Betty Davis | |
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| Background information | |
| Birth name | Betty Gray Mabry |
| Born | (1944-07-26)July 26, 1944 Durham, North Carolina, U.S. |
| Origin | New York City, NY, U.S. |
| Died | February 9, 2022(2022-02-09) (aged 77) Homestead, Pennsylvania, U.S. |
| Genres | |
| Occupations |
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| Instrument | Vocals |
| Years active |
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| Labels | |
| Formerly of | |
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Betty Davis (bornBetty Gray Mabry; July 26, 1944 – February 9, 2022) was an American singer, songwriter, and model. She was known for her controversial sexually oriented lyrics and performance style, and was the second wife of trumpeterMiles Davis.[1] HerAllMusic profile describes her as "a wildly flamboyant funk diva with few equals ... [who] combined the gritty emotional realism ofTina Turner, the futurist fashion sense ofDavid Bowie, and the trendsetting flair of Miles Davis".[2]
Betty Gray Mabry was born inDurham, North Carolina, on July 26, 1944.[3][4] She developed an interest in music when she was about ten, and was introduced to various blues musicians by her grandmother, Beulah Blackwell, while staying at her farm inReidsville, North Carolina.[5] At 12, she wrote one of her first songs, "I'm Going to Bake That Cake of Love".[6] The family relocated toHomestead, Pennsylvania, so her father, Henry Mabry, could work at aPennsylvania steel mill. Davis attended and graduated from Homestead High School.[7]
When she was 16, Betty left Homestead for New York City, enrolling at theFashion Institute of Technology (FIT) while living with her aunt. She soaked up theGreenwich Village culture andfolk music of the early 1960s. She associated herself with frequenters of the Cellar, a hip uptown club where young and stylish people congregated. It was a multiracial, artsy crowd of models, design students, actors, and singers. At the Cellar she played records and chatted people up. She was a friend and early muse to fashion designerStephen Burrows, who also studied at the FIT at the time.[8] She also worked as a model, appearing in photo spreads inSeventeen,Ebony andGlamour.[9]
In New York, she met musicians includingJimi Hendrix andSly Stone.[10] The seeds of her musical career were planted through her friendship with soul singerLou Courtney, who reputedly produced her first single, "The Cellar", though the existence of that record has been questioned.[11] She secured a contract withDon Costa, who had written arrangements forFrank Sinatra.[5] As Betty Mabry, she recorded "Get Ready For Betty" b/w "I'm Gonna Get My Baby Back" in 1964 for Costa's DCP International label.[11] Around the same time, she recorded a single, "I'll Be There", with Roy Arlington for Safice Records, under the joint name "Roy and Betty".[12]
Her first professional gig came after she wrote "Uptown (to Harlem)" forThe Chambers Brothers. Their 1967 album was a major success, but Mabry focused on her modeling career. She was successful as a model but felt bored by the work—"I didn't like modeling because you didn't need brains to do it. It's only going to last as long as you look good."[13][14]
In 1968, when she was in a relationship withHugh Masekela, she recorded several songs forColumbia Records, with Masekela doing the arrangements.[15] Two of them were released as a single: "Live, Love, Learn" b/w "It's My Life". Her relationship with Miles Davis began soon after her breakup from Masekela. She featured on the cover of Miles Davis's 1968 albumFilles de Kilimanjaro, which included his tribute to her, "Mademoiselle Mabry", and she introduced him topsychedelic rock and the flamboyant clothing styles of the era.[2][10] In the spring of 1969, Betty returned to Columbia's 52nd St. Studios to record a series of demo tracks, with Miles andTeo Macero producing. At least five songs were taped during those sessions, three of which were Mabry originals, two of which were covers ofCream andCreedence Clearwater Revival. Miles attempted to use these demo songs to secure an album deal for Betty, but neither Columbia nor Atlantic were interested and they were archived until 2016, when they were released in the compilationThe Columbia Years, 1968–1969 by Seattle'sLight in the Attic Records.[16]
After the end of her marriage with Miles, Betty moved to London, probably around 1971, to pursue her modeling career. She wrote music while in the UK and, after about a year, returned to the US with the intention of recording songs withSantana. Instead, she recorded her own songs with a group of West Coast funk musicians includingLarry Graham,Greg Errico, thePointer Sisters, and members ofTower of Power.[2] Davis wrote and arranged all her songs.[17] Her first record,Betty Davis, was released in 1973. She released two more studio albums,They Say I'm Different (1974)[18] and her major label debut on Island RecordsNasty Gal (1975). None of the three albums were a commercial success,[2] but she had two minor hits on theBillboardR&B chart: "If I'm in Luck I Might Get Picked Up", which reached number 66 in 1973, and "Shut Off the Lights", which reached number 97 in 1975.[19][20]
Davis remained a cult figure as a singer, due in part to her unabashedly sexual lyrics and performance style, which were both controversial for the time. She had success in Europe, but in the U.S. she was barred from performing on television because of her sexually aggressive stage persona.[21] Some of her shows were boycotted, and her songs were not played on the radio due to pressure by religious groups and theNAACP.[22]Carlos Santana recalled Betty as "indomitable – she couldn't be tamed. Musically, philosophically and physically, she was extreme and attractive."[23]
Davis completed another album for Island Records in 1976 (which was shelved and unreleased for 33 years), before being dropped by the label. She spent a year in Japan, spending time with silent monks.[24]
