Betty Davis Shares First New Song In 40 Years

Fin Costello/Redferns

Betty Davis Shares First New Song In 40 Years

Fin Costello/Redferns

Betty Davis has released her first new song in 40 years. The funk and soul musician, who was briefly married to Miles Davis and whose cult status was re-affirmed last decade when her three 1970’s albums were re-issued by Light In The Attic, recently sat down for a rare interview with The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, her local paper since she relocated to the area after getting out of the music business in the ’80s.

The new song, “A Little Bit Hot Tonight,” was released in conjunction with a Pittsburgh screening of Betty – They Say I’m Different, a 2017 documentary chronicling Davis’ boundary-breaking career. Davis doesn’t sing on the track — that honor goes to Pittsburgh musician Danielle Maggio — but it was recorded by Davis and some local musicians earlier this year. Per the track’s Bandcamp description:

The idea for the song, “A Little Bit Hot Tonight,” was first hatched while Betty was performing in Tokyo with the Arakawa Band in the early 1980s, but it wasn’t until 2019 when she finally wrote and arranged the tune for local musicians who recorded it in her hometown of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

Listen to it below.

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