Favorite Albums: Betty Boo / Boomania

Way back in the early 90’s, my friend made me a mixed cassette tape opening with an extremely dancey pop song which he’d culled off of the Career Opportunities soundtrack which he’d recently picked up. This song was called Where Are You Baby, by a mysterious singer named Betty Boo, and I loved it so much, I needed to hear MORE from this artist!

Happily, my brother owned a copy of Betty Boo’s new release Boomania, an album which featured Where Are You Baby as its opening track, and my GOSH, all it took was one spin and I fell in love with almost every track! One after the other, the songs coming at me were sooo, sooo rocking and catchy, I just HAD to pick the album up for myself!

Back in the days before Wikipedia and such, there was really nowhere to learn more about Betty Boo- where did she come from? What was her “Deal”? Of course, now I know quite a bit about the former Ms. Alison Clarkson, but at the time, all I knew was what was provided in the CD liner notes. In fact, it wasn’t until months later that I even saw any videoclips of Betty, and I have to say it was quite something seeing her performing “Hey DJ/I Can’t Dance To that Music” for the first time- complete with 1960’s James Bond Secret Agent kitsch- what a conundrum she was!

Of all the songs, the stand out tracks for me are Doing The Do, Hey DJ (I Can’t Dance To That Music You’re Playing, Boo’s Booming, 24 Hours, Don’t Know What To Do (dreamy synth pop here) and of course Where are You Baby, the song that started it all! Though Betty Boo’s music is decidedly more on the Rap/R&B side, there is something about its that makes it seem more like alternative music than soul- at the time I reflected that her sound sounded a lot like Dance Pop Trio Dee-Light, with their song Groove is in the Heart…

Betty followed Boomania with  a quirky album called “Grrr! It’s Betty Boo”, but after that, I didn’t hear much more from her. No matter, it’s Boomania that will stand the test of time, and in the years since its come out, I’ve introduced the album to many, MANY new fans and they all agree that Boomania is a snappy little masterpiece!