WYXR Stereo Sessions: Bettye Crutcher – “Long As You Love Me (I’ll Be Alright)”

WYXR 91.7 FM’s “WYXR Stereo Sessions presented by MEMPHO” is a monthly series of hi-fi album listening parties that explore Memphis music that fans may have missed. These are the often unheard albums that have become cult favorites over time.

Stax’s Enterprise Records subsidiary concerned itself with expanding the perception of the Memphis sound. As it had before with albums from Isaac Hayes and David Porter, the label made way for another hit-making songwriter to turn the soul genre on its head, this time with Bettye Crutcher. Responsible, in part, for penning the record-breaking “Who’s Making Love” by Johnnie Taylor years earlier, Crutcher stood on her own to employ a healthy dose of breezy, gentle folk-inspired decadence into her only full-length release.