BETTYE LaVETTE

Bettye LaVette wallowed in obscurity for forty years until her career finally took off in the 2000s.

She was born Betty Jo Haskins on January 29, 1946, and grew up in Detroit. From a young age, Bettye sang along with Rhythm & Blues and Country music from a juke box for the drunken revelers that came to buy corn liquor and barbecue sandwiches. (Her family earned extra money by transforming their living room into a juke joint.) She became pregnant at 14 but left the baby’s care to her mother and sister while she pursued a singing career.

At age 16, Bettye recorded “My Man—He’s a Lovin’ Man” for Atlantic. It shot up the R&B chart, going top ten at the beginning of 1963. However, after her second record flopped, in what she called “the biggest mistake of my career,” LaVette asked Atlantic to release her from her contract. By 1965, she was living in New York, where she recorded for Calla. That spring, “Let Me Down Easy” became her second single to reach the R&B top twenty. It also earned LaVette a touring gig with the James Brown Revue.

After a number of unsuccessful follow-up singles on Calla, Bettye recorded (with no further success) for the Detroit-based Karen and Big Wheel labels. In 1969, she signed with Silver Fox Records and managed a pair of top 40 R&B hits, “He Made a Woman Out of Me” and “Do Your Duty.” Enough material was recorded for an album on Silver Fox, but an LP was never released. By 1972, LaVette was back on Atlantic, for whose Atco subsidiary she recorded the album Child of the Seventies. But it, too, was never released.

LaVette’s 1975 release on Epic, “Thank You for Loving Me,” grazed the R&B chart at #94. Three years later, she recorded “Doin’ the Best That I Can” for the West End label. A two-part dance number, it was a hit on the Disco scene. After that, she temporarily gave up recording for a gig in the touring company of the hit Broadway show, Bubbling Brown Sugar. By 1982, LaVette was on Motown, which released her debut album, Tell Me a Lie.

The year 1990 saw the release of LaVette’s second album, Not Gonna Happen Twice, on the British label, Motor City. Also that year, the UK-based reissue label, Charly, put out a CD compilation on her, Nearer to You: The SSS Recordings, which included previously unissued material.

In 1999, Gilles Petard, a French soul-music enthusiast, licensed Child of the Seventies from Atlantic and released it the following year as Souvenirs on his Art and Soul label. Meanwhile, the Holland-based Munich label released Let Me Down Easy—Live in Concert. In 2002, LaVette signed with International Booking Agency, Rosebud. The following year, she signed with the Blues Express label and recorded her first album in thirteen years, A Woman Like Me. It won a W.C. Handy Award and ignited the second phase of LaVette’s career, which has included the following:

- In 2005, signing a three-album deal with ANTI- Records;
- A 2008 appearance at the Kennedy Center Honors;
- A 2009 performance at “We Are One: The Obama Inaugural Celebration at the Lincoln Memorial”;
- A 2009 appearance with Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr at Radio City Music Hall;
- Numerous guest spots on National Public Radio;
- TV appearances with David Letterman, Conan O’Brien, Craig Ferguson, and Jay Leno, not to mention Austin City Limits, The Today Show, and Good Morning America;
- Serving on the judging panels of the ninth, tenth, and eleventh Independent Music Awards; and
- A performance of Aretha Franklin’s “Ain’t No Way” at a 2017 benefit concert at Carnegie Hall celebrating the Queen of Soul, who LaVette had known since 1962.

In 2003, Betty LaVette married Kevin Kiley, a record and antiques dealer who also sings and plays music. They live in Orange, New Jersey.

In 2012, she published her autobiography, A Woman Like Me. In it, LaVette was brutally honest about her perceived mistakes, the music business, and the people she has encountered (among other topics).

To date, Bettye LaVette has received the following awards and nominations:

- W.C. Handy Award, Comeback Blues Album of the Year (A Woman Like Me), 2004
- Rhythm & Blues Foundation’s Pioneer Award, 2006
- Grammy nomination, Best Contemporary Blues Album (The Scene of the Crime), 2007
- Blues Music Award, Best Contemporary Female Blues Singer, 2008
- Grammy nomination, Best Contemporary Blues Album (Interpretations: The British Rock Songbook), 2011
- Blues Music Award nominations, Contemporary Blues Female Artist, 2013 and 2014
- Grammy nomination, Best Blues Album (Worthy), 2016
- Blues Music Award, Soul Blues Female Artist of the Year, 2016
- Inducted into the Detroit Rhythm & Blues Hall of Fame, 2016
- Unsung Award from the National Rhythm & Blues Music Society, 2016
- Inducted into the Michigan Rock and Roll Legends Hall of Fame, 2018
- Grammy nomination, Best Americana Album (Things Have Changed), 2019
- Grammy nomination, Best Traditional R&B Performance (“Don’t Fall Apart on Me Tonight”), 2019
- Blues Music Award, Soul Blues Female Artist of the Year, 2020
- Inducted into the Blues Hall of Fame, 2020.

No longer an unsung hero of soul, Bettye LaVette has finally gained the recognition she deserves.

Charted singles:

“My Man—He’s a Lovin’ Man” (as Betty LaVett, 1962-63) R&B #7, Pop #101
“Let Me Down Easy” (1965) R&B #20, Pop #103
“He Made a Woman Out of Me” (1969) R&B #25
“Do Your Duty” (1970) R&B #38
“Thank You For Loving Me” (1975) R&B #94
“Right in the Middle (Of Falling in Love)” (1982) R&B #35, Pop #103