Betty Wright(1953-2020)

Soul and R&B singer Betty Wright was born December 21, 1953 in Miami, Florida. She started out as a member of her family's own gospel group The Echoes of Joy and began working as a backup vocalist for other singers at age thirteen. She recorded her 1968 debut album "My First Time Around" when she was only 15 years old; this begat her first hit song, "Girls Can't Do What Guys Can Do." Betty scored her biggest and most beloved smash success with the supremely funky and sassy "Clean Up Woman," which peaked at #2 on the R&B charts and #6 on the Billboard pop charts in 1972. She won a Grammy Award for Best R&B Song for "Where Is the Love?" in 1975. Such songs as "Secretary," "Shoorah! Shoorah!," "If I Ever Do Wrong," "Tonight is the Night," and "Slip In and Do It" were all respectable hits on the R&B radio charts throughout the early to mid-1970s.

She founded her own label, Mrs. B Records, in the early 1980s. She had a major comeback hit with "No Pain No Gain" in 1988; this song reached #14 on the R&B radio charts. Moreover, her 1988 album "Mother Wit" sold a million copies and made her the first black woman to have a gold record on her own label. Wright also worked as a backup vocalist for such artists as David Byrne, Jimmy Cliff, Jennifer Lopez, Johnny Mathis, Gloria Estefan and Millie Jackson. She released the album "Fit for a King" in 2001.

Betty served as a mentor for several young singers. She also continued to record music and perform in concert. In 2007 the song "Baby," a duet with fellow R&B singer Angie Stone, climbed all the way to #22 on the R&B charts. Wright died at age 66 from cancer on May 10, 2020 in Miami, Florida.