@Hugh's Room 2009

Betty Richardson was a Toronto blues, R&B and jazz singer whose voice turned up on stages, broadcasts and records for five decades. The Richardson family moved to Toronto from Donora, Pennsylvania in 1954, and Betty began singing professionally at 15 alongside her older sister Jackie in The Tiaras, the Toronto girl group that also included Colina Phillips.

She went on to sing with pianist and arranger Doug Riley in The Silhouettes at Toronto's Blue Note. In July 1970 she and Riley sang in the chorus for guitarist Brian Russell's People Get Ready album on the Canadian Talent Library, with Dianne Brooks, Rhonda Silver and saxophonist Steve Kennedy, under chorus director Gary Gross. She was an original cast member of Hair in Toronto and with the Australian company, and went on to television work with Martin Short, Andy Williams, George Kirby and Ray Stevens, along with a steady run of radio and television jingle sessions.

The CBC put her voice on record as a featured singer. On a 1975 Radio Canada International transcription LP (LM 420) she split a side with Wayne St. John, the two taking turns on 'It's Magic' and three St. John originals recorded in Toronto. In 1978 the CBC compilation Coming To You (LM 460) opened with three Betty Richardson songs, 'Nighty Night', 'In Love We Grow' and 'Dance To The Rhythm Of Your Love', arranged by Milan Kymlicka with Jackie Richardson and Colina Phillips on backing vocals.

Her work with Kymlicka, a CBC composer, carried into the 1980s. A&M Records of Canada released 'It's Over With' backed with 'Special Love' (AM 608) in 1983, both written by Kymlicka and Don Tripe and produced for his Cantus Productions. 'Pulse Beat' followed on Firmus Records (FIR 011) in 1984, backed with 'Gypsy Man', and climbed to #22 on RPM's Contemporary Adult chart that May. A third single, 'This Is A Man' (FIR 012), was written by guitarist Gord Waszek and television star Nancy Dolman, and brought 'Nighty Night' back as its B-side. It held at #9 on RPM's Top CanCon Adult Contemporary chart through late August 1984. RPM reported in August 1984 that adult contemporary programmers had taken to her records and that Firmus was negotiating releases in South Africa, Australia and the United States.

All of those songs were gathered on her album Pulsebeat (Firmus FIR LP-07), recorded at Amber Studios in Toronto with engineer George Semkiw. Doug Riley, Lou Pomanti and Ray Parker played keyboards, with Brian Russell on guitar, Tom Szczesniak on bass and Vern Dorge on saxophone. Jackie Richardson, Colina Phillips, Liberty Silver and Sharon Lee Williams joined Betty on backing vocals.

While singing background vocals for John Lee & the Checkmates at the Blue Note, she met keyboardist Kingsley Ettienne. The two formed Formula Five with Reggie Evans, Rodney Appleby and Liberty Silver. Ettienne also brought her into reggae, arranging and producing 'The Girl In His Mind', her duet with Junior Soul on 2M Records. Between 1986 and 1989 she and Junior Soul also recorded 'Story Book Children', 'Josephine' and 'Ain't Understanding Mellow'. Through the late 1980s she sang backing vocals for Glen Ricketts, Kenny Hamilton and Johnny Braff, on Rodney Appleby's album Tears (1987) and on bluesman Morgan Davis's 1989 album, and later on Rita Chiarelli's Sweet Paradise (2009).

Betty later sang with Jackie and Jackie's daughter Kim as The Richardsons. On February 28, 2009 she played Hugh's Room in Toronto with Ettienne as musical director and Steve Kennedy, her chorus partner from the 1970 Brian Russell session, on tenor saxophone. John Pickering's Rhythm Ranch Productions released the show in 2010 as @ Hugh's Room. In November 2013 she and Kim were featured vocalists at the Toronto Blues Society's 27th Women's Blues Revue at Massey Hall. She died of cancer in Toronto on August 12, 2018.

-Robert Williston