Motown Album Covers minus performers photographs

[woodward]

I read today where Michael Ochs stated that if a black person was on the cover of a Motown album, a lot of stores would not carry the album. For that reason some of the earlier releases did not show the artists on the cover. I was curious as to how widespread this was for some of the major artists. So I did a survey and came up with the following:

Motown 600 Bye Bye Baby/I Don't Want To Take a Chance - Mary Wells
This release had a letter instead of Mary's picture.

Motown 605 The One Who Really Loves You - Mary Wells
The following Mary Wells album Two Lovers showed Mary's picture.

Tamla 228 Please Mr. Postman - Marvelettes
Probably the most famous one without the group on it.

Tamla 229 Smash Hits of '62 [[Original) Marveletts Sing [[second cover)

Tamla 245 Mickey's Monkey - Miracles

Tamla 269 This Old Heart of Mine - Isley Brothers

Gordy 902 Come and Get These Memories - Martha & Vandellas

Gordy 915 Dance Party - Martha & Vandellas

All subsequent albums by these artists had their picture included on the cover.

Of possible interest. Any comments or thoughts on this subject?

I don't recall ever seeing this addressed in the past, or did I miss it?

[longtimefan]

THE SUPREMES PRODUCED AND ARRANGED BY JIMMY WEBB

This is the oddest one of all, to me -- particularly since it was in the 70s and not the early days of the company. By then, The Supremes' name was known world wide, and to not show them on the cover was simply weird.

[Methuselah2]

Woodward - I broached the subject two years ago somewhat indirectly with a thread but it didn't elicit very much response:

http://soulfuldetroit.com/showthread.php?8997-Album-Covers-Were-They-Decided-By-Quality-Control&highlight=isley+album+cover

[thommg]

I read today where Michael Ochs stated that if a black person was on the cover of a Motown album, a lot of stores would not carry the album. For that reason some of the earlier releases did not show the artists on the cover. I was curious as to how widespread this was for some of the major artists.

All subsequent albums by these artists had their picture included on the cover.
Of possible interest. Any comments or thoughts on this subject?
I don't recall ever seeing this addressed in the past, or did I miss it?

I heard that Motown made the same decision for Teena Marie's first album, Wild & Peaceful. That it was released without her photo because they wanted people to think she was Black. Has anyone else heard that? I can't remember where I picked it up.

[Motown Eddie]

It's true that many of Motown's early album covers from the '60s [[and early 'picture sleeves' from their 45s) did not put their [[mostly) Black artists in order to get more of their product into [[mostly) White owned stores. However there were lots of exceptions to this rule and these artists almost always had their pictures on the cover such as;
1. The Miracles [[except for "Mickey's Monkey").
2. Marvin Gaye
3. The Temptations [[except for "With A Lot 'O Soul")
4. The Supremes
5. Four Tops
6. The Contours [[their only Motown LP)

[milven]

I heard that Motown made the same decision for Teena Marie's first album, Wild & Peaceful. That it was released without her photo because they wanted people to think she was Black. Has anyone else heard that? I can't remember where I picked it up.

As a kid, I worked in a record shop and we were doing well with a record called I'm A Fool To Care by Joe Barry. The arrangement and sound was reminiscent of Fats Domino. But when they put a picture cover on the 45, some of our customers refused to buy it because he was white. We had to remove the pictures and put plain sleeves on it to restore sales. Of course it was a different time

[roger]

To Woodward's list could be added [[finishing with 1970) ..

Soul 701 : Shotgun - Junior Walker.
Soul 703 : Roadrunner - Junior Walker.
Tamla 255 : Stevie At The Beach - Stevie Wonder
Tamla 261 : Tribute to Nat King Cole - Marvin Gaye.
Tamla 270 : Take Two - Marvin Gaye & Kim Weston.
Tamla 287 : Doing Their Thing - Isley Brothers.
Soul 717 : Best Of - Fantastic Four.
Soul 721 : What Does It Take/Gotta Hold On To This Feeling - Junior Walker.
Soul 726 : A Gassssssssss - Junior Walker.

