Love & Desire: The Patrice Holloway Anthology

The younger sister of Motown star Brenda Holloway, Patrice Holloway had a mighty interesting life, as documented in the 20-page booklet of liner notes accompanying this collection. She started recording for Motown at the age of 12 in 1963 (and had already recorded before that); was a young Stevie Wonder's girlfriend, cutting the tribute "Stevie" (included here) as her 1963 Motown single; continued recording for Motown and Capitol in her teens; was one of the backup singers on the Supremes' "Someday We'll Be Together"; and was part of the group created to do the music for the cartoon version of Josie & the Pussycats. She was still a young woman when her career was derailed by mental illness in the mid-'70s. She never did have commercial success as a solo artist, however, and this 25-track anthology was pieced together from her handful of rare Capitol 1966-1972 singles, that 1963 Motown 45, and a whole bunch of mid-'60s Motown outtakes (ten of which make their first appearance here). There's no way the music can be as interesting as the tale, but if you like mainstream soul from the era, it certainly has its virtues, though it's lacking songs on the level of Motown's hits (or her sister Brenda's recordings, for that matter). Holloway has a strong, slightly cooing breathy high voice, though the songs (even the 1966-1967 ones for Capitol) sometimes bear too much of a resemblance to mid-'60s sides by Mary Wells and the Supremes to make her stand out from the crowd. The David Axelrod-produced 1967 single "Stay with Your Own Kind" is a standout for its lyric about interracial romance, and girl group fans will like some of the earliest recordings, like "Face in the Crowd," which sounds more like a Jackie DeShannon song than a Motown one. ~ Richie Unterberger