Bettye Crutcher -

Bettye Crutcher (September 16, 1939 – October 20, 2022) was an American soul singer and songwriter from Memphis that released the 1974 album Long as You Love Me on Stax/Enterprise. She hailed from the writing/production team We Three along with musicians Homer Banks and Raymond Jackson. During the late 1960s, she wrote songs recorded by Albert King, Johnnie Taylor, Sam & Dave, the Staple Singers, and numerous other Stax/Volt artists.

1967–73 Songwriter Credits

She was born Bettye Jean Crutcher Barnes on September 16, 1939, in Memphis, where she wrote poetry from childhood. Before her career in the industry, she worked as a nurse while she raised three sons.

In 1967, David Porter heard her songs and brought her into Stax, where she became the label’s only female staff songwriter. Soon after, Johnnie Taylor cut “Somebody’s Sleeping in My Bed,” a November a-side co-written by Crutcher and Allen Jones. Porter briefly paired her with Booker T. Jones before Crutcher moved into other co-write rooms at the label.

Crutcher cycled through Stax collaborations with Marvell Thomas, Bobby Manuel, Homer Banks, and Raymond Jackson. With Banks and Jackson, she formed We Three and co-wrote Taylor’s 1968 single “Who’s Making Love,” a No. 1 Billboard R&B hit that reached No. 5 on the Hot 100 and drew a nomination for Best R&B Song at the 1969 Grammys. The trio also wrote Taylor’s 1969 R&B Top 10 hit “I Could Never Be President.” For the Staple Singers, Crutcher co-wrote the 1968–72 songs “The Ghetto,” “Top of the Mountain,” “We’ll Get Over,” “The Challenge,” “Love Is Plentiful,” and “Name the Missing Word.”

Long as You Love Me (I’ll Be Alright)

Bettye Crutcher released Long as You Love Me (I’ll Be Alright) in June 1974 on Enterprise. She co-wrote seven songs with co-producer Mack Rice.

The album mixes slow-burn ballads and moderato steppers with low-lit keyboard color and soft string haze over patient backbeats. “Long as You Love Me” and “Sugar Daddy” ride clipped pulse, sensual phrasing, and steady low-register rolls. “Passion” and “A Little Bit More Won’t Hurt” deepen the late-night ballad strain through tender lead lines, suspended harmony, and unhurried cadences.

“Sunday Morning’s Gonna Find Us in Love” and “Sugar Daddy” hew darker with tense harmonies, low-register patterns, and closer lead phrasing. “Up for a Let Down” and “Sleepy People” ease into softer ballad motion with descending lines, crossing figures, and looser choruses.

A1. “Long as You Love Me” (2:53) — Crutcher, Rice; moderato with Fender leads, 12-string strum, triangle flicker and sensual vocal.
A2. “When We’re Together” (3:39) — Crutcher; tight mid-tempo soul-funk with clipped chords and barroom vibes
A3. “Passion” (4:17) — Crutcher, Rice, Arris Wheaton; slow late-night Fender ballad with sweet strings, tender vocals, and simmering sax.
A4. “A Little Bit More Won’t Hurt” (4:07) — Crutcher, Rice; slow late-night Fender ballad with sweet strings, tender vocals, and simmering sax.
A5. “Sunday Morning’s Gonna Find Us in Love” (4:54) — Crutcher, Rice; foreboding moderato with dramatic harmonies and dark, suspenseful soul-funk vibes.

B1. “Sugar Daddy” (3:48) — Crutcher, Rice, Wheaton; mid-tempo roll (in Gm) with seductive vocals across a bass-driven, string-laden pattern.
B2. “Call Me When All Else Fails” (5:05) — Crutcher, Porter, Williams; quiet piano ballad with gradual synth-string buildup and gospel harmonies.
B3. “Up for a Let Down” (2:52) — Crutcher, Rice; moderate ballad with earnest vocals and counterpoint between Fender Rhodes and cocktail guitar licks.
B4. “So Lonely Without You” (2:50) — Crutcher, Rice; slow lounge ballad with yearning vocals, tracked gently with smooth, dark basslines amid shimmering synth strings.
B5. “Sleepy People” (4:25) — Crutcher; ballad with a languid, descending verse patterns; flowing chorus.

Crutcher and Rice co-produced the album in Sheffield, Alabama, at Muscle Shoals Sound Studios with the in-house rhythm section. Pete Bishop co-engineered the sessions with Jerry Masters and Steve Melton. Conductor Johnny Allen arranged the horn and string parts, performed by the Memphis Symphony Orchestra.

In Britain, Stax issued “Sugar Daddy” as a July 1975 single (b/w “Long as You Love Me”).

St. Louis soul singer Shirley Brown covered three LaYLM songs — “So Glad To Have You,” “Passion,” and the title track — on her August 1974 debut album, Woman to Woman, released on the Stax subsidiary Truth.

1974 onward

In sequence with her album, Crutcher and Rice co-wrote “The Good Christian People,” sung by the Staple Singers and played during the opening sequence of The Klansman, a 1974 Paramount drama about Civil Rights-era tensions in Alabama. Another Crutcher/Rice composition, “My Main Man,” appeared on the concurrent Staples studio album, City in the Sky.

In 1975, she collaborated with Lester Snell on “From His Woman to You,” a Top 3 R&B hit for Barbara Mason. For Ben E. King, Crutcher teamed with Frederick Knight and Sam Dees on songs for the ex-Drifters’ 1975/76 albums Supernatural (“Happiness Is Where You Find It”) and I Had a Love (“Tower of Strength”).

After Stax’s late-1975 liquidation, Crutcher moved to Nashville. She reteamed with Knight on “Take Off Your Shoes,” recorded in 1988/89 by B.B. King and Bobby Bland.

Discography: