About the Album

by Jason A. Michael

It is fitting that Betty’s first album begins with her first hit. If the lyrics of Girl’s Can’t Do What the Guy Do are perhaps a little meek, there is nothing shy about Betty’s pleading delivery. Listen to me, sisters. I’ve been there. Though, of course, at 14, Betty most certainly had not. It was sort of the challenge of the album. Betty already had the vocal ability to handle any material thrown her way, but was it appropriate for her to be singing some of these songs before she even had a driver’s license? But Betty is convincing as she sings her cautionary tale.

Girls opens with distinctive horns that some 30 years later would be sampled by Beyonce. But in 1968, Beyonce wasn’t so much as a gleam in her daddy’s eye. Betty, meanwhile, was pulling on her big girl britches with a mature delivery that belied her age. Written and produced by Willie Clark and Clarence Reid, the duo who had brought Betty to Henry Stone’s Tone Distributing for an audition and later saw her signed with one of Stone’s upstarts, Alston Records, a partnership with singer and producer Steve Alaimo. The results: Girls went to #15 R&B and #33 Pop. The hit allowed Betty to go on the road and open for acts like James Brown and Mable John.

Funny How Loves Grown Cold is again written and produced by Clarke-Reid and its par for the course. It starts off with a funky little guitar riff and the horns come in just behind it and sort of nudge the beat subtly throughout. The song, without a doubt, is a groove. 

I’m Gonna Hate Myself in the Morning is a song written by Arthur Alexander and Dale Ward. The original title of the song was We’re Gonna Hate Ourselves in the Morning and it was first released by beach and R&B singer Clifford Curry as the B-side to She Shot a Hole in my Soul in April 1967 on Elf Records (Elf 90002). Alexander, a combination country crooner and soul man, went on to write songs that were eventually covered by acts such at The Beatles (Anna, Go To Him and Soldier of Love) and The Rolling Stones (You Better Move On). Alexander’s Miami connection came through Steve Alaimo, whose version of Alexander’s Every Day I Have To Cry was arguably Alaimo’s biggest hit – it reached #46 on Billboard’s Hot 100 – as a solo artist in 1962. For his part, co-writer Dale Ward was a singer and songwriter originally from Oklahoma. His biggest hit would be Letter from Sherry, released on Dot Records in 1963. It made it to #25 on the Billboard Hot 100.

Circle of Heartbreak is Betty’s first solely self-penned offering. It’s a moody track made even more so by the organ flourishes that are featured throughout. There’s also some nice percussion on the track. Betty’s is not pleading here though. She sound resigned as she sings, “It’s just no good in my complaining cause every time I wish for a sunny day it keeps on raining.” Betty is in pain.

No need to worry. By the next song Betty’s Sweet Lovin’ Daddy has got her loose and “wild as a goose. I try to resist you but it just ain’t no use.” The up-tempo track is definitely as funky as anything on the album. The beat is driving and relentless and this is young Betty singin’ grown folks’ music for sure. Makes one wonder what her mother had to say about this one?

Cry Like a Baby was written by Spooner Oldham and Dan Penn, a songwriting duo big on the Memphis and Muscle Shoals music scene. As an organist, Oldham was part of the famous Muscle Shoals Rhythm Section. He played on such songs as Percy Sledge’s When A Man Loves a Woman, Wilson Pickett’s Mustang Sally and Aretha Franklin’s I Never Loved a Man. Penn, known as a blue-eyed soul singer, was also a producer. Together, the two wrote hits for many artists including Cry Like a Baby by The Box Tops. In early 1968, the song, released by Bell Records (Bell 6017), reached #2 on the Billboard Hot 100 and stayed there for two weeks. Eventually, the song would go gold. Also, in the spring of 1968, another Oldham/Penn composition, Sweet Inspiration by The Sweet Inspirations, which at the time included Cissy Houston, peaked at #18 on the Billboard Hot 100 and #5 R&B. The song, released on Atlantic Records, would be the group’s only Top 40 hit. Cry Like a Baby would go on to be covered by Cher (1969), Lulu (1969), Petula Clark (1971) and Kim Carnes (1980).

Watch Out Love was penned by Clarke, Betty and Brad Shapiro. Shapiro was a songwriter and producer and with deep Miami ties. In the late 1950s, he played bass in a local band, The Redcoats, that was fronted by Steve Alaimo. After Alaimo went solo, Shapiro started his songwriting career partnering with TK founder Henry Stone on a single for The Twans. Shapiro and Stone wrote both the A side, Darling, Tell Me Why and the B side, I Can’t See Him Again. The single was released on Dade Records (Dade 1903) in 1966, two years before Stone signed Betty. Another Shapiro co-write, Girl I Got News For You, was originally released on Mala (Mala 527) by The Birdwatchers in 1966. The following year, an up-and-coming vocalist named Benny Latimore recorded the song and released it on Dade Records (Dade 45-2013). 

Watch Out Love was co-produced by Shapiro and Alaimo. Shapiro would go on to work with several TK artists and in the 1970s would become involved with Spring Records producing a number of artists. He had an especially productive relationship with Spring’s Millie Jackson, a Betty contemporary. Watch Out Love was the B-side to the album’s second single, He’s Bad, Bad, Bad, another Clarke-Reid composition and production, but it failed to chart.

I Can’t Stop My Heart was contributed by Jackie Avery, a songwriter from Georgia. He has various credits including Aunt Dora’s Love Soul Shack for Arthur Conley and Make Sure (You Have Someone Who Loves You) and, later in the 70s, Sweeter As the Days Go By for The Dells.  On this song, the tempo is slowed down and it’s really a delightful little ballad. Try as she might, Betty just can’t stop her heart from lovin’ the imaginary man she’s singing to. We hear Betty’s voice at perhaps it’s biggest and boldest so far on this song, as she breaks loose and tries to get the man to understand. 

I’m Thankful is a song whose roots are firmly gospel. The legendary group The Soul Stirrers first recorded the song in 1961. The song was written by Sam Cooke and his manager/songwriting partner J.W. Alexander and recorded on Cooke’s SAR Records (SAR 116). Cooke had already left The Soul Stirrers but continued to produce and record them with Johnnie Taylor and, in this case, Jimmy Outler doing lead vocals. Steve Alaimo heard the song and decided it had the makings of a fine pop record. He recorded his version later the same year and it was released on Checker Records (Checker 989). By the time Betty recorded the song, Alaimo had quickened the pace and reworked it even more, even going so far as to add his name to the writer’s credits. 

The Best Girls Don’t Always Win was written by Reid on his own. The song is basically a Part 2 to Girls Can’t Do What the Guys Do, and Betty is schooling the sisters once again.  And the final cut, Just You, is a song written by Sonny Bono and originally released by Sonny & Cher on Atco (Atco 45-6345) in 1965. The song would appear on the duo’s Look At Us album and reach #20 on the Billboard Hot 100.