Betty Harris was born in Orlando, FL, in 1941, and was bitten early by the singing bug. At 19, she got the opportunity to cut her first single, "Taking Care of Business" backed with "Yesterday's Kisses," for Douglas Records in 1960. The record didn't do much sales-wise, but it did gain her a bit of notoriety, and she began touring with Big Maybelle. While with Maybelle, she caught the ears of some fat cats at Jubilee Records and was offered a recording contract. Her very first Jubilee release, "Cry to Me," entered Billboard's pop Top 40 in 1963 and became the biggest seller of her career. Originally recorded by Solomon Burke, producer Bert Berns slowed the pace and created a deep soul classic in the process. (The Rolling Stones covered the song on their Out of Our Heads album, and they based their version on Betty's rendition, not Solomon's.)
Jubilee followed with "Kiss Me," which managed to scrape into Billboard's Top 100 for a few weeks. Subsequent Jubilee recordings failed to chart -- even her soulful "Mo Jo Hannah" was a no-show. In 1965, she switched to Sansu Records, and under the tutelage of Allen Toussaint had her next high chart entry two years later with the touching ballad, "Nearer to You." Two previous Sansu recordings failed to chart and nothing after "Nearer" did either. Even a duet with Lee Dorsey, "Love Lots of Lovin'"/"Take Care of Our Love," went unnoticed, as did her remake of Dorsey's "Ride Your Pony." Four years with Sansu failed to meet the expectations of Harris or the label heads, so she moved to her final label, SSS Int'l, in 1969, who released, "There's a Break in the Road"/"All I Want Is You." The deal with SSS Int'l materialized when her old label, Jubilee, re-released "Cry to Me" in 1969, and it charted again on Billboard's R&B charts. When Harris' work on SSS Int'l also failed to impress record buyers, she called it quits and got out of the business.
Charly Records has released a CD of Betty Harris sides, In the Saddle, mostly consisting of her Sansu recordings. Westside Records has done Charly one better by releasing a complete collection of Betty Harris sides called Soul Perfection Plus.