Label Guide: Motown
Motown is an American record company, founded by Berry Gordy, Jr. as Tamla Records in January 1959, and incorporated as Motown Record Corporation in Detroit, Michigan. The name is a combination of motor and town and has since become the nickname for Detroit. Motown quickly became the most popular and most successful African American-owned record label in the United States, and its unique blend of soul and pop music came to be known as Motown Sound, a defining movement of 1960s pop culture.
Motown Records was established in late 1959 as the second label of Motown Record Corporation, and releases were quite evenly distributed between Tamla and Motown. The two labels featured the same writers, producers and artists, but too much airplay for just one label would have led to accusations of payola. The third major division of Motown Record Corporation, Gordy Records, was founded in 1962.
The parent company started additional subsidiary labels in the 1960s, including the short-lived Check-Mate Records (1961) and Melody (1962), Soul Records and V.I.P. Records (both 1964), Weed Records (1969), the jazz label Workshop Jazz (1962) and the rock music subsidiary Rare Earth (1969). In 1971 followed MoWest Records as the outlet for R&B/soul artists based on the West Coast.
In the United Kingdom, Motown's records were first released on London, Fontana and Oriole before Motown signed with EMI's Stateside label in 1963. Eventually EMI created the Tamla Motown label in 1965, which has since been used for most international releases of Motown recordings and those of its various sub-labels.
Motown had established branch offices in both New York City and Los Angeles during the mid-1960s, and by 1969 had begun gradually moving more of its operations to Los Angeles. The company moved all of its operations to Los Angeles in June 1972. Motown remained an independent company through the decades, until by the mid-1980s Motown had started losing money, and Berry Gordy sold his ownership in Motown to MCA Records and Boston Ventures in June 1988 (which took over full ownership of Motown in 1991). Motown was then sold to PolyGram in 1994, before being sold again to MCA Records' successor, Universal Music Group, when it acquired PolyGram in 1999.
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1. Label Variation
first Motown label (1961)
This very first Motown label was used only for the Mary Wells album (MLP-600).
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2. Label Variation
second Motown label (1961 - 1963)
The second Motown label was used from MT-601 to about MT-609. It shows a zoomed-out map of the northern United States with a red star over Detroit, Michigan. As the map shows a wider area than later versions of the label, the red star is located over the 'W' of the 'MOTOWN' logo. The logo itself is printed in red and white, but a second variation of this label, used probably only for the later 1963 releases, has the logo more colourful in red and yellow gradients.
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3. Label Variation
third Motown label (1963 - 1969)
In late 1963/early 1964 the logo changed to show a much closer up map of the Detroit area, so the red star is now located on the left side of the label, between the 'O' and 'T' of the 'MOTOWN' logo. This label was used from here on, well into the 1990s, with only very minor changes.
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4. Label Variation
fourth Motown label (1970 - 1990s)
One of these changes was that around the turn of the decade (1970) the '2648 W. Grand Blvd. Detroit 8, Michigan' address was removed from the bottom rim text, and replaced by 'A PRODUCT OF MOTOWN RECORD CORP.' Layout and colours of the U.S. Motown label stayed the same for more than two decades from here on.
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1. UK Label Variation
first UK Tamla Motown label ( - 1969)
In most international markets, all the labels of the Motown family were released under the 'Tamla Motown' brand. In the United Kingdom, Motown was distributed by EMI and several of the U.S. albums were released on the EMI Stateside label before. Shown here is the first version of the UK Tamla Motown label. The text 'Sold in U.K. subject to resale price conditions. see price lists' indicates a pressing earlier than July 1969. For all EMI-distributed labels in the UK, this text must be present on the label for all original pressings, released between February 1964 and July 1969.
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2. UK Label Variation
second UK Tamla Motown label (1969 - )
The label design did not change when the 'Sold in U.K. subject to resale price conditions. see price lists' line was removed. A UK label with this line missing indicates a pressing later than June 1969.
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Japanese Label Variation
Japanese Tamla Motown label (1970s)
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Modern Motown Label
German Motown label (1980s)