Betty Wright
Betty Wright
Bessie Regina Norris, better known by her stage name, Betty Wright, is a Miami-based soul and R&B singer-songwriter, who won fame in the 1970s with hits such as "Clean Up Woman" and "Tonight is the Night". A pioneering singer-songwriter and entrepreneur, she remains one of the few black female musicians to produce a gold record on her own vanity label...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionR&B Singer
Date of Birth21 December 1953
CityMiami, FL
CountryUnited States of America
I was in about in the 8th grade when I started recording R&B, so much of what was on was the Motown sound, and The Beatles had pretty much come over and taken America by storm.
I like televangelism shows. I find it entertaining sometimes to see how a young person would deliver the word versus a old person.
You gotta' sell a million records before you talk about getting paid at a major [label].
One thing you can't do to a fan is change their heart about somebody.
You just have to realize that no matter how delectable that meal looks, there's a chance that you might not get to eat it while it's hot.
My first love is my mother. She did so much for us as children as a single parent. I watched her make a dollar out of fifteen cents. I thought she was either a magician or she had God's actual phone number. She wasn't a motivational speaker; she was an inspirational speaker.
You get to an age where you get tired of hiding behind whatever people think is correct.
When I started out, even though you had your rhythm section, they were big horn sections, strings, live people laying on every part of the floor in the studio waiting for their chance to get on that one little track.
There have always been female artists and singers putting bands together all the time. But we were not always getting credit for that because we didn't know any better.
Sometimes when you have a song, you listen to it and say, 'It's OK. It's music to drive to.' But then there are songs where you can actually hear it as a movie.
'Pain' is more indicative of what I like to do. I'm lyric-conscious. I like to tell stories, give advice. Instead of writing a 'Dear Abby' column, I do it on records.
I'm tired of people disturbing the peace, getting on the radio and sounding a hot mess. If I can tell what the note really is, why let them go to the note they think it is? I've got that mama vibe. I don't look at it with an ego.
I would say I am viewed as the oldest teenager in my family because they say I never grow old. I mean, I am stern in my own way - I am not one to let children run over me - but I am very, very good with children, and I can usually get what I want out of them.
I used to hate sampling, but it was basically because everyone was getting paid but us. But when they began to do the legislation and get it right, I realized that the kids just did something that, if maybe we were smart enough, we would have done it as well.