History of Motown picture sleeves to promote 45rpm releases

[woodward]

The following is a story I developed originally for publication in the Michigan Chronicle, but I was unable to get them to publish it so I wanted to share the story with other Motown enthusiasts.

Back in the days when 45rpms were the money maker for record companies, it was customary for manufacturers to protect and promote the record with a picture sleeve. This allowed the record to draw attention from buyers. The sleeves were traditionally color, but early sleeves were black/white. It was not a guarantee that if a picture sleeve was available for a particular song that you would automatically secure one when buying the record. Often times high demand caused a high number of records to be manufactured and not all would be released with picture sleeves. A minimal number of these were used when the record was released. For that reason, there are some very scarce sleeves available.

Because of its immense popularity, I will restrict my story to Motown Record Corporation for 45s released between 1961 and 1982, the glory days of Motown. Not many picture sleeves were released during this period but the ratio of sleeves to overall releases is probably similar to other major companies.

There are two variations of picture sleeves. The most collectible one is one that features a picture of the artist vs. a more recent trend that has no picture of an artist , instead a flower or other illustration. Some sleeves included the actual words of the song and no picture.

One of the rarest sleeves ever issued was in very limited quantities for Ain't Too Proud to Beg by the Temptations [[Gordy 7054 - May 1966). Very few are known to exist but it has been verified that one does in fact exist.

This raises the question how the major Motown artists fared in regards to their releases being issued in a picture sleeve. Here is a breakdown:

Little Stevie Wonder/Stevie Wonder 10
Diana Ross [[solo) 9
Diana Ross & or Supremes 9
Miracles 7
Four Tops 5
Temptations 5
Marvin Gaye 4
Mary Wells 4
Marvelettes 3
Jackson Five 3
Rare Earth 2
Jr. Walker & All Stars 2
R. Dean Taylor 2

Two of the picture sleeve releases featured more than one artist. One was issued for a Marvin Gaye/Mary Wells release and another for a Supremes/Temptations release.

Some observations. Martha and the Vandellas were honored with the first one [[and their only picture sleeve). Other artists with only one sleeve were Debbie Dean, Eddie Holland, Michael Jackson, and 19 other lesser known and less famous artists on the Motown roster. The pictures were usually a different pose when there were more than one on an artist, but Mary Wells had the same picture on three back-to-back releases. Several releases included a picture sleeve on only the disc jockey or promotional copy. Of the Marvelettes three picture sleeves, the first had a sketch of a mailbox, the second had a sketch of a mail carrier, and third one finally showed the group on the picture.

If you have any of these in very good or better condition [[not marked or cut or written on) hold onto them. In a lot of cases the picture sleeve without the record can command a higher selling price than the value of the actual record.

Finally, the number of release by label were Motown 48, Tamla 26, Gordy 7, Rare Earth 5, Soul 2, and Prodigal 2. The V.I.P. label, unfortunately, had no picture sleeves issued.

I sincerely hope this article is of interest to many readers of the Motown Topics forum.

[Roger Polhill]

The Spinners "Message From A Blackman" VIP 25054 had a picture sleeve.

[copley]

In the UK and other countries there were many more singles issued in picture sleeves. I could spend the rest of my life uploading them.

[woodward]

I had 3 main sources of my information. First, Reginald Bartlette's OFF THE RECORD, second, www.seabear.se which has a caption for all known picture sleeves with the pictures of the ones he has images of, and third, my own collection. If a US picture sleeve exists for this, it has escaped these 3 sources. Maybe this is the only one in existance and worth far more than Ain't Too Proud to Beg...........

[theboyfromxtown]

I've never seen a US picture sleeve of "Ain't Too Proud To Beg" and Lars does not have the image of it on his Seabear site. Is there an image of it somewhere? The one posted above is from Holland, as is "Nowhere To Run".

The Spinners "Message From A Blackman" was never released in the UK as a 45. The one pictured above is a non-UK release.

[Roger Polhill]

The US sleeve can be seen in "CMS 1970" Sorry I`m not clever enough to post it.

[theboyfromxtown]

On what page?

[copley]

The US sleeve can be seen in "CMS 1970" Sorry I`m not clever enough to post it.

What does 'CMS1970' refer to please.

[copley]

[copley]

[Roger Polhill]

The "Complete Motown Singles 1970" page 30. Sorry about that.

[copley]

[copley]

The "Complete Motown Singles 1970" page 30. Sorry about that.

Thanks. Just looked and it's not really a picture sleeve as there is no picture on it just sort of writing on a wall.

[Roger Polhill]

I didn`t realise that you mean`t portrait.It is a picture of a wall with graffiti, do "Remember Me" & "Shotgun" qualify ?

