ABOUT BETTY GRAY
Betty Gray is a singer songwriter who adopts the "old school" elements that she grew up listening to and uses them in a contemporary setting. In 2017, she moved to Boston to follow her dream at Berklee College of Music where her solo-career started.
Her debut in Four Shades of Gray, a multigenerational jazz record featuring all four generations of the Gray family, was a pivotal moment in her life. Collaborating with her namesake, 50s singer Betty Johnson, was “truly inspiring” and served as the “impetus to keep [her] legacy alive”.
Now, she is based in London and has gone on to pursue solo projects with a more pop-feel but continues to explore her roots in Jazz. You can find her most recent recordings as well as her family catalogue on all streaming platforms.
FAMILY MUSICAL HISTORY
JOHNSON FAMILY SINGERS
Betty Gray is a descendent of the renowned American performers The Johnson Family Singers of Charlotte, NC – popular from the late 1930s to the early fifties thanks to their daily radio show of almost ten years on WBT and appearances on the Grand Ole Opry. The Johnson Family Singers performed across the south, recorded 52 songs for Columbia Records and a similar number of songs on the RCA-Victor label. In 1958 they reunited for two appearances on the Ed Sullivan Show.
BETTY JOHNSON
Betty Johnson’s solo career took off after winning the star-making top tv show, Arthur Godfrey’s Talent Scouts. She was originally signed by Columbia Records and made some recordings before signing with Bell Records in 1954. In the same year she signed with Csida-Grean, a management company that produced many of her subsequent recordings.
In 1955, she signed with RCA Victor, which sent her to Chicago, Illinois. In Chicago, Ms. Johnson worked on the syndicated television series, Eddy Arnold Time, backed by a group who had worked with her family on the Grand Ole Opry, The Jordanaires. That group later became well known as a backing group for Elvis Presley. While in Chicago, she was a regular on Don McNeill’s Breakfast Club beginning in 1955, which led to a contract with a small record company, Bally Records. After one not-so-notable recording for Bally, she reached number 9 on the Billboard charts with her biggest hit, “I Dreamed”, in 1956. She continued to appear on The Breakfast Club until 1957.
Ms. Johnson then was hired by Jack Paar for his television show, Tonight. This led to a record contract with Atlantic Records in 1957, for which she had her next big hit, “Little Blue Man”. Johnson continued on Tonight until 1962 when Paar was replaced by Johnny Carson, while also making appearances on a number of other television shows and headlining at The Persian Room and The Blue Angel in New York and the Cocoanut Grove in Los Angeles as well as other top venues of the time.
In 1964 she married Arthur Gray, an investment banker in New York City. She had two daughters, Lydia (born 1966) and Elisabeth(born 1968). From then until 1993 she mostly stayed out of show business, going to college – attending some classes at Dartmouth College beginning in 1977, but ultimately getting her Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of New Hampshire in 1981.
In 1984 and 1985 Johnson appeared as Essie Miller in the Goodspeed Opera House’s revival of TAKE ME ALONG! In 1993, she returned to show business, appearing at the Algonquin Hotel in New York and subsequently starting her own record label, Bliss Tavern Music, for which she continues to make recordings. Her recent projects include Four Shades of Gray; a collaboration with her daughters Lydia Gray, Elisabeth Gray and granddaughter Betty Gray and the restoration and remastering from LP’s of The Take Five Sessions Betty recorded in NYC with the Lou Garisto Quartet in the late 1950’s through early 1960’s. Ms.Johnson’s entire digital music catalog, including Four Shades of Gray, as well as her 2007 autobiography “In Her Own Words” is available on her website, Apple Music, Spotify,YouTube Music, and Amazon Music .
