Bettye Swann

Born Betty Jean Champion on October 24, 1944, in Shreveport, Louisiana, Southern soul chanteuse Bettye Swann achieved her greatest renown with the 1967 R&B chart-topper “Make Me Yours.” She first appeared in the early 1960s as a member of the Fawns, then launched her solo career in 1964 on the independent Los Angeles label Money with the Carolyn Franklin-penned “Don’t Wait Too Long,” the initial entry in a string of Arthur Wright-produced singles. “The Man That Said No” and “The Heartache Is Gone” arrived in 1965, and two years later Swann resurfaced with the exquisite “Make Me Yours,” which also supplied the title of her debut album. Three further Money singles—“Fall in Love With Me,” “Don’t Look Back,” and “I Think I’m Falling in Love”—appeared in 1967, while the next year she advanced to Capitol with “My Heart Is Closed for the Season.” The follow-up, “Don’t Touch Me,” opened her second album, The Soul View Now; 1969 brought Don’t You Ever Get Tired of Hurting Me?, spotlighting the minor hit “Little Things Mean a Lot.” After the one-off Fame single “I’m Just Living a Lie” in 1971, Swann moved to Atlantic, where her label debut “Victim of a Foolish Heart” reached the R&B Top 20 in 1972 and was later revived by blue-eyed soul upstart Joss Stone. Her next Atlantic single, “I’d Rather Go Blind,” gained attention chiefly for its B-side, a reading of Merle Haggard’s “Today I Started Loving You Again” that confirmed her gift as a country-soul interpreter; 1973’s “Yours Until Tomorrow” appeared with another Nashville cover, Tammy Wynette’s “Til I Get It Right.” In 1974 she reentered the lower reaches of the Billboard Hot 100 with “The Boy Next Door,” whose flip side, “Kiss My Love Goodbye,” placed her in Philly soul territory under the production of the Young Professionals team of LeBaron Taylor, Phil Hurtt, and Tony Bell. With 1975’s “All the Way In or All the Way Out” she again registered minor chart success, yet further recording sessions remain undocumented and Swann gradually receded from view.