Betty Lavette
b. Betty Haskin, 1946, Muskegon, Michigan, USA. She gained her first professional experience as part of the touring review run by soul singers Don Gardnerand Dee Dee Ford in the early '60s. Her passionate vocal style won her a solo contract with Atlantic Records, where she adopted her stage name for the 1962 R&B hit My Man—He's A Loving Man one of the finest early examples of southern soul. But she was unable to build on this success, and only made sporadic recordings with small labels during the rest of the decade. Her torch ballad Let Me Down Easy was an R&B hit in 1965, written by country ‘rebels’ Jim and Tompall Glaser, the song was later covered by the Spencer Davis Group. Lavette recorded material by other country writers, and her version of Mickey Newbury's Just Dropped In (To See What Condition My Condition Is In) in 1969 was later picked up by Kenny Rogers. She scored two further chart successes in 1969-70 with country/soul recordings on Lelan Rogers’ Silver Fox label. As traditional soul music was supplanted by disco in the mid-70s, Lavette moved into the theatre, where she starred in the Broadway musical BUBBLING BROWN SUGAR. In the early '80s, renewed interest in her early recordings led to her being offered a contract with Motown. There she recorded the acclaimed TELL ME A LIE, one of the label's few ventures into southern soul. Besides the R&B hit ‘Right In The Middle (Of Falling in Love)’, the album included impressive remakes of I Heard It Through The Grapevine and If I Were Your Woman. Lavette remains a cult figure among soul fans in the UK, and many of her '60s recordings have been reissued in recent years. In 1992 she recorded two singles and NOT GONNA HAPPEN TWICE on Ian Levine's Motor City label.