photo: Wannabes
Bettye LaVette wasn’t the biggest name on stage at the recent Kennedy Center Honors, but her typically gut-wrenching performance of The Who’s “Love Reign O’er Me” provided one of the evening’s most spectacular moments.
The Foo Fighters’ Dave Grohl recently described his first encounter with Bettye’s rendition of the song to Air America’s Richard Greene: “We showed up for rehearsal, and one of the performers was rehearsing the song for the Who segment. It was a woman named Bettye LaVette…She is gonna steal the show. She was so phenomenal, this performance of The Who song that she did. It will bring you to tears. The room was pin-drop silent when she did this song, and it was just unbelievable”
The Who’s Pete Townshend himself agrees. In a Q&A on his blog at TheWho.com, the legendary axe-slinger said, “My favorite moment was when Bettye LaVette sang a very fine version of ‘Love Reign O’er Me’ at the Gala and Barbra Streisand turned to ask me if I really wrote it.”
“The Kennedy Center Honors was the most exciting thing I have every done in my life, because there were so many of my favorite politicians there,” says Bettye. “And this year has been the greatest year of my life. Who would have ever imagined both Barack and I going to the White House?”
Expect Bettye to return to the studio in 2009. In the meantime, the Kennedy Center Honors – honoring The Who, George Jones, Barbra Streisand, Morgan Freeman, and Twyla Tharp – airs December 30 on CBS.
1 response so far ↓
1 Shelly Dice // Dec 30, 2008 at 9:13 pm
I hope Bettye records her version of The Who’s “Reign O’er Me”. I haven’t been much of a CD shopper before, but after the Kennedy Center performance, I will definitely be buying anything she sings. I suppose Ms. LaVette is the performer I have been waiting for. I have not been impressed by anyone in particular for many years, until now.
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