BRENDA HOLLOWAY: THE ARTISTRY OF BRENDA HOLLOWAY (1968)
1) Together 'Til The End Of
Time; 2) Every Little Bit Hurts; 3) Where Were You; 4) I've Got To Find It; 5)
Unchained Melody; 6) Hurt A Little Every Day; 7) I'll Be Available; 8) You've
Made Me So Very Happy; 9) I've Been Good To You; 10) Too Proud To Cry; 11) I'll
Always Love You; 12) Operator; 13) When I'm Gone; 14) You Can Cry On My
Shoulder; 15) Just Look What You've Done; 16) Starting The Hurt All Over Again;
17*) Mr Lifeguard (Come And Rescue Me); 18*) My Smile Is Just A Frown Turned
Upside Down; 19*) After All That You've Done; 20*) The Love Line; 21*) Can't We
Be Strangers Again; 22*) Just Another Lonely Night; 23*) Where There's A Will
There's A Way; 24*) It's Love I Need.
As I said, Brenda Holloway's discography is so
messy and confused that you will find quite a few sources repeating that The Artistry Of Brenda Holloway was her
second and last «regular» LP on the Motown label. That is, however, only true
to a certain degree. First, it seems to have had a very limited release —
restricted to the UK, for some reason (apparently, somebody calculated that
Brenda Holloway was more popular among the British; might that have anything to
do with young Stevie Winwood covering ʽEvery Little Bit Hurtsʼ?). Second, in
reality it was a compilation — singles, B-sides, album tracks, some stuff from
the shelved Hurtin' And Cryin', and
just three or four songs from the vaults. Not much to write home about.
Now, fourty-five years later, the album
unexpectedly gets remembered and re-released by Ace Records — with a whoppin'
eight bonus tracks, also culled from the vaults and unavailable elsewhere, not
even on the comprehensive 2-CD Motown
Anthology from 2005. Any reason to be interested? Yes. For serious lovers of Motown, these extra tracks, combined
with whatever news might be culled from the original album, will be a bit of a
blessing. Why the label never cared about releasing or promoting this music in
the Sixties is a big question mark — many of these songs are just as good as
any brand of lush pop that they were peddling back then. Just one more of these
silly «personal conflict issues», I guess, as history tells us.
Anyway, here are some highlights. First, the
original album. In addition to the good stuff that was already mentioned in the
previous two reviews, we have ʽWhere Were Youʼ, an upbeat, Supremes-style
single with ecstatic strings, triumphant brass, handclaps, angelic backing
vocals, and a party atmosphere that contrasts nicely with the usual lost-love lyrics.
Even more fun are the two extra Smokey Robinson tracks — ʽOperatorʼ, where
Brenda once again beats Mary Wells in terms of depth and subtlety; and ʽI'll Be
Availableʼ, which is just super-catchy-friendly — you know, one of those tunes
that should have been covered by the Beatles on the BBC sessions. "When
the U.S. mail is no longer mailable, I'll be available" gets me every
time.
Two more dang fine Smokey compositions are
among the bonuses — ʽMy Smile Is Just A Frown Turned Upside Downʼ, known as a
hit for Carolyn Crawford, is also done much more expressively by Brenda, in
fact, Smokey's «weeping» ballads are the perfect vehicle for Ms. «Hurtin'-and-Cryin'»
to ride altogether; and ʽAfter All That You've Doneʼ, once again more upbeat
and playful, castigates the lady's unfaithful friend in a bittersweet manner —
finger-poppin', funky bassline, sly vocal hooks ("you had a girl over
here, a girl over there"), the works. She also does a good job with Billy
Eckstine's ʽLove Lineʼ, and fires all her cannons on ʽIt's Love I Needʼ,
although, to be frank, «hystrionic» vocal delivery is not her strongest area —
she could compete with Mary Wells in expressiveness, or she could offer an
«aristocratic» alternative to the rowdiness of Martha Reeves and the seductive squeakiness
of Diana Ross, but when it comes to wailing and howling and bellowing, she was
no Aretha.
Anyway, while once again this is an odd, ragged
release that should probably best be left without any «rating» as such, it is
definitely a good thing that the vaults are being cleaned up this way — it does
baffle the mind, though, just how many perfectly commercial and perfectly artistically attractive
little nuggets Motown had Brenda record for them in the Sixties, only to let
them gather shelf dust for decades. My only complaint is that there's way too
much overlap with Motown Anthology —
most people will probably go for just one or the other. Then again, these days
it is becoming obsolete to think even in terms of «compilations», much less
cohesive LPs, and the way they treated Brenda, she'd be like the perfect number
one candidate to promote futuristic services like Spotify. Just hunt down the
songs anyway.
Good one! I'll have to hunt something like this down. Some of those "from the vault" releases from Motown can be hit and miss (eg: Marvin Gaye's "Lost And Found"), due to the 'factory-like' production mentality - but I bet Brenda Holloway could deliver!
ReplyDeleteGeorge, are you planning to review an Aaron Freeman's post-Ween solo LP any time soon? It would be interesting to know your opinion since the upgraded Ween reviews probably won't be appearing in the near future and, considering we're still around those first two letters of the alphabet, your reviewing chronology would remain undisturbed.
ReplyDeleteIt's a great album, and I suspect George would dig it a great deal, but he recorded it as "Freeman" and... well, since it starts with "F" expect a review some time around 2073.
DeleteOn the other hand, I'm excited that a little band called Captain Beyond might hopefully show up sometime before I start goin' gray.