Betty Wright ~ Clean Up Woman 1971 Soul Purrfection Version

Bessie Regina Norris was born December 21, 1953 in Miami, Florida, the youngest of seven children. She was only two when the family formed a gospel group called Echoes Of Joy and she sang lead vocals on their first album issued in 1956. The Echoes of Joy disbanded in 1965.

Now known as Betty Wright she moved on to Soul and R&B, competing in local talent shows when she was signed to Deep City Records in 1966 and a few singles became local hits.

The following year she discovered George and Gwen McCrae and got them signed to Alston a subsidiary of TK Records releasing her first LP "My First Time Around" that gave her two local hits.

"Clean Up Woman" was written by Clarence Reid and Willie Clarke and she was 17 when she recorded it in 1971. It peaked at #1 R&B for eight weeks! It crossed over to the Hot100 peaking at #6 and sold a million copies spending a total of fourteen weeks.

In 1974 she released "Danger! High Voltage!" that contained her most successful composition, "Tonight Is The Night"

She had trouble maintaining the momentum and did not have another Top10 hit until 1978 when Peter Brown sang "Dance With Me" that peaked at #8. He was another of her discoveries. She did have a #2 disco hit with "Where Is The Love" in 1975 written by Harry Wayne Casey and Richard Finch from KC & The Sunshine Band. It won her a Grammy for Best R&B Song.

Also in 1978, she sang with Alice Cooper on "No Tricks" and also opened for Bob Marley in 1979. She left Alston and moved to Epic Records which garnered her a hit with the Stevie Wonder written "What Are You Going To Do With It" in 1981. Seven years later she made history as the first black female artist to score a gold album on her own label with 1987's "Mother Wit" with hit R&B singles "No Pain, No Gain" and "After The Pain2 with both song going Top 20 R&B.

She remade Champaign's 1981 hit with Grayson Hugh, "How Bout Us" and continued to release music and reinforcing her claim as a great live act. She passed from cancer on May 10, 2020 at the age of 66. Just two days earlier, Chaka Khan tweeted on Twitter with "Calling all my #PrayWarriors. My beloved sister, Betty Wright @MsBettyWright, is now in need of all your prayers."

Her music is rightly praised, cherished and protected copyright infringement when Color Me Badd used a sample of her live performance for "I Wanna Sex You Up" and won the case being accorded 35% of the song's royalties in perpetuity.