use of the whistle register, her work behind the scenes with younger artists, and her role as a vocal coach on “Making the Band.” In 1985, she founded her own Ms. B Records label, and her album “Mother Wit” made history as the first gold album by a Black female artist released on her own label. Wright’s influence stretched well beyond her own recordings. She sang background for artists including Stevie Wonder, David Byrne, Erykah Badu, Peter Tosh, Alice Cooper, and others, and later collaborated with The Roots on “Betty Wright: The Movie,” whose song “Surrender” earned her final Grammy nomination in 2012. She also worked within the Recording Academy’s Florida chapter, supporting education, advocacy, diversity, and the inclusion of R&B and Hip-Hop voices. On Sunday, May 10, 2020, Betty Wright died of cancer at her home in Miami, Florida, at age 66. She left behind a catalog, a business blueprint, and a vocal tradition that still teaches artists how to sing with power, precision, and most of all, truth. Betty Wright publicity portrait, circa 1980. Photo Credit: Michael Ochs Archives

Diana Ross is a legend, but her reputation ain’t aging well, lol