Brenda Holloway - "Hurtin' and Cryin'" and "Spellbound"

Motown Records scheduled the second album of Brenda Holloway to be released in November 1965 on its Tamla label. Titled Hurtin' and Cryin', the album never materialized. This is the reported track listing:

SIDE A
1. When I'm Gone
2. Just Look What You've Done
3. You've Made Me So Very Happy
4. I Don't Want Nobody's Gonna Make Me Cry
5. Till Johnny Comes
6. Hurt a Little Every Day

SIDE B
1. Starting the Hurt All Over
2. You Can Cry on My Shoulder
3. A World Without You
4. I'll Be Alright
5. Everybody Knows
6. Make Him Come to You

There are a number of possible reasons the album was shelved. Her hits had been moderate, and the Motown forces were more focused on the acts that were making them money, specifically Marvin Gaye, The Supremes, The Temptations and The Miracles. Also, Holloway was from L.A., one of the few non-Detroit-based acts on the label at the time. Perhaps most significantly, Holloway tended to rebel against the Motown machine, not going to its grooming school and often at odds with the material Motown was providing her.

Crazy enough, not only was the second album shelved, but two of the songs, "Just Look What You've Done" backed with "Starting to Hurt All Over" didn't see the light of day until released as a single 16 months later. And the Holloway-penned "You've Made Me So Very Happy" (later a big hit by Blood, Sweat and Tears) wasn't released as an A-side of a single until nearly two years after it was recorded.

All the tracks were eventually released in 2005 on Brenda Holloway: The Motown Anthology.

I found this album cover shown above online and simply added the Tamla logo.

SIDE A

1. I’m Giving Up

2. You Got a Little of Everything

3. Keep Me

4. What Good am I Without You?

5. The Lonely Heart and Lonely Eyes of Lonely Me

6. I Still Get Butterflies

7. Baby I’ve Got It

SIDE B

1. Spellbound

2. Whenever You Need Me

3. I Feel Your Love Growin’ on Me

4. Without Love You Lose a Good Feelin’

5. Can’t You Hear Me Knockin’?

6. Can’t Hold the Feeling Back

As if Holloway's tenure at Motown wasn't strange enough, even though some songs from the aborted 1965 album were eventually released as singles in 1967, there appears to have been an attempt to record another Holloway album in 1966. The compilation Motown Unreleased 1966 includes 13 songs recorded by her to build this potential third album.

As far as I know, no track list, album title, or album cover exists for this. So, I created my own or used what I could find on the Internet. In creating the track list, I tried to mix it up as best as possible. Most songs are dance-pop or ballads. Since we had an odd number of tracks, I put most of the longer tracks on the side with the fewest songs.

"What Good am I Without You?" had originally been titled "Talk Still Going On" and had been assigned to Tammi Terrell.

There was already a compilation album for Holloway titled Spellbound, so I simply took that cover and made a few changes to make it look more like an album from '66.

Holloway eventually recorded one more album for Tamla, The Artistry of Brenda Holloway, in 1968 before leaving the label for good.