Condolences: Betty Wright
• Legendary soul and R&B singer Betty Wright, known for such classics as “Tonight Is the Night,” “No Pain, (No Gain)” and her biggest hit, “Clean Up Woman,” died Sunday of cancer at her home in Miami at the age of 66, according to Billboard and other sources.
Born Bessie Regina Norris in Miami in 1953, Wright started her music career when she was only two years old, singing with her family’s gospel group, Echoes of Joy. As Variety reports, Wright switched from gospel to R&B when she was 11 and began performing at local talent shows. A year later she was signed to Deep City Records. Her debut album, My First Time Around, was released when she was 14 and included the Top 40 hit, “Girls Can’t Do What the Guys Do.”
Wright’s big breakthrough came with her iconic single, “Clean Up Woman,” which was released in 1971. It reached No. 6 on theBillboard Hot 100, sold over a million copies and would go on to be sampled by numerous artists, including Mary J. Blige, Afrika Bambaataa and Sublime. By the mid-’70s, Wright had scored big with “Tonight Is the Night” and “Where Is the Love,” the later co-written with Harry Wayne Casey and Richard Finch from KC & the Sunshine Band, which garnered Wright a Grammy for Best R&B Song.
In the ’80s, Wright launched her own record label, Ms. B Records, and released the album Mother Wit, featuring “No Pain (No Gain).” In 2003, she co-produced Joss Stone’s album The Soul Sessions (S-curve Records), a collection of classic R&B songs. In 2005, she was nominated for a Grammy for Best Pop Album for co-producing Stone’s Mind Body & Soul album. The following year Wright was introduced to a whole new generation of fans when she appeared on Sean “P Diddy” Combs‘ reality show Making the Band, mentoring the group Danity Kane. In 2011, she teamed up with The Roots for the collaborative album, Betty Wright: The Movie, her first album in a decade, which featured guest appearances by Lil Wayne, Snoop Dogg and Joss Stone. The track “Surrender” received a Grammy nomination for Best Traditional R&B Performance.