[copley]

Well I as assuming that the OP was meaning sleeves with pictures of the actual group but it is better than just a plain one I'm not sure what the "Remember Me" & "Shotgun" sleeves look like.

[Roger Polhill]

I was always under the impression that a picture sleeve was a special print as opposed to the regular one."Ball Of Confusion" is another. Sorry `bout that.

[copley]

No need to be sorry. I just always think that a picture sleeve is one with a photo of the group/singer on it. Doesn't mean that I'm right

[marv2]

I was always under the impression that a picture sleeve was a special print as opposed to the regular one."Ball Of Confusion" is another. Sorry `bout that.

The picture sleeve for "Ball of Confusion" was on I remember most because it also had the lyrics to the song printed on it.

Thank you Woodward for this great article and for focusing on U.S. issued picture sleeves. There were not many issued here in the States as compared to foreign markets.

[BigAl]

I wonder why, on the "Ain't Too Proud To Beg" sleeve, Mel is out in front and so much larger than the other members, leading the casual observer to assume he was the lead. The same odd incongruity appeared on the Marvelettes' pink album where Kat is so much larger than Wanda and Gladys.

[woodward]

The picture sleeve for "Ball of Confusion" was on I remember most because it also had the lyrics to the song printed on it.

Thank you Woodward for this great article and for focusing on U.S. issued picture sleeves. There were not many issued here in the States as compared to foreign markets.

My article was totally focused on U. S. picture sleeves. Why doesn't someone do a similar article totally focusing on U. K. picture sleeves? I have over 2,000 Motown and related 45s in my collection, but I have NO U. K. 45s in the collection. They simply were totally unavailable in the states.

[theboyfromxtown]

Why doesn't someone do a similar article totally focusing on U. K. picture sleeves?

I am not sure anybody is interested. The number of UK picture sleeves from the golden era [[and I'm stretching that somewhat too) can be counted on one hand. Much later, during the blue Motown label days, there was a plethora of them.

[roger]

I am not sure anybody is interested. The number of UK picture sleeves from the golden era [[and I'm stretching that somewhat too) can be counted on one hand. Much later, during the blue Motown label days, there was a plethora of them.

Agreed!! They could quite possibly have been counted on one finger!!

I must have bought well over a hundred UK Tamla-Motown 45s on release [[that's excluding ones I got second hand etc.) and not one had a picture sleeve. In fact I don't think I've ever even seen one, let alone possessed one.

Roger

[theboyfromxtown]

Can you see this one?

[theboyfromxtown]

Clearly not...sorry! I'll try and find someone who is cleverer than me.

[psychedelic jacques]

I may well be wrong, but I think the first UK single Tamla Motown pic sleeve was 'Looking Through The Windows' [TMG 833]

[theboyfromxtown]

Nearly right....that will hopefully be posted too.

[phil]

Found it on google :



France and other European countries had plenty of Motown picture sleeves.

[randy_russi]

Marvin Gaye & Mary Wells had one for 'What's the Matter With You Baby" b/w "Once Upon a Time".

[theboyfromxtown]

Paul Nixon will post two UK picture sleeves for me tomorrow. One is TMG 833, the other one is earlier.

[tamla617]

i just sold tmg 865 "skywriter" with skywriter lp picture sleeve.[[i'm pretty sure) at the same time there was tmg 855 neither one of us,gladys picture sleeve of same lp,tmg 854 masterpeice [[lp pic)by the temps and a micheal jackson 7" [[could be tmg 863 mornng glow?not sure)with music and me lp pic sleeve all uk tmg from 1973.
this is all from memory of a 1973 blues and soul mag advert

[tamla617]

My article was totally focused on U. S. picture sleeves. Why doesn't someone do a similar article totally focusing on U. K. picture sleeves? I have over 2,000 Motown and related 45s in my collection, but I have NO U. K. 45s in the collection. They simply were totally unavailable in the states.

can you imagine what it was like for uk motown/soul/funk fans?we had to search scour the soul mag ads,on the pay phone at least a couple of days a week pumping in shrapnel at peak rates,pay through the nostrils [[almost double the price for imports) just to get our fix.not just swan down to the nearest shop.i used to get trains and bus 100 mile 'round trip to get the latest releases.we couldnt guarantee they'd get released here or when.
and i know i wasnt alone doing all that.
back then collecting soul music was a labour of love or madness!i couldnt work out which one it was!
i know uk soul fans are a breed apart.

[theboyfromxtown]

Russ

It's probably the fact that we were able to hear those American releases before UK release, on Pirate radio, Radio Veronica, Caroline etc and AFM that made us like that. That enthusiasm was quite demanding at time...especially on pocket money. However, even now, when the likes of the Velvelettes, Brenda Holloway, Kim Weston come over here, they cannot quite believe how enthusiastic the UK soul fans are.. I'll never forget the time in Kettering when a 15 year old kid came up to the Velvelettes and he proceeded to tell the ladies their complete Motown history. It took my breath away. That reminds me.....it's the Velvelettes 50th this year!

