Biography
Renowned among devotees of profound soul for her shattering performance of the ballad “Cry to Me,” Betty Harris came into the world in Orlando, Florida, in 1941 and grew up chiefly in Alabama. Born to preacher parents, she felt her strong church upbringing clash with her wish to sing secular soul, so at seventeen she left home to chase a stage career, spending a short time learning from R&B luminary Big Maybelle before reaching California, where she cut the 1960 single “Taking Care of Business” for the Douglas label.
Record promoter Babe Chivian urged Harris to move to New York City, assuring her an audition with Brill Building songwriter and producer Bert Berns. At that session she offered a slow, gospel-tinged version of “Cry to Me,” the uptempo hit Berns had produced for Chivian’s artist Solomon Burke.
Berns rushed Harris straight into the studio, where she finished “Cry to Me” in only three takes; Jubilee issued the track in 1963. Once it became a New York radio favorite, national exposure followed, lifting the single into the R&B Top Ten and the pop Top 40 while outselling Burke’s original. Harris soon topped the bill at the storied Apollo Theater and launched a national tour after completing her next Jubilee release, “His Kiss.” That single failed to chart, and when “Mo Jo Hannah” met the same result Berns decided to end the arrangement.
While touring in 1965 Harris encountered New Orleans composer and producer Allen Toussaint; with the sinuous “I’m Evil Tonight” she became the first artist to record for his new Sansu imprint. Under Toussaint’s guidance the bluesy ballad style of her Jubilee recordings shifted toward a funkier, more sensual sound that signaled a fresh chapter in New Orleans R&B. The 1966 ballad “Sometime” appeared backed by the taut “I Don’t Want to Hear It,” Toussaint’s sharpest and most forceful production yet. “12 Red Roses” further sharpened that approach, and with 1967’s “Nearer to You” Harris returned to the R&B Top 20 on the strength of another deeply felt performance.
The year closed with “Love Lots of Lovin’,” a duet alongside fellow Toussaint protégé Lee Dorsey; Harris intended to promote the record on tour with Otis Redding, yet on December 10 the soul giant died in a plane crash. She pressed ahead, delivering her rawest Sansu side yet with 1968’s “Mean Man.” Backed by the session musicians who would soon form the Meters, she closed her Sansu period with the intense “Trouble with My Lover,” then rejoined Toussaint for one last collaboration, the 1969 funk favorite “There’s a Break in the Road,” which SSS International released.
Finding her career stalled, Harris retired from performing in 1970. Her reputation nevertheless expanded, accompanied by unconfirmed stories that she had served as James Carr’s road manager and even driven a tractor-trailer. In truth she concentrated on raising her family; although she avoided the music business she kept singing in her church choir. After relocating to Hartford, Connecticut, in 1997 she also began giving vocal lessons. Throughout this time Harris remained unaware of the reverence her 1960s recordings had earned among soul collectors, an appreciation fueled largely by an expanded U.K. reissue of the 1969 anthology Soul Perfection.
In 2001 her daughter discovered several Betty Harris fan sites online, leading the singer to join a soul mailing list and reveal her current location. The announcement generated excitement in deep-soul circles, and Boston guitarist and producer Chris Stovall Brown soon proposed helming Harris’s first recording session in thirty-five years. On April 17, 2005, she also made her first stage appearance in more than three decades at a benefit for her daughter’s Hartford alma mater. Weeks afterward Harris performed at New Orleans’ annual Ponderosa Stomp. In 2007 she issued what was, remarkably, her debut full-length studio album, the Jon Tiven-produced Intuition. Over the next decade the Soul Jazz label reissued her 1965–1969 recordings as The Lost Queen of New Orleans Soul.
Record promoter Babe Chivian urged Harris to move to New York City, assuring her an audition with Brill Building songwriter and producer Bert Berns. At that session she offered a slow, gospel-tinged version of “Cry to Me,” the uptempo hit Berns had produced for Chivian’s artist Solomon Burke.
Berns rushed Harris straight into the studio, where she finished “Cry to Me” in only three takes; Jubilee issued the track in 1963. Once it became a New York radio favorite, national exposure followed, lifting the single into the R&B Top Ten and the pop Top 40 while outselling Burke’s original. Harris soon topped the bill at the storied Apollo Theater and launched a national tour after completing her next Jubilee release, “His Kiss.” That single failed to chart, and when “Mo Jo Hannah” met the same result Berns decided to end the arrangement.
While touring in 1965 Harris encountered New Orleans composer and producer Allen Toussaint; with the sinuous “I’m Evil Tonight” she became the first artist to record for his new Sansu imprint. Under Toussaint’s guidance the bluesy ballad style of her Jubilee recordings shifted toward a funkier, more sensual sound that signaled a fresh chapter in New Orleans R&B. The 1966 ballad “Sometime” appeared backed by the taut “I Don’t Want to Hear It,” Toussaint’s sharpest and most forceful production yet. “12 Red Roses” further sharpened that approach, and with 1967’s “Nearer to You” Harris returned to the R&B Top 20 on the strength of another deeply felt performance.
The year closed with “Love Lots of Lovin’,” a duet alongside fellow Toussaint protégé Lee Dorsey; Harris intended to promote the record on tour with Otis Redding, yet on December 10 the soul giant died in a plane crash. She pressed ahead, delivering her rawest Sansu side yet with 1968’s “Mean Man.” Backed by the session musicians who would soon form the Meters, she closed her Sansu period with the intense “Trouble with My Lover,” then rejoined Toussaint for one last collaboration, the 1969 funk favorite “There’s a Break in the Road,” which SSS International released.
Finding her career stalled, Harris retired from performing in 1970. Her reputation nevertheless expanded, accompanied by unconfirmed stories that she had served as James Carr’s road manager and even driven a tractor-trailer. In truth she concentrated on raising her family; although she avoided the music business she kept singing in her church choir. After relocating to Hartford, Connecticut, in 1997 she also began giving vocal lessons. Throughout this time Harris remained unaware of the reverence her 1960s recordings had earned among soul collectors, an appreciation fueled largely by an expanded U.K. reissue of the 1969 anthology Soul Perfection.
In 2001 her daughter discovered several Betty Harris fan sites online, leading the singer to join a soul mailing list and reveal her current location. The announcement generated excitement in deep-soul circles, and Boston guitarist and producer Chris Stovall Brown soon proposed helming Harris’s first recording session in thirty-five years. On April 17, 2005, she also made her first stage appearance in more than three decades at a benefit for her daughter’s Hartford alma mater. Weeks afterward Harris performed at New Orleans’ annual Ponderosa Stomp. In 2007 she issued what was, remarkably, her debut full-length studio album, the Jon Tiven-produced Intuition. Over the next decade the Soul Jazz label reissued her 1965–1969 recordings as The Lost Queen of New Orleans Soul.
Albums
Show It
2023
Soul Perfection
2020
Soul Jazz Records Presents Betty Harris: The Lost Queen Of New Orleans Soul
2016
Soul from the South
2015
In the Saddle
1980
Betty Harris: The Lost Queen of New Orleans Soul
1967
Singles
