R&B singer, songwriter Betty Wright known for her hits “Clean Up Woman” and “Tonight is the Night,” died at the age of 66.
Steve Greenberg, president of S-Curve Records, confirmed the singer’s death came after a battle with cancer.
Betty Wright is best known for her 1971 hit song “Clean Up Woman,” a sassy tune about a woman who “cleans up” the men of women who neglect them.
The song’s rise to No. 6 on the Billboard singles charts sparked years of success for the singer that included winning a Grammy for Best R&B Song for “Where is the Love” in 1976, a song she had co-written.
Just over a decade after her Grammy win, Wright would net another achievement — becoming the first woman to have a record on her own label achieve gold status.
In recent years, she mentored younger artists including Joss Stone. Her influence can be heard on Joss Stone’s The Soul Sessions especially in the stand out track, “Super Duper Love (Are You Diggin’ on Me?), Part 1.
“I believe in legacy,” Wright told NPR in 2011 about her work as a mentor. “And I believe in making the radio sound better. If I gotta listen to it, I want it to sound good. So I’m tired of people disturbing the peace, getting on the radio and sounding a hot mess. If I can tell what the note really is, why let them go to the note they think it is? I’ve got that mama vibe. I don’t look at it with an ego.”