Brenda Takes to the Skies
IN THE COMPANY OF FOUR YOUNG LIVERPUDLIANS
The early English evangelists for Motown are back in the public eye.
New on the Disney+ streaming service is Beatles ’64, a documentary about the quartet’s first, trendsetting visit to the United States. Director David Tedeschi has recruited various witnesses and commentators, including Smokey Robinson and Ronald Isley, and the outcome has generally provoked positive reviews.
Brenda Holloway, Motown’s first California signing
The Beatles’ admiration for Motown artists such as the Miracles, Mary Wells and Marvin Gaye back in the day has, of course, been well-tracked. And Wells was the first of two Motown acts who joined them on the road during the height of Beatlemania: she was on the bill for their autumn ‘64 tour of England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland (although, technically, she had left Motown by that point).
Another reason the Beatles have been in the news recently is the prospective sale – perhaps for more than $100,000 – of a rare, top-quality recording of the group in concert during their North American tour of August 1965. Piers Hemmingsen, the well-regarded author of The Beatles In Canada – The Evolution 1964-1970, is selling two reel-to-reel audio tapes of their performance at Toronto’s Maple Leaf Gardens, sourced from its soundboard.
And that’s where the second, Beatles-linked Motown act comes in: Brenda Holloway, whose four-song offering at the Maple Leaf Gardens is also on the audio tapes in Hemmingsen’s possession (as are sets of the other opening acts, including the King Curtis band and Cannibal & the Headhunters). The concert took place on August 17, 1965, when Holloway blazed through “Shake,” “(I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction,” “You Can Cry On My Shoulder,” and “I Can’t Help Myself (Sugar Pie, Honey Bunch).” Last month, Hemmingsen confirmed for me, “The sound quality is excellent.”
The singer was 17 years of age when she signed to Motown Records, having been seen (and heard) by Berry Gordy at the 1963 National Association of Radio Announcers’ annual convention, held in Los Angeles that August. The following summer, Holloway was part of Dick Clark’s Caravan of Stars roadshow, which also included the Supremes, on the eve of their “Where Did Our Love Go” breakthrough. During that same period of 1964, the Beatles toured the U.S. and Canada, with the Exciters and Jackie DeShannon among the supporting acts.
‘A DREAM TOUR’
By at least one account, it was DeShannon who suggested to Holloway – both were aspiring, Los Angeles-based stars – that she should join the Beatles’ second U.S. tour, in 1965, but after it was over, the youngster told the Detroit Free Press that Gordy was the facilitator. She believed that he had suggested her to Brian Epstein, the group’s manager. “I don’t think the Beatles knew anything about me until it was all settled,” Holloway said.
“It could equally be that they wanted a Tamla singer,” says Beatles authority Mark Lewisohn, “and as the bill lacked enough female representation, she got the gig. Or else she was available, and others were not. Though I’ve no knowledge of them especially liking Brenda, I’m sure they did. All the talent booking was done by General Artists Corporation. Brian Epstein approved the list, but GAC did the paperwork.”
Brenda in London, 2011 (photo: Alamy)
The itinerary began at New York’s Shea Stadium on August 15, followed by the Toronto show two days later. The package went on to Atlanta, Houston, Chicago, San Diego and Los Angeles, among other sites, and wrapped up in San Francisco on August 31. The entourage travelled by a leased aircraft from city to city. “I loved the tour because we got to fly every place and eat on the plane,” Holloway told KRLA Beat that September. “It’s been a dream tour.”
Motown had its share of responsibility, sending chaperone Bernyce Morrison with the Tamla teenager – in the tradition already established by the firm’s earlier, multi-artist roadshows. “Mrs. Ardena Johnston, Mrs. Margarine Stafford, Mrs. Maxine Powell and Mrs. Doris Postles travelled with some of the young ladies of Motown,” Morrison told the Michigan Chronicle in 1971, “such as the Marvelettes, Martha & the Vandellas, the Supremes and our little pixie from Philly, Tammi Terrell, whom, as you know, we lost. I travelled with all of them.”
She added, “Seldom did I find it a chore.”
Cincinnati-born Morrison moved to Detroit in the early 1920s, where she served as secretary for the Detroit Civic Opera company, and was a Jobs Corps. counsellor. When she joined Motown, she acquired the respect and appreciation of Martha Reeves and Mary Wilson, among others. Holloway certainly appreciated her chaperone. “Bernyce Morrison had the sweetest personality,” she told Callista Gould, author of the forthcoming biography of Motown’s queen of etiquette, Maxine Powell. “She loved me. She had these big, adorable eyes. She was like our mother. I really enjoyed her. I don’t know if she had kids, I don’t know how [Motown] ran into her. She was a Christian lady, a little bit different from the rest of them. She was lovable. Like a mother, almost like a grandmother that I never had.”
Mary Wilson was equally complimentary. “After [Esther Edwards’] strict, overbearing attitude, Mrs. Morrison seemed like an angel,” she recalled in her Dreamgirl autobiography. “Still, she lectured us: ‘Now, girls, this is an opportunity for you that shouldn’t be marred by an over-eagerness to become intimate with boys on this trip.’ ” Then, according to Wilson, Morrison “went on and on to tell us about the perils of impetuous affairs and the effect the consequences might have on our families, our futures, and – especially – our careers.”
SO FOCUSED, SO CLEAN-CUT
By the 1970s, Morrison had left Motown, authored a book on her life experiences, and helped the Contours’ Joe Billingslea and Hubert Johnson evolve into a new group, the Basic Elements. For her part, Brenda Holloway kept in touch up to the death of her “almost grandmother” in 1987.
The Beatles’ tour took Holloway to audiences ranging from 15,000 to 55,000 across North America, and sealed for herself a footnote in popular music history. “They were the most beautiful men,” she later said. “They were so focused, and together, so clean-cut and so ‘business.’ ”
On the subject of business, the decision to release the recording of the Beatles’ Toronto performance – whether or not it would include Holloway’s set – lies with Apple Corps. Hemmingsen is within his rights to sell the tapes, but whoever buys them, at whatever price, would not be able to make them available commercially without Apple’s approval.
Then again, the Beatles truly were Motown evangelists, so perhaps the opportunity to give renewed attention to the young Californian starlet who once joined them on the road – and in the air – would appeal to Paul and Ringo. And it surely would make Brenda so very happy.
Author notes: thanks to Mark Lewisohn, Callista Gould and Piers Hemmingsen for their insights above. Meanwhile, Susan Whitall’s Women of Motown (DeVault-Graves, 2017) contains further Holloway history via an in-person, in-depth interview.
Music notes: this WGB playlist of Holloway highlights is drawn from several sources, including 2005’s The Motown Anthology, produced by Andy Skurow during his many years at Universal Music, working with the Motown catalogue. On that 2CD set was a rare in-concert recording of the singer, interpreting George Gershwin’s “Summertime.” Skurow says that while the compilation was being assembled, he located 14 tape reels of Holloway’s appearances at Detroit’s 20 Grand nightclub during 1966. He had hoped a Brenda Live! album might result, but it was not to be. Among the numbers she performed at the venue was “I Can’t Help Myself (Sugar Pie, Honey Bunch),” which she did on the Beatles tour, and – in addition to her own hits – songs such as “Since I Fell For You,” “Hold On! I’m A Comin’,” and “Rescue Me.”