[marv2]

In America, this is usually what we got in terms of a picture sleeve whenever we bought a Motown record:

[robbert]

Now this is a very welcome posting. Music - and what it's wrapped in!

Woodward, on the European continent [[of which the UK is no part) there always were - as far as I can remember, back to let's say 1963 - picture sleeves for Tamla-Motown 45's. I live in The Netherlands and can recollect for that country only, for the most part.

In fact it's the reversal situation compared to the US. E.g. in Holland the standard was picture sleeve, at least at the record companies I've been working for, CBS/Artone [[sixties) and EMI [[seventies). Every now and then [[far too often, alas) the sleeve printers couldn't catch up with the record manufacturers and thus when the record stores re-ordered, a load of vynil went out to the stores in 'standard' sleeves, mostly with a big hole in the middle and printed in one basic color with covers of popular albums, just like the US ones. The stamp pics of those albums were always on the back sleeve of the 45's, those albums that were released or imported in Holland, that is.

When my fav store tried to sell me a new Supremes 45 in a standard sleeve, I said "No, thank you very much" and came back EVERY day until the picture sleeves were available again! Sweating in the meatime, because the record could sell out alltogether... with or without pic sleeve.

Holland had a prerogative when it came to 45 Tamla-Motown picture sleeves. The big promotor behind the launching of Motown in Holland, Pete Felleman, worked at CBS/Artone as early as 1963 [[maybe even earlier) and his hard work and enthousiasm gave us Dutch the first Tamla-Motown pic sleeves from that period. I have several of them, with or without the record, under lock and key in my basement. Because I knew they would be valuable one day. Now they're part of my pension, mind you, and they're well insured.

My very first Tamla-Motown 45 was a Dutch pressed EP by The Supremes [[late 1964) with Where Did, Baby Love, Come See and When The Lovelight, not so aptly called $Supreme$Million$Seller$. The sleeve was a thick plastic one with a folded paper flap inside. Class! The front pic was a different pose from the shoot for the Where Did album. Note: I didn't have a record player yet!

The Ain't Too Proud To Beg sleeve [[the blue one posted here by Copley) is a Dutch print. You can easily tell by the code [[upper left corner). It's the GO 42.000 and later the GO 45.000 series of CBS/Artone throughout the sixties until early 1970. That year European Tamla-Motown switched from CBS/Artone to distributing company EMI [[I went along with them) and so the "5C 006-....." series started, the "5" standing for Dutch pressed and/or printed and 006 meaning this is a 45.
Germany pressed and/or printed was code 1C, France had 2C. I cannot recall by heart what codes other European countries [[Spain, Portugal, Italy, Sweden) had. I have a list of them all, also stached away in my vault [[mwah) in my basement.

In the meantime - I'm a pensioner now - I have a slowly but steady growing digital archive of Motown sleeves, 45's and albums. Some of them I thankfully loan from the internet, others I take pics of my collection. I could post some of the pics here, but my problem is I have never [[ever) managed so far to post jpg's on here.

These above posted sleeves are of Dutch origin: Temptations/Proud To Beg [[the 45.000 series), Marvelettes/You're The One & Young And In Love [[25.000 series!), DRATS/Heartaches & Moonlight [[42.000 series), Supremes JML/Bad Weather [[EMI 5C 006-..... series). The discotheques were asking for Bad Weather, that's why the time information for the DJ's was printed on the sleeve.

Let's continue!

[roger]

Paul Nixon will post two UK picture sleeves for me tomorrow. One is TMG 833, the other one is earlier.

I'm intrigued to know what the earlier one is .. I've done a bit of googling at it looks like it could be "Ain't No Mountain High Enough" by DIANA ROSS .. TMG 751 .. as there are some mentions of a Picture Sleeve for that.

http://www.musicstack.com/album/dian...in+high+enough

Mind you I'm one of those people that only believe things when I see them .. what's that old saying? .. "Believe half of what you see and none of what you hear" .. now wouldn't that make a good song lyric!!

Robbert .. great post that about Dutch picture sleeves.

Roger

[theboyfromxtown]

I'm intrigued to know what the earlier one is .. I've done a bit of googling at it looks like it could be "Ain't No Mountain High Enough" by DIANA ROSS .. TMG 751 .. as there are some mentions of a Picture Sleeve for that.

http://www.musicstack.com/album/dian...in+high+enough

Mind you I'm one of those people that only believe things when I see them .. what's that old saying? .. "Believe half of what you see and none of what you hear" .. now wouldn't that make a good song lyric!!

