Sometimes the energy in a song is so palpable that you can tell the musicians have hit gold. That’s the case with the 1971 single by Betty Wright, “Clean Up Woman,” a soul song whose popularity at the time signified its special character. You can tell, from the first notes of guitarist Willie “Little Beaver” Hale, that he and Wright had achieved a singular collaboration. Maybe that’s why the tune has been sampled by both Chance the Rapper and Mary J. Blige. The irrepressibly catchy guitar forms the backbone that supports swinging horns and Wright’s confident vocals. She sings:
A clean up woman is a woman who
Gets all the love we girls leave behind