BETTY HARRIS
In 2004, Betty Harris returned to the music business after a 35-year absence. I helped spearhead her career revival.
She was born Elizabeth Crews in Orlando, Florida, on September 9, 1939. About three years later, the family relocated to Alabama, where Betty’s parents founded the Pentecostal Deliverance Ministries in Dothan and Cottonwood.
By age twelve, Betty was fronting a choir that sang behind one of the biggest gospel stars of the day, Brother Joe May. She also crossed paths with Sister Rosetta Tharpe, Sam Cooke & The Soul Stirrers, the Dixie Hummingbirds, and the Five Blind Boys of Alabama (and Mississippi).
As a teen-ager, Betty moved to New York City to pursue a career in secular music. She landed a singing job at the Celebrity Club in Freeport, Long Island. This led to a meeting with Zell Sanders, the owner of J&S Records, who hired Betty to sing at a club she owned in Hempstead. Sanders also asked Betty to join the Hearts, a female doo-wop group who recorded for J&S. She sang lead on just one of their releases, 1958’s “Like Later Baby.”
Betty caught a performance at Harlem’s Apollo Theater by one of the major Rhythm & Blues stars of the day, Big Maybelle. After the show, Betty went backstage to meet her. Maybelle was impressed enough to hire the young singer for her tour. But contrary to music lore, Betty was never the woman’s maid.
During a 1962 visit to California, she cut her first solo outing, “Taking Care of Business” / “Yesterday’s Kisses,” for Douglas Records. With the label’s shoestring budget and limited distribution, Betty’s debut release did nothing.
Also in California, she met R&B star Solomon Burke and his manager, Marvin “Babe” Chivian, who recommended that Betty see writer/producer Bert Berns when she returned to New York. Upon doing so, Betty told Berns that she liked “Cry to Me,” the mid-tempo 1962 hit that he produced on Burke, but that she would have sung it slower and with even more “expression and soul.” Berns recorded the song on Betty in July 1963. The resulting single, on Jubilee Records, hit #10 R&B and #23 pop.
Betty’s next releasee, “His Kiss,” peaked at #15 R&B and #89 pop in early 1964. Despite some fine efforts, including “Mo Jo Hannah” and “Now Is the Hour,” none of Betty’s subsequent Jubilee singles made the national charts. Eventually, Bert Berns lost interest in her.
In mid-1965, Betty met the New Orleans-based writer/producer, Allen Toussaint, who flew her to the Crescent City to record for his and Marshall Sehorn’s Sansu label. Despite an excellent body of work that included the trailblazing funk jam “There’s a Break In the Road,” only one of Betty’s efforts with Toussaint, “Nearer to You,” made the national charts.
In 1969, Jubilee reissued “Cry to Me.” It spent five weeks on the R&B chart, peaking at #44. That same year, the British label, Action, came out with Soul Perfection, an anthology of Betty’s Sansu material. The album was not released in the U.S.
Tired of the endless touring, Betty Harris left the music business at the end of the ‘60s. She focused on her family, limited her singing to the church, and worked various jobs, though not—again, contrary to popular lore—as an over-the-road trucker.
At this point, I go from being a chronicler of the Betty Harris story to an active participant.
In 2004, I was doing my college radio show, The Soul Express, on WHUS at the University of Connecticut. Betty’s son, Tony Crews, e-mailed me that his mother lived in Hartford and was interested in returning to music. He asked if she could be on my show. So on Saturday night, June 19, 2004, Betty Harris visited WHUS and spent ninety minutes on the air with me. We alternated between interview segments and sets of her music.
On Sunday, April 17, 2005, she made her first live appearance since 1969 (which I hosted)—at Weaver High School in Hartford. Later that year, Betty performed in Melbourne, Australia, and returned there in November 2006. The following year, she released her debut album, Intuition.
Along with Australia, Betty has played acclaimed gigs in Spain, Italy, France, New York’s Lincoln Center, and the Ponderosa Stomp in New Orleans (among other places). Since 2020, she has lived in Miami.
Charted singles:
“Cry to Me” (1963) #10 R&B, #23 Pop
“His Kiss” (1964) R&B #15, Pop #89
“Nearer to You” (1967) R&B #16, Pop #83
“I’m a Fool for You” (1967) R&B #42, Pop #97 (Uncredited duet with James Carr)
“Cry to Me” (Reissue, 1969) R&B #44
Other notable Betty Harris recordings include "I Don't Want to Hear It," "It's Dark Outside," "Love Lots of Lovin'," "Mean Man," "Mo Jo Hannah," "Now Is the Hour," "Show It," "There's a Break in the Road," and "12 Red Roses."
