betty wright “clean up woman”
from: i love the way you love 1972
“A clean up woman is a woman who
Gets all the love we girls leave behind
The reason I know so much about her
Is because she picked up a man of mine
Jumpin’ slick was my ruin
’Cause I found out all I was doin’
Was making it easy for the clean up woman
To get my man’s love, oh yeah
Just making it easy for the clean up woman
To get my baby’s love, uh-huh, mhm
I took this man’s love and put it on a shelf
And like a fool, I thought I had him all to myself
When he needed love, I was out having fun
But I found out that all I had done
Was made it easy for the clean up woman
To get my man’s love, uh-huh
Yeah, that’s what I did
I made it easy for the clean up woman
To steal my baby’s love, oh yeah
The clean up woman will wipe his blues away
She’ll give him plenty lovin’ 24 hours a day
The clean up woman, she’ll sweep him off his feet
She’s the one who’ll take him in when you dump him in the street
So take a tip, you better get hip
To the clean up woman ‘cause she’s tough
I mean, she really cleans up
”
Still have the 45. Betty started early at 15 and died early at just 66 (in 2020), three husbands later. But she could sing. Clean Up Woman was written and produced by Clarence Reid and Willie Clarke, it was released in November 1971 in the U.S. as a 7" single with "I'll Love You Forever" on the B-side. The song's distinctive guitar lick was played by Willie "Little Beaver" Hale.
-Gary West-
