She left Motown after four years, at the age of 22, and largely retired from the music industry until the 1990s, after her recordings had become popular on the British "Northern soul" scene.

[1][2] In 1948, she and her infant brother, Wade, Jr., moved with their parents to the Watts section of Los Angeles where her sister, Patrice, was born in 1951.

Brenda took up violin, flute and piano and sang in her church choir, as well as developing a love of classical music.

[1] At the age of 14, she began working on demonstration records and singing backup for Los Angeles-based R&B acts,[3] and with the young Patrice.

[1] In late 1963, she was invited by Davis to a deejay's party which Motown CEO Berry Gordy Jr. was attending,[1] and lip-synced to Mary Wells' hit "You Beat Me to the Punch".

Holloway chose to stay in Los Angeles for the time being, and her early Motown records were produced there by Hal Davis and Marc Gordon.

Released in April 1964, three months before Holloway's eighteenth birthday, the song peaked at number thirteen on the Billboard Hot 100,[6] winning her a spot on Motown's Motortown Revue.

Motown issued Holloway's debut album, Every Little Bit Hurts, and released the modestly successful ballad, "I'll Always Love You", which reached no.

[8] Some of the Detroit staff regarded her as temperamental and a "troublemaker", and the company increasingly focused attention on its most successful acts, notably the Supremes.

[1] A follow-up album, to have been called Hurtin' and Cryin', was scrapped by the label, and Holloway began to consider that she was being disregarded by the company, perhaps in part because she was not based in Detroit.

Berry Gordy was allowed to change a few notes on the musical composition, giving him a songwriting credit together with the record's producer, Frank Wilson.

[3] In 1969, Holloway sued Gordy for monetary reasons stemming from the success of Blood, Sweat & Tears' cover version of her single, "You've Made Me So Very Happy", which the group had taken to no.

She married a preacher, Albert Davis, in Los Angeles in 1969, and the couple had four children, Beoir, Unita, Christy and Dontese.

Her records remained popular on Britain's Northern soul club circuit, and many tracks were reissued on compilation CDs.