Jan Bradley was born Addie Bradley in Byhalia, Mississippi, in 1943. The family moved to Robbins, a Chicago suburb, when she was four. In high school, she teamed up with group called the Passions and won a school talent show. Her performance attracted the attention of Don Talty, who wasn’t too interested in the Passions, but wanted to sign Bradley. After she graduated, Addie duly signed with Talty, who decided that Jan would be a much better stage name.
Talty had asked Curtis Mayfield to work with Bradley and he came up with “We Girls” for her first release in 1962 on Talty’s Formal Records label. Three more singles were issued in 1962, “Whole Lot of Soul” on Formal, “Behind the Curtains” on Night Owl, and another Mayfield composition “Christmas Time” on Hootenanny Records. Talty produced all of them.
In 1963, things moved up a gear with the next Formal release, another Mayfield song entitled “Mama Didn’t Lie”. The single was picked up for national distribution by Chess. Thanks to the stronger marketing that Chess was able to provide, the single rose to number fourteen on the Billboard Hot 100 Singles Chart and number eight on the Billboard R&B Singles Chart. Sadly, Mayfield and Chess could not agree on publishing rights, so this was the final Mayfield song that Bradley recorded for Chess. Instead, she started to write her own material.
Between 1964 and 1968, Chess released eight singles by Jan Bradley. Only one charted, 1965’s “I’m Over You”, which reached number twenty-four on the Billboard R&B Singles Chart but only ninety-three on the Billboard Hot 100 Singles Chart. It is a bouncy Pop tune. Bradley sings with great enthusiasm but sounds very young. Bradley then left Chess and released several more singles on a variety of small labels, including “Tricks of the Trade” in 1971, which was a Bradley composition. After that, Bradley left the music business, raised a family and became a social worker.
Several of Bradley’s singles became popular on the Northern Soul circuit in the UK. The solid beat of “Your Kind of Lovin’” from 1967, arranged by Riley Hampton, is typical of them.
