Check this out, y'all:
My name is Selwyn Crews and I am the son of Betty Harris. Sir, This weekend we came across your webpage and decided to contact you and let you know that she is alive and well. My mother was thrilled to see your page and like so many other sites, you've printed what you where able to find.
We are currently living in Hartford Ct. and have been for a while now, and as you are problably aware, there is a ton of "misinfomation" out there about her. In an joint effort to correct this we would be willing to give you the first opportunity to have an on air interview and talk about some of the upcoming performances that she is currently invovled.
We are in the process of developing a web page and look forward to being able to answer many of the question that fans have asked.
Needless to say, I fully intend to have Betty Harris on my radio show! :bounce:
For those unfamiliar with Ms. Harris, here's what I've written about her on my website:
BETTY HARRIS
Unfortunately, not much is known about the woman who recorded one of the first Deep Soul ballads to enjoy any real success on the pop charts. What is known, however, is that Betty Harris was born in Orlando, Florida, in 1943. Her parents were the Reverend R.C. Crews, and his missionary wife, who was from Dothan, Alabama.
While in her teens, Harris was chosen to work as a maid for R&B star Big Maybelle. Knowing that Betty wanted to be a singer, Maybelle gave her some tutoring in blues technique, and eventually invited her to perform the occasional duet. This gave Harris the confidence she needed to launch her own career, which led to an early-1963 meeting with Solomon Burke and his manager. They recommended Betty to Burke’s producer, Bert Berns. The result was a recording contract with Jubilee Records.
Her first and biggest hit, "Cry To Me," was written by Berns under his writing pseudonym Bert Russell. (His full name was Bertram Russell Bernstein.) With Jerry Wexler, he had produced the original hit version of "Cry To Me" with Solomon Burke on Atlantic in 1962. Berns decided that the song could hit again with a female vocalist. He worked on a new arrangement with Garry Sherman, slowing the tempo down and giving Betty plenty of room to beg, plead and wail her way through the soulful lyrics. The single climbed to #23 pop and #10 R&B in the early autumn of 1963. And "Cry To Me" made the R&B top forty again when Freddie Scott cut it in 1967. (Berns also produced that version of the song!)
Harris’ follow-up, "His Kiss," reached #89 pop in early 1964. (Billboard, alas, had temporarily ceased to publish its R&B chart.) When her third single for Jubilee, "Mojo Hannah" b/w "Now is the Hour," failed to chart, she found herself without a label. Presumably, Betty spent the rest of 1964 and into ’65 touring on the strength of "Cry To Me" and "His Kiss" (which did much better regionally than its paltry chart peak suggests).
By mid-1965, she was in New Orleans, and caught the ear of one-man music machine Allen Toussaint. The Crescent City music veteran liked what he heard enough to sign Harris to debut the Sansu label, which Toussaint ran with his co-producer Marshall Sehorn. Her biggest hit for that outfit, "Nearer To You," reached #85 pop and #16 R&B in the summer of 1967.
In 1969, Toussaint and Sehorn produced their last session with Harris, which they leased to Shelby Singleton’s SSS International label. But with no hits in two years, things went quiet for Betty and all recording ceased. Meanwhile, somebody at her old label, Jubilee, got the idea to reissue "Cry To Me" as a single. It peaked at #44 on the R&B charts in the summer of ’69.
Harris tried other things to keep the money coming in, such as working as a road manager for James Carr, and even dabbling in songwriting. One of her compositions was a trucking song!
As of late (1999), rumors abound that Betty Harris is in poor health. Here’s hoping the rumors are false, or if they aren’t, that she gets better soon!
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