Betty Wright, Soul Singer Who Mentoreda New Generation,Dies at 66
Legendary soul singer Betty Wright dead at 66
Betty Wright, a powerful singer who had a breakout hit single when she was 17, went on to be a key player in the Miami funk sound of the 1970 s and worked closely with music stars in the following four decades, died on Sunday at her home in Miami. She was 66.
Her death was confirmed by Steve Green berg of S-Curve Records, who said Ms. Wright was found to have cancer in the fall. “She was an incredible writer, producer and mentor to young artists,” Mr. Green berg said.
Betty Wright, Grammy-Winning Soul Music Icon, Has Died At 66
Ms. Wright’s 1971 hit, “Clean Up Woman,” anticipated funk music’s transition to disco, and its syncopated, soulful sound created a template that found great chart success for the rest of the decade.
“Clean Up Woman” peaked at No. 6 on the singles chart. Though she never again matched that mainstream success, Ms. Wright remained a mainstay on the Billboard R&B chart, and as lead singer, duet partner or prominent background vocalist, placed 20 different singles in the R&B Top 40.
As recently as 2007, she was on the R&B and dance charts with “Baby,” a duet with the next-generation soul singer Angie Stone.
Betty Wright, Legendary Soul Singer, Dead at 66
“She is a superbly rhythmic vocalist, pushing against the beat and negotiating the music’s tricky rhythmic crosscurrents with ease,” Robert Palmer wrote in reviewing a 1977 show for The New York Times. “Her gospel melisma ta are employed in a conservative, musical manner, not as mannerisms or tics.”
In 2011, Ms. Wright teamed with the Philadelphia hip-hop group the Roots for an album called “Betty Wright: The Movie,” which included guest appearances by Snoop Dogg and Lil Wayne.
“Betty can lay greater claim to being the voice of ‘every woman’ than, say, Chaka or Aretha,” Nick Coleman wrote, reviewing the album for the British newspaper The Independent, referring to Chaka Khan and Aretha Franklin. James Reed, in The Boston Globe, called it “smart, probing R&B for grown-ups,
” and an extension of “the fierce, funky sound that made Wright so irresistible in the 1970s.”
