Bettye LaVette had her first brush with stardom as a sassy teenage soul singer in the early 1960s, but she’s long since transcended genre—she’s now a magnificent vocalist who can make seemingly any song sound as though it were written specifically for her.
Bettye LaVette Sat 6/8, 7:45 PM, Jay Pritzker Pavilion
- Bettye LaVette’s debut single, 1962’s “My Man—He’s a Lovin’ Man”
When her next single flopped, LaVette went to New York and audaciously demanded that Atlantic honcho Jerry Wexler release her from her contract. “Leaving Atlantic when I was 16 is still the most stupid thing I’ve ever done in my career,” she admits. But LaVette rebounded. While living for a time in New York, she hit again in 1965 with the moving soul ballad “Let Me Down Easy,” for the Calla label. Its success got her on the network TV program Shindig! that same year.
