Best known for the
irresistible Northern soul staple "It's Written All Over My Face,"
singer Marva Holiday was born in San Jose, California and and raised in South
Los Angeles and Compton, CA. Her
half-sister Yonnine was the daughter of jazz immortal Charles Mingus, who
served as a kind of surrogate father to Holiday as well. As a teen she sang
with her local Baptist church choir, and later began composing songs of her
own. In 1966, she briefly joined a touring version of Bonnie & the
Treasures, the girl group known for their Phil Spector-soundalike cult classic
"Home of the Brave," replacing original member Sherlie Matthews.
Holiday and Matthews nevertheless proved fast friends, and
with Matthews' career as a songwriter blossoming, she occasionally employed
Holiday on demo sessions. When GNP Crescendo exec Gene Norman received a copy
of their "It's Written All Over My Face," he quickly signed Holiday
to a solo deal, releasing the single to scant attention in 1967. Following the
record's failure she joined Black Magic, contributing three songs to their 1968
Atco LP Where Love Is. Holiday's tenure with the group proved brief and by the fall of 1970 she had relocated to
Berkeley, CA and was a music major at Oakland's Merritt College.
She returned to Los Angeles in 1971 to sign as a staff
writer with Motown Records' publishing arm, Jobete. In two years with the
company, only one of Holiday's songs ever made it to retail: Stacie Johnson's
1973 single "Woman in My Eyes." After several years of solo club
dates, Holiday effectively retired from performing in 1977, co-founding her own
publishing firm Scrunch Music. She later owned and operated her own
Oakland-based label, Zipporah, and returned to the live arena as a gospel
singer.
With "It's Written All Over My Face" finally
winning long-deserved attention via Britain's Northern soul club circuit, in
the summer of 2005 Holiday also made her U.K. debut at the Cleethorpes Mirwood
Revue, performing alongside Matthews and singer Jim Gilstrap.
In tribute to summer love songs, Marva digitally released
her new version of “To Love Somebody” on Friday, July 31, 2015. The song was
originally written and recorded in June 1967 by the Australian rock group The
Bee Gees.
“This release marks my effort to bring such songs back,”
says Holiday. “Joining me on the song is
Joe Chambers, former lead singer and songwriter of The Chambers Brothers, who
recorded the ‘60s rocker ‘Time.’ Joe fronts his own group in Los Angeles, The
Joe Chambers Experience. His soulful voice is tailor-made for this song, which
some say had been written for Otis Redding.”
Holiday’s remake of “To Love Somebody” heralds a new phase in
her music career which she calls “Part Two.” “It’s difficult for female
performers who are middle-aged and older to return to the music business once
it’s decided that they’re ‘too old,’” she notes. “I was pushed out of the
industry by ageism, but I’m not letting that stop me from coming right back,
right now!”
As her music career waned, Holiday raised her children and
turned to other vocations. Unknown to her, she was lionized in Europe in the
‘70s through the “Northern Soul” movement which
embraced records by ‘60s soul singers, even those who were not
famous. Holiday’s 1968 single “It’s
Written All Over My Face” became well known in Germany, the UK and other
countries where “the scene” is popular.
She relocated to Tempe, Arizona in 2005 where she continues
to work on new material and sometimes sit in with local bands. She released an
original composition, "Reflections", Dec 31, 2019, with an EP of
original material to follow.
“One of my goals is to inspire older women,” says Holiday.
“I will demonstrate that it IS possible to dust off one’s deferred dreams and
‘go for it.’ Age is nothing but a number. Making music, whether mine or that of
others, energizes me. I will write and perform as long as there’s an
audience.”
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