Robbert .. great post that about Dutch picture sleeves.

Roger

Roger...you know I am very number orientated so in my book, you're spot on....you just have the numbers in the wrong order! *smile*

TMG 751 didn't have a picture sleeve but US Motown 1169 did. However, I've seen some people put the US sleeve on a TMG - can't blame them for that!

[theboyfromxtown]

Robbert

Great explanation there..and from the source too. A post that needs to be highlighted in the SDF vault!!

Why is it that sometimes Holland released different picture sleeves for the same 45. I have 2 versions of "Bring It On Home To me"/"Shake" in different colours and 2 totally different sleeves for "Stop! In The Name Of Love" and "Back In My Arms Again". Interestingly, on the 2nd "Back In My Arms Again", equal prominence is given to "Whisper You Love Me Boy". [[Please do not tell me that there were different sleeves for the Velvelettes because they are as rare as "hen's teeth")

Italy seemed to have it's own catalogue numbering system in the early days. I started collecting all the Tamla Motown releases from Italy about 30-40 years ago because they were available to me. From my Supremes box....DE 2634 is Nothing But Heartaches and DE 2642 is My World Is Empty With You. However, You Can't Hurry Love is 45TM 8002, You Keep Me Hanging On is TM 8010 and that followed for a long time - Someday Well Be Together was TM 8049. Not long after, it went to a 64000 series....as in 64128 Automatically Sunshine, 64255 I'm Gonna Let My Heart Do The Walking. However, then I see "Let Yourself Go" - which starts to adopt the continental European number system 006-98771. Catalogue numbers fascinate me for some unknown reason.

I have to say that it's been a long time since I got that Supremes box out of the cupboard...thank you for reminding me of my youth when I was young, free and single!

[roger]

Roger...you know I am very number orientated so in my book, you're spot on....you just have the numbers in the wrong order! *smile*

TMG 751 didn't have a picture sleeve but US Motown 1169 did. However, I've seen some people put the US sleeve on a TMG - can't blame them for that!

Well .. I doubt if it was TMG 571 .. "How Sweet It Is" by JUNIOR WALKER, so how about TMG 715 .. "The Onion Song" by MARVIN GAYE & TAMMI TERRELL .. I believe that was the first TMG in stereo so maybe they went overboard and did a picture sleeve as well?

Roger

[Constantin]

On the European continent there always were picture sleeves for Tamla-Motown 45's.
In fact it's the reversal situation compared to the US. E.g. in Holland the standard was picture sleeve.

I agree. In fact, I didn't know until this thread that picture sleeves were so rare in the US.

[theboyfromxtown]

Well .. I doubt if it was TMG 571 .. "How Sweet It Is" by JUNIOR WALKER, so how about TMG 715 .. "The Onion Song" by MARVIN GAYE & TAMMI TERRELL .. I believe that was the first TMG in stereo so maybe they went overboard and did a picture sleeve as well?

Roger

It might be Choker Campbell. Now that WOULD shock you!

LOL

[paul_nixon]

John aka theboyfromxtown has asked me to post four images on his behalf so here they come.

[paul_nixon]

Number two

[paul_nixon]

Number 3

[paul_nixon]

Last one

[theboyfromxtown]

Thank you to Paul for his help in posting these images.

Roger - you were right. My mum bought a copy in London and it came with a sleeve but where it went is anyone's guess. Mind you, it was really HER record even if she did let me keep it filed with my other TMG's.

[phil]

I've done a bit of googling at it looks like it could be "Ain't No Mountain High Enough" by DIANA ROSS .. TMG 751 .. as there are some mentions of a Picture Sleeve for that.

http://www.musicstack.com/album/dian...in+high+enough

Roger, the two 45's listed are not TMG 751 but Tamla Motown ZB 40803 :

Diana Ross Ain't No Mountain High Enough / It's My House 7" PS
€19.90
Condition: EX /EX
Label: Tamla Motown ZB 40803
Genre: Soul
Release Country: UK
Release Date: 1986
Original UK release, complete with picture sleeve and with the B side as 'It's my house'.




In his book Terry Wilson confirms that TMG 715 is the first single with a promo picture sleeve.

[robbert]

Let's not forget the deluxe picture sleeves for the 45's that were released worldwide on the Lady Sings The Blues project. The pr-campaign was HUGE. I believe even Yvonne Fair got her 45 share. The 45 sleeve [[brown/goldish) for Diana's Good Morning Herartache was ta fine example.
I was Motown's pr-manager at EMI/Motown in 1972 and there was no end to the publicity material we could order from the LA offices.

[arrr&bee]

I remember the one from the miracles[all dressed in red]come round here-save me-1966