I suspect that there is some truth in this idea that Motown avoided having black faces on some covers due to pressure from some record stores, though I imagine that it wasn't because the stores would refuse to stock the L.Ps but rather that the stores would be reluctant to display them [[this could be an issue if Motown were planning a big promotional campaign with in-store displays etc.).

Interestingly all but three of the Greatest Hits collections that Motown released in the mid/late 60s also had no pictures of the artists on the front cover. So perhaps we could also add ..

Motown 616 : Greatest Hits - Mary Wells.
Motown 662 : Greatest Hits - Four Tops.
Tamla 252 : Greatest Hits - Marvin Gaye.
Tamla 253 : Greatest Hits - Marvelettes.
Tamla 254 : Greatest Hits From The Beginning - Miracles.
Tamla 282 : Greatest Hits - Stevie Wonder.
Gordy 917 : Greatest Hits - Martha & The Vandellas.
Gordy 919 : Greatest Hits - The Temptations.
Soul 718 : Greatest Hits - Junior Walker.

The Greatest Hits releases that did have pictures of the artists on the front were ..

Motown 633 : Greatest Hits - The Supremes [[O.K. it was a sketch rather than a photo but I imagine anyone who had been within 10 feet of a T.V. knew what they looked like anyway :) ).

Tamla 280 : Greatest Hits Volume 2 - Smokey Robinson & The Miracles. [[I guess they were almost as well recognised as The Supremes by that stage).

Soul 723 : Greatest Hits - Gladys Knight & The Pips. [[Released in 1970 so possibly out of the time frame for this discussion).

Curiously, most of those "faceless" Greatest Hits packages that got released in The U.K. [[Mary Wells, Marvin Gaye, Martha & The Vandellas, Stevie Wonder, Temptations, Four Tops, Junior Walker) had pictures of the artists on the front cover, as did the "Take Two" release by Marvin Gaye & Kim Weston.

Roger

[marybrewster]

You might also add:

"Eivets Rednow" by Stevie Wonder [[LP cover is a set of drums)

"Journey Through "The Secret Life of Plants" by Stevie Wonder [[LP cover is light blue/green with flower)

"Original Musiquarium I" [[LP cover is of fish)

[roger]

I'd forgotten about that Eivets Rednow L.P. Marybrewster, though wasn't it supposed to be by an "anonymous" act anyway .. [[or should I say by " na suomynona tca") :)

In the 60s there were also the Instrumental collections by the likes of Earl Van Dyke. And if we head into the 70s and 80s there were acts like Mandre and a few others like Junior Walker's "Rainbow Funk" L.P. and most of The Commodores L.Ps.

Roger

[antceleb12]

Temptations' "With a Lot of Soul" comes to mind, too.

And it certainly wasn't just Motown. One of the most famous examples is the Chantels' debut album, "We Are the Chantels" from 1958. The original album featured a photograph of the five girls. However, it was very quickly withdrawn and replaced with a cover featuring a drawing of two white teenagers picking out songs on a jukebox. There are a couple theories to this: 1) the album wouldn't sell/wouldn't be carried as well with a black artist on front, and, on the opposite side of the spectrum, 2) the outfits the girls were wearing were actually a little "plantation-y," with radical racial implications.

[roger]

Interesting about THE CHANTELS antceleb12 and I couldn't help but track down scans of the covers ...

Here is the "before" ... http://www.discogs.com/Chantels-We-Are-The-Chantels/master/303315

and here is the "after" ... http://www.discogs.com/Chantels-We-Are-The-Chantels/release/2663942

Roger

[woodward]

Interesting about THE CHANTELS antceleb12 and I couldn't help but track down scans of the covers ...

Here is the "before" ... http://www.discogs.com/Chantels-We-Are-The-Chantels/master/303315

and here is the "after" ... http://www.discogs.com/Chantels-We-Are-The-Chantels/release/2663942

Roger
Interestingly enough regarding the Chantels, in 1987
Murray Hill Records & