Betty Everett was born in Greenwood, Mississippi on November 23, 1939. Like so many of her peers, she started by playing piano and singing in church. Prior to moving to Chicago in 1957, her only influence down home was B.B. King. "Who else do you hear in Mississippi ?" is her reply when asked who else she listened to. After a while in Chicago, she found new heroes: Della Reese, Gloria Lynne and her idol, Dinah Washington, two of whose songs, "Where Are You" and "I Don't Hurt Anymore" Appear on this package.

An audition with Muddy Waters in her new home town set up by his stepson resulted in a week's engagement with the bluesman in Cleveland. Stage fright and inexperience resulted in a pink slip.

Shortly thereafter, Betty and her sister were on an evening out at Mel's Hidaway, where she met and impressed Magic Sam, who got her signed to Cobra, the label he was recording for. At Cobra she recorded three sessions, two with Willie Dixon and one with Ike Turner at the helm. Despite the strong credentials of her producers, the records went nowhere and Cobra, now legendary for it's blues by Sam and Otis Rush, was soon out of business.

In 1960-61, Betty had a pair of unsuccessful releases on Carl Jones's tiny C-J label. Late in 1961, she got together with Milton Bland (later Monk Higgins) and Leo Austell, who became her manager.  They cut four sides, one of which, "Your Love's Important To Me" was a local noisemaker when released on Chicago distributors George and Ernie Leaner's One-Der-Ful label. The record, and leo's persistence, brought Betty to the attention of Vee-Jay's A&R man, Calvin Carter, who signed her to a deal in 1963.

Her first single, "Prince Of Players," did nothing but her second a cover of Dee Dee Warwick's "You're No Good," reached the middle of the pop charts (there were no R&B charts in Billboard that year), setting the stage for her biggest solo success the #6 "The Shoop Shoop Song (It's In His Kiss)." "You're No Good" was later done in a #1 version by Linda Ronstadt in 1975 and "Shoop Shoop" made a slight impact for Cher in the late eighties.

Calvin Carter was nothing if not a good "song man," whose adroit choices of material made the careers of so many Vee-Jay artists, from Jerry Butler to Dee Clark to Gene Chandler. For Betty, his picks ranged from oldies such as `It Hurts To Be In Love," a hit for Annie Laurie, Whose sound is similar to Betty's, to the many tunes by New York Brill Building writers, like Gerry Goffin and Carole King, who contributed her undeservedly low charting follow-up, "I Can't Hear You".

Other sixties Tin Pan Alley tune meisters included "Shoop Shoop"s Rudy Clark, whose credits include the Olympics/Rascal's "Good Lovin," the Main Ingredient/Aaron Neville's "Everybody Plays The Fool," James Ray/George Harrison's "I've Got My Mind Set On You," and Ray's "If You gotta Make A Fool Of Somebody," In addition to Rudy, Van McCoy donated `Getting' Mighty Crowded," a chartmaker and the then- newcomers, Valerie Simpson and Nick Ashford, along with their then-collaborator Joshie Jo Armstead (the team who gave Ray Charles "Let's Go Get Stoned"), got a number of songs cut by Betty, not the least of which was "The Real Thing," a Martha & The Vandellas sound-alike that was a top twenty record by Tina Brit on Juggy Murray's Eastern label out of New York but made no impact with Betty's version.

Calvin's choice of standards was pretty broad. "Hound Dog" and Jimmy Dorsey's fairly recent revival of "June Night" come off kind of strange, while her takes on Ivory Joe Hunter's lovely "I Need You So" and the above mentioned Dinah Washington-identified tunes work better in her style.

While at Vee-Jay, session man Al Smith served as her manager, although there wasn't much to do other then take orders for the chart artist. In the wake of her hits, Betty worked clubs, theaters like the Apollo and the Regal, TV shows like American Bandstand and a Dick Clark tour with Bobby Freeman ("Do You Wanna Dance") and Paul and Paula, culminating in an appearance at betty's largest venue, San Francisco's Cow palace.

In 1964, label mate Jerry Butler suggested to Calvin that he and Betty cut a duet of the Everly Brothers hit of a few years earlier, "Let It Be Me" which resulted in what was to be Betty's highest-ever pop chart entry at #5. One more mid-sized hit with Butler, Charlie Chaplin's "Smile." Reached #42 that year for her last Vee-Jay hit. She stayed with the label until it's demise in 1966 before moving on to several years at floundering labels like ABC-Paramount.

Back with Leo Austell in 1969, Betty made a nice comeback on MCA subsidiary UNI with the #2 R&B "There'll Come A Time" and three more for the label. A year later found her with Fantasy, where she made four more R&B chartmakers. She scraped the bottom of the charts one more time in 1978 on United Artist before going into semi-retirement. She had always flirted with gospel singing and finally, lost her enthusiasm for R&B.

Today , Betty Everett has moved back to Chicago from Wisconsin, where she has spent the past few years. Always a shy performer, she is getting her courage up to start performing again, hoping to find an audience for her warm singing style.

Billy Vera,
1992