Betty Boo
Around the same time as Lady Miss Kier of Deee-Lite, another retro-look singer had caught my attention and tapped into my imagination: Miss Betty Boo.Born Alison Moira Clarkson in Kensington, London in 1970, Boo shot to stardom with her chart-topping 1990 debut release, Boomania. What distinguished Betty Boo was her comic book/cartoon persona and chirpy rap vocals... a cross somewhere between Emma Peel and Salt-N-Pepa.
Awarded Best Newcomer at the 1991 Brit Awards, Betty's most successful single this side of the atlantic (and my personal favorite) was Doin' The Do. The single reached number one on Billboard's U.S. dance charts and was accompanied by a kitchy video which featured Betty's rebellious nature at it's pinnacle.
Unfortunately, Betty Boo's second LP Grrr! It's Betty Boo failed to follow up on Boomania's success. The album was described as "criminally overlooked" by none other than Madonna, who even tried at one point to sign Betty to her Maverick label...
images: (1 and 3) "Doin' the Do" cover art
(2) myspace.com
Labels: mod music, very stylish girls
posted by Jason Stockl @ 11:05 am
3 Comments:
You are a hateful being. I had parts of 'Doin' the Do' floating through my head on Repeat for literally a month, and I had just gotten it out, until I read your post. DAMN YOU TO HECK
She certainly looked delicious in that catsuit. :-) I always placed her in a kind of 'sassy Nineties club singers trinity' along with Lady Miss Kier and Apollo Smile. Didn't Betty go onto some nominal modeling career?
Betty Boo's great... and she's back! If you haven't heard it, I recommend her recent collaboration with Alex James of Blur. Their group was called Wigwam, and their songs were still infectious! She's much the same as she was in the 90s, only improved by the greatness of Alex James!
A new Betty Boo song called Take Off can be seen here.
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