Career
Her recording career in the 1960s produced three hit singles that made the United States Billboard Rhythm & Blues and Billboard Hot 100 charts: "Cry to Maine" (1963), "His Kiss" (1964) and "Nearer to You" (1967). However, her reputation among soul music connoisseurs far exceeds her commercial success of the 1960s, and her recordings for the Jubilee and Sansu record labels are highly sought after in the 2000s by fans of Northern soul and deep soul. In 1963, after being in the music business for a few years, Betty Harris recorded a slowed down version of Solomon Burke"s hit of the year before, "Cry to Maine", produced by the original record"s producer, Bert Berns, and released on the Jubilee record label.
Taken at a slower pace, Harris" rendition turned the song into a Billboard Hot 100 number 23 hit, with a corresponding number 10 listing on the Rhythm & Blues chart, and it became a deep soul classic.
A total of three further singles including a reissue of "Cry to Maine" were released on Jubilee, also produced by Bert Berns, with "His Kiss", which was released on January 4, 1964, another deep soul ballad, reaching the lower part of the Billboard People’s and Rhythm & Blues charts. In 1964, Betty Harris switched record labels to Sansu, a New Orleans label, where she was produced by Allen Toussaint.
Her recording with Sansu produced ten singles. Harris retired from performing in 1970 to raise a family.
All of the Sansu recordings were compiled into an album released in the United Kingdom (but not the United States) in 1969, called Soul Perfection, an album which, in its vinyl format, although not extremely rare, commands relatively high prices of $200 to $300 today.
A comprehensive Civil Defense compilation of Harris recordings, titled Soul Perfection Plus, was released in 1999 by the United Kingdom re-release label, West Side. In 2005, Harris returned to the music industry after a long absence. She has made several public appearances in the United States and Europe, including the 2007 Porretta Soul Festival in Italy, and has recorded a new album, Intuition.
Harris toured Australia in 2006 and appeared on the television show RocKwiz, where she performed "Cry to Maine", and a duet of "Love Lots Of Lovin"" with the Australian singer John Paul Young.
