Betty Carter (1929–1998) was a prominent U.S. jazz singer, renowned for her… Read Full Bio ↴Betty Carter (1929–1998) was a prominent U.S. jazz singer, renowned for her improvisational technique and idiosyncratic vocal style. Carter expanded the role of the vocalist in jazz, to a full, improvising member of the band. Although her voice was not as admired by the public as such vocalists as Sarah Vaughan or Ella Fitzgerald, many consider her to have exercised mastery of the human voice previously unheard in jazz. Carmen McRae once claimed that "there's really only one jazz singer - only one: Betty Carter."

Carter was born Lillie Mae Jones on 16th May 1929 in Flint, Michigan and grew up in Detroit, where her father led a church choir. She studied piano at the Detroit Conservatory. She won a talent contest and became a regular on the local club circuit, singing and playing piano. When she was sixteen, she sang with Charlie Parker. She later performed with Dizzy Gillespie and Miles Davis and toured with Lionel Hampton (from whom she received the nickname "Betty Bebop"), when she perfected her scat singing of bebop.

Her career was eclipsed somewhat during the 1960s and 1970s, though a series of duets with Ray Charles in 1961, including the R&B-chart-topping "Baby, It's Cold Outside", brought her a measure of popular recognition. She recorded for various labels during this period, including Peacock, ABC-Paramount, and Atco, but was rarely satisfied with the resulting product. An episode in which a record company A&R man tried to abscond with a set of her master recordings led her to establish her own record label, Bet-Car, in 1970. Some of her most outstanding recordings were first issued on Bet-Car, including the double album The Audience with Betty Carter (1980). She was well-received at the Newport Jazz Festival in 1977 and 1978. In 1987 Carter signed with Verve Records. She won a Grammy in 1988 for her album Look What I Got! and sang in a guest appearance on The Cosby Show in that year.

She died on 26th September 1998.

Foul Play
Betty Carter Lyrics

Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴

You threw my love
away
It didn't have to be
Why did you pick on my Foul Play

Okay
Maybe I'll learn
Someday

To give my heart
A break
And make no more mistakes with Foul Play
You looked right in my eyes
And starting telling lies
You had been planning from
the start away to break my heart

Someday
Foul play might come your way
Then maybe you will learn
It's time that you got burn by Foul Play

You looked right in my eyes
And started telling lies
You had been planning from the start away
To break my heart

Someday
Foul play might come your way

Then maybe you will learn
It's time that you got burn by Foul Play

Overall Meaning

In Betty Carter's song, Foul Play, the singer expresses her pain and frustration with a past lover who has betrayed her. She addresses the hurtful actions of this person and how they chose to throw away her love, causing her heartbreak. The singer acknowledges that she may have made mistakes in relationships before and that she may need to learn how to give her heart a break. However, the focus of the song is on the foul play committed by her past lover. This individual looked her in the eyes and lied, deliberately planning to break her heart from the start. The singer warns that someday, the tables may turn and foul play may come the betrayer's way, leading to an important lesson about the consequences of mistreating someone else's heart.

The lyrics to Foul Play are deeply emotive, conveying the pain and anger felt by someone who has suffered from infidelity or betrayal in a relationship. The song highlights the importance of recognizing when someone is mistreating you and the need to stand up for oneself. It also touches on the idea that those who commit foul play will inevitably have to face the consequences of their actions at some point. Overall, this is a powerful and evocative song that speaks to the human experience of heartbreak and the importance of learning from difficult experiences.

Line by Line Meaning

You threw my love away
You got rid of my love, discarded it without any consideration

It didn't have to be
It was not necessary to do this, it could have been avoided

Why did you pick on my Foul Play
Why did you choose to target me with deceit and dishonesty

Okay
I understand

Maybe I'll learn
Perhaps I will gain knowledge or experience

Someday
In the future

To give my heart
To offer my love and emotions

A break
A pause from love and relationships

And make no more mistakes with Foul Play
And avoid any further errors when it comes to dealing with deceitful behavior

You looked right in my eyes
You gazed directly into my eyes

And starting telling lies
And began to speak falsehoods