Tunes for Tuesdays: Brenda Holloway

I know North America turned their clocks back an hour just this past Sunday, but I recommend we turn them back a little further -- say, to the 1960s perhaps?

Oh, Motown -- I can't even imagine how exciting it must have been to hear these songs for the first time as new tracks. When you compare the quality of music produced from this small recording studio in Detroit to the Auto-Tune tracks of the present, it makes you wonder how we've managed to devolve so completely when it comes to popular music. 

But, I digress.

Brenda Holloway numbers herself among the alumni of Motown Records, though she spent quite a bit of her career in the shadows of the limelight. It wasn't until more recently that her recordings were unearthed and her music was once again brought to the foreground of classic soul.

Despite the fact that her name is not widely recognized by most, Ms. Holloway had one heck of a career with highlights that include:

• Her second hit reaching number thirteen on the Billboard Music Charts, thus winning her a spot on Dick Clark's Caravan of Stars tour
• Becoming a regular fixture on the show Shindig!
• Becoming one of only three women invited to open for The Beatles EVER. She performed in the first rock concert at Shea Stadium where The Beatles made music history (yet again)
• Making a career comeback in 1988 when she and her sister, Patrice, sang back-up vocals for Joe Cocker's iconic cover of "A Little Help from My Friends"

With a track record like that, Ms. Holloway deserves a special place in all of our iTunes libraries/CD collections.

Without further ado, here is her timeless track, "Every Little Bit Hurts" -- and yes, I encourage you to swoon completely:

... Now really, ladies -- how on Earth could you break the heart of a woman like that? I mean, really. She could sing me the Encyclopedia and I would be enraptured.

And, as an added bonus for this evening, I'd like to point out the fact that my lady love, Alicia Keys, has also covered Brenda Holloway's classic hit. This was actually the first version of the song I heard and, yes, I fell instantly in love with it. Ms. Keys sticks quite close to the original, but adds her own stylings and flair for an equally delightful and devastating track:

I know it's wrong to break a woman's heart, but if she writes and performs a track like that afterward? Well...... perhaps I'll have to let my morals slide a little...