...and another

So where have those dots in the post title led from? Well, the next post actually. Confused? So am I! I’ll try and explain.
The Ohio Players single in my previous post had made my mind up on my next post – it reminded me of a 45 I had been going to feature some time ago but hadn’t quite got round to. The reason for the nudge being that this other record is also on Capitol and, to use one of my favourite cricket commentary phrases, is very adjacent in the catalog. Not plum you understand, just very adjacent*. Anyway, back from another European jaunt a few days ago I needed a vinyl fix so pulled out a few 45s to spin. One of them was Betty Wright’s “One Thing Leads To Another”. Now that’s a perfect title for my post on the (at the moment mystery) Capitol track I thought, and so it will be. But hey, this Betty Wright single deserves the spotlight turned on it too, so, as Betty sings, one thing leads to another… and another, and Betty’s track has muscled it’s way into today’s post and will serve as a bridge to the next post by dint of it’s title. So, with my next post laying claim to “One Thing Leads To Another” as it’s subject title, today’s post gets the sequel title although it has ended up as the prequel. Also, I thought with the Previous Posts list reading backwards in time the post titles will eventually read correctly with the ellipses** flowing naturally into each other.

* If you know your Capitol catalog you are welcome to guess which track it will be – no prizes, just a bit of fun.

**I may be on shaky ground but I think these are called an ellipsis. More than you ever wanted to know about ellipses can be found here.

If you’re still with me you deserve a medal! And I haven’t been smoking anything, honest!
Enough of all this - what’s the word I’m looking for? - drivel?!

Time to let Betty Wright take centre stage with a cautionary tale for all the young ladies out there. By the end of this song Betty’s in trouble!
I would venture to say this isn’t one of Betty’s better known tracks, but it’s nevertheless a wonderful piece of Miami styled slippery, slinky funk. At two and half minutes it’s small but perfectly formed, and still manages to incorporate a few pauses which I really like. I love Betty’s voice, and on Alston (named after Steve Alaimo and Henry Stone) with Clarence Reid and Willie Clarke on writing and production credits that was quite a team back in the seventies. Betty is truly a legend on the soul scene. She seems to have been around forever yet she is now only in her early fifties. Her first Alston single “Girls Can’t Do What The Guys Do” was released in 1968 when she was only 15. This was in fact already her third single, earlier releases having been made on Deep City and Solid Soul. At the still tender age of 18 she hit it big with “Clean Up Woman” which was single number 12 (“Clean Up Woman” was on the 1972 album “I Love The Way You Love” which I highly recommend, and it’s not difficult to find on vinyl, nor expensive). For the record the single featured here was number 18 and when you realise how young she still was the lyrics were no doubt very pertinent. She is still very active on the music scene and recently, of course, was a key element in the production team responsible for Joss Stone’s “Soul Sessions”. Betty’s Wikipedia entry has a few interesting bits of trivia.

Betty Wright – One Thing Leads To Another 1974