Davis's father died in 1980, which prompted her return to the US to live with her mother in Homestead, Pennsylvania. Davis struggled to overcome her father's death, and subsequent mental illness. She acknowledged that she suffered a setback at the time, but stayed in Homestead, accepted the end of her career, and lived a quiet life.[25]
The tracks from her final recording sessions in 1979 were released on two bootleg albums,Crashin' From Passion (1995) andHangin' Out in Hollywood (1996).[26] Agreatest hits album,Anti Love: The Best of Betty Davis, was also released in 1995.[27]
In 2007,Betty Davis (1973) andThey Say I'm Different (1974) were reissued byLight in the Attic Records.[28] In 2009, the label reissuedNasty Gal and her unreleased fourth studio album recorded in 1976, re-titledIs It Love or Desire? Both reissues contained extensive liner notes and shed some light on the mystery of why her fourth album, considered possibly to be her best work by members of her last band (Herbie Hancock,Chuck Rainey, andAlphonse Mouzon), was shelved and remained unreleased for 33 years.[29]
An independent documentary directed by Phil Cox entitledBetty: They Say I'm Different was released in 2017, which renewed interest in her life and music career.[30][31]When Cox tracked Davis down, he found her living in the basement of a house with no internet, cell phone, or car. He said: "This wasn't a woman with riches or luxury. She was living on the bare essentials."[25]
In 2019, Davis released "A Little Bit Hot Tonight", her first new song in more than 40 years, which was performed and sung by Danielle Maggio, anethnomusicologist who was a close friend and associate producer onBetty: They Say I'm Different.[32]
To commemorate the 50th anniversary of Betty Davis's self-titled debut, in 2023Light in the Attic Records reissued three of her albums:Betty Davis,They Say I'm Different,Is It Love Or Desire?, as well as the first official release of her 1979 tracks,Crashin' From Passion.[33]
As a model in 1966, Betty met jazz musicianMiles Davis, who was 18 years her senior.[34] He was separated from his first wife, dancerFrances Davis, and was dating actressCicely Tyson. Betty began dating Miles in early 1968, and they were married that September.[34] During their year of marriage, she introduced him to the fashions and popular music trends of the era that influenced his music. In his autobiography, Miles credited Betty with helping to plant the seeds of his further musical explorations by introducing the trumpeter topsychedelic rock guitaristJimi Hendrix and funk innovatorSly Stone.[15] The Miles Davis albumFilles de Kilimanjaro (1968) features Betty on the cover and includes a song named after her.[35]
In his autobiography, Miles said Betty was "too young and wild", and accused her of having an affair with Jimi Hendrix, which hastened the end of their marriage.[36] Betty denied the affair, stating: "I was so angry with Miles when he wrote that. It was disrespectful to Jimi and to me. Miles and I broke up because of his violent temper."[23] After accusing her of adultery, he filed for divorce in 1969.[37] Miles toldJet magazine that the divorce was obtained on a "temperament" charge. He added: "I'm just not the kind of cat to be married."[38] Hendrix and Miles remained close, planning to record, until Hendrix's death. The influence of Hendrix and especially Sly Stone on Miles Davis was obvious on the albumBitches Brew (1970), which ushered in the era ofjazz fusion. It has been said that he wanted to call the albumWitches Brew but Betty convinced him to change it.[39]
Davis briefly dated musicianEric Clapton, but she refused to collaborate with him.[17][40]
In 1975 Davis' loverRobert Palmer helped her secure a deal withIsland Records. Shortly thereafter she released her albumNasty Gal.[40]
Davis died from cancer at her home inHomestead, Pennsylvania, on February 9, 2022, at the age of 77.[1][24][41]
The live action/animated TV seriesMike Judge Presents: Tales from the Tour Bus ended its 2018 season with an episode focusing on Davis' controversial career.[42]
Davis' music has been featured in television series includingOrange Is the New Black,[43]Girlboss,[44]Mixed-ish,[45]High Fidelity[46] andPistol.[47]
| Title | Details | Peak chart positions | |||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| US Bub. [48] | US R&B [49] | AUS [50] | GER [51] | ||||||||||
| Betty Davis |
| 202 | 54 | — | — | ||||||||
| They Say I'm Different |
| — | 46 | — | 41 | ||||||||
| Nasty Gal |
| — | 54 | 96 | — | ||||||||
| Is It Love or Desire[A] |
| — | — | — | — | ||||||||
| Crashin' from Passion[B] |
| — | — | — | — | ||||||||
| "—" denotes a recording that did not chart or was not released in that territory. | |||||||||||||
| Title | Details | Peak chart positions |
|---|---|---|
| US Heat. [52] | ||
| The Columbia Years 1968–1969 |
| 23 |
| Title | Year | Peak chart positions | Album | ||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| US R&B [53] | |||||||||||||
| "Get Ready for Betty"[C] | 1964 | — | Non-album singles | ||||||||||
| "I'll Be There"[D] | — | ||||||||||||
| "Live, Love, Learn"[C] | 1968 | — | |||||||||||
| "Steppin in Her I. Miller Shoes" | 1973 | — | Betty Davis | ||||||||||
| "If I'm in Luck I Might Get Picked Up" | 66 | ||||||||||||
| "Ooh Yeah" | — | ||||||||||||
| "Shoo-B-Doop and Cop Him" | 1974 | — | They Say I'm Different | ||||||||||
| "Git in There" | — | ||||||||||||
| "They Say I'm Different"[E] | — | ||||||||||||
| "Shut Off the Light" | 1975 | 97 | Nasty Gal | ||||||||||
| "Dedicated to the Press"[F] | — | ||||||||||||
| "Talkin' Trash" | 1976 | — | |||||||||||
| "—" denotes a recording that did not chart or was not released in that territory. | |||||||||||||
She penned her first song 'I'm going to bake that Cake of Love' when she was 12 years old.
{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)| International | |
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