Brenda Holloway born June 21, 1946

Brenda Holloway (born June 21, 1946) is an American soul singer who was a recording artist for Motown Records during the 1960s. She left Motown after four years, at the age of 22, and largely retired from the music industry until the 1990s, after her recordings had become popular on the British "Northern soul" scene.

Holloway was born in Atascadero, California, in 1946 and grew up in the Watts section of Los Angeles; as a child, she learned violin and began singing in church with her younger sister Patrice (who later became a prominent session singer and contributed vocals to Josie & the Pussycats). After singing with the group that later became the Whispers, Holloway's first professional recording was made at age 14, backing 12-year-old Patrice on a locally released single. Brenda herself soon began cutting records on several different L.A. labels, and she and her sister also found work as session vocalists.

                                  

In 1964, Holloway performed a rendition of Mary Wells' "My Guy" at a DJ convention in Los Angeles. Motown founder Berry Gordy happened to be there, and he was so struck by the power of her vocals (not to mention her physical form) that he made Holloway his first West Coast signing, placing her on the Tamla subsidiary. Her debut single, "Every Little Bit Hurts," was an R&B smash that also reached number 12 on the pop charts, and was covered by British R&B aficionados like the Spencer Davis Group and the Small Faces; it became the title track of her first album, also released in 1964.

Holloway won a spot on Dick Clark's "Caravan of Stars" tour on the condition that then-struggling Motown girl group The Supremes join them. Holloway also found fans in the Beatles, who gave her an opening slot on their 1965 American tour. Her performances were taped and recorded when The Beatles held their landmark Shea Stadium show on August 15 of that year. Holloway's successes led to her being an in-demand television celebrity.

She scored several more R&B hits through 1965 -- "I'll Always Love You" and the Smokey Robinson-penned tracks "When I'm Gone" and "Operator." However, Tamla scrapped a follow-up album, which would have been called Hurtin' and Cryin', and Holloway began to feel that she was getting the short end of the stick. She frequently travelled from her home in Los Angeles to record in Detroit, and began to feel that the material she was given wasn't always up to snuff, perhaps because of her distance. She began to work more on her own writing, often in partnership with her sister, and with a bit of outside help they co-wrote "You've Made Me So Very Happy" in 1968. Berry Gordy was allowed to change a few notes on the musical composition, giving him a song-writing credit together with the record's producer, Frank Wilson. This led to Holloway's third top-40 pop single, with the song reaching number 39 on the Hot 100 and number 40 on the R&B chart. Holloway's version was a minor R&B hit, but Blood Sweat & Tears turned it into a major pop hit the following year.

Her second album, The Artistry of Brenda Holloway, was released in 1968. However, midway through a recording session with Smokey Robinson in Detroit, she left the studio and returned to Los Angeles. Motown's PR later released a statement on Holloway's departure, saying she had left to "sing for God", but her real reasons were her disillusionment with Motown and with her management, and her fear of being drawn into a lifestyle which conflicted with her religious convictions.  

In 1969, Holloway sued Gordy for monetary reasons stemming from the success of Blood, Sweat & Tears' cover version of her single, "You've Made Me So Very Happy", which the group had taken to number 2 on the US pop chart that year. Holloway eventually won her case. She recorded for Holland, Dozier and Holland's labels Invictus and Music Merchant in the late 1960s and early 1970s. With her sister Patrice, she also continued session work into the 1970s, including several sessions with British rock singer Joe Cocker. She married a preacher, Albert Davis, in Los Angeles in 1969, and the couple had four children, Beoir, Unita, Christy and Dontese.

In 1980, Holloway released a gospel album for Birthright Records, Brand New!, that went unnoticed. After several unhappy years, she and Albert Davis divorced in the mid-1980s. Holloway's records remained popular on England's so-called "Northern soul" scene, and in 1987 she travelled to the U.K. to record several Motown-style singles for producer Ian Levine's Motorcity label. She recorded the song "On The Rebound" as a duet with Jimmy Ruffin 1989, then on the album All It Takes, two years later, in 1991. In 1995, motivated by the death of Mary Wells, she returned to live performance around the L.A. area, often in tandem with fellow soul veteran Brenton Wood. She performed in the U.K. as well, and in 1999 she signed with the revived Volt label to record It's a Woman's World, which took a more contemporary urban approach. That same year Holloway was honoured with the Rhythm & Blues Foundation's prestigious Pioneer Award.

Her last album, My Love is Your Love, was released in 2003. Several of Holloway's classic recordings, including "Every Little Bit Hurts", "When I'm Gone" and "You've Made Me So Very Happy" were covered by a variety of acts over the years. In 2003, Vivian Green played Holloway in a cameo appearance on the TV show, American Dreams, where she sang "Every Little Bit Hurts," and, in 2005, Alicia Keys famously covered "Every Little Bit Hurts" for her Unplugged special. In 2005, Holloway appeared on the PBS concert TV special My Music: Salute to Early Motown. In 2011, Holloway recorded a duet with Cliff Richard on his Soulicious album, but did not perform with Richard on his accompanying concert tour in Britain.

Her later live performances have been rare, with her last major UK appearances primarily consisting of Northern Soul festivals and revues, such as her 2018 set at 229 The Venue in London.

(Edited from AllMusic & Wikipedia)