R.I.P. - Betty Wright

I have just learned that Betty Wright died on 10 May 2020 aged only 66 from cancer.  There is a comprehensive tribute by Mark Savage at BBC News and another here at The Guardian.

I will update this post later with a sample of her best work (as it will take some time to do her full justice with 6 decades of work to select from, releasing 20 albums between 1968 to 2011) but for now the one that immediately springs to mind is 'Life' written by her brother Milton Wright

I've just checked the UK charts and it's criminal that she had only 2 UK Top 40 hits! Shoorah Shoorah #27 and Where Is The Love #25 from 1975 with her only other chart entries being Pain #42 1986 and Keep Love New #71 1989.  Her biggest US hit Clean Up Woman #6 BB 100 #2 R&B didn't even make the UK top 100.

Betty Wright [1976] - Life [Alston 3275]

A Modern Soul classic

The Betty Wright Story by Mike Boone The Chancellor  of Soul

Betty Wright Live @ Hammersmith Odeon 1992 - Full Show 90 mins

A fitting tribute - the full performance in London in 1992

Betty Wright [1974] - Tonight Is The Night [Live on Soul Train]

A more recent performance from 3 Jun 2017 on a one night only 'Woman To Woman' gig which was to feature Barbara Mason & Shirley Brown but unfortunately the latter had to cancel due to a fall after a concert in Detroit.

A year earlier Apr 2016 in Amsterdam with a long rap intro where she raps about the song being ripped off by Color Me Badd  See for yourself here.

Betty Wright [1971] - Clean Up Woman [Live on Mike Douglas Show]

And here she is performing at North Sea Jazz in 2012 looking fit and healthy.  What an evil disease cancer is - I lost my brother in law on 11 Mar less than 4 weeks after diagnosis on 16 Feb  ... and what made things even worse was because of COVID-19 we were only allowed 10 at funeral as it was the week of lockdown in UK.