Little Ann born 22 March 1945

Little Ann (22 March 1945 – 26 January 2003) was an American soul singer. Her recording career was short-lived but her work was 'rediscovered' shortly before her death. 

Originally born Ann Bridgeforth from Chicago, but growing up in the small town of Mount Clemens in Michiganin 1957, "Little Ann" Bridgeforth sang in church, inspired by local gospel legend Aretha Franklin.. She later performed regularly as a singer, including at her cousin's club, Michelle's Playroom. When she was getting gigs elsewhere, she changed her name to Little Ann - how she was known within the family, as the youngest of seven brothers and sisters. 

In 1967 in Detroit, she recorded "Deep Shadows", produced by Dave Hamilton, but it was not released, and was almost lost to history. During 1969, she recorded an album's worth of her soulful singing, with Hamilton. The record company, Ric-Tic, released only one song, "Going Down a One Way Street", as a single (Ric-Tic142). Apparently when they took the song to Wingate he demanded they change the lyrics and the arrangements. He also put an instrumental on the flip side. 

                                   

Unfortunately when Ric-Tic was taken over by Motown, Ann’s career seemed to be over. Her dreams of national exposure ultimately withered with time and neglect, although under new management of Rony Darrell, Ann got some cabaret work in Canada and during her stay she recorded and released two singles in 1972 under her real name. 

She then met up with a white rock group called Fat Chance and they toured together extensively over three years. She then resumed her solo career working in Canada and Detroit until 1977when she quit show business to work with the Chrysler Motor Corporation, where she made a successful career for herself. 

Though she continued to sing in church when she returned to Michigan, she had largely forgotten about her music career. But for two decades, the tapes of those early Hamilton recordings quietly collected dust. In the early 1980s, an acetate of a Little Ann song was discovered by someone in England. Under the title "When He's Not Around" by Rose Valentine, it became a big hit in the Northern soul scene. It wasn't until 1990 that two British soul collectors, Gilly and Andy Taylor came upon the Hamilton tapes while digging through his vaults  and found that the Rose Valentines single was in fact “What Should I Do” by Little Ann. Thus began the slow discovery of Little Ann, as several of her songs turned up on compilations by the U.K.'s respected Ace/Kent imprint. 

"Deep Shadows" was finally heard by the world on the CD compilation Dave Hamilton's Detroit Dancers, Vol 1 in 1998, along with two other, at-that-time unreleased, tracks. It has since been covered several times and has featured in a Nike Jordan trainers ad in the US. Further unreleased tracks appeared on Detroit Dancers Volumes 2 and 3, in 1999 and 2006 respectively, before the tracks were compiled on vinyl in 2009 with the release of the entire Deep Shadows album on Helsinki's Timmion Records. 

When Ace Records acquired Dave Hamilton’s Detroit studio tapes, more previously unheard gems came to light: eventually there were found to be nine songs recorded in 1967 and 1968 with Dave and his partner Darrell Goolsby. ‘Who Are You Trying To Fool’, ‘Sweep It Out In The Shed’ and ‘Lean Lanky Daddy’ proved to be perfect additions for the Northern Soul dance scene, while ‘I Got To Have You’ and ‘Possession’ wowed the funk crowd, and the beauty of ‘Deep Shadows’ got through to every type of soul fan. 

Finally, with the release of some of her music, thirty five years after launching her career, Little Ann was flown to the UK and performed on stage in June 1999 at the 6t’s Cleethorpes Weekender in England to the type of adulation she would have dreamt about as a child. When in the UK, Ann re-recorded “Who Are You Trying To Fool" for Ian Levine’s video documentary The Strange World Of Northern Soul. 

Sadly Ann Bridgeforth died in Michigan on the 26th January 2003, just as her talents were finally being recognized. 

(Edited from Wikipedia, Ady Crosdell liner notes, NPR, Soul Discovery, Discogs & Soulful Detroit)

Please note that Little Ann (Bridgeforth) is not to be confused with Little Ann (Sandford) who recorded with Tarheel Slim between 1959 and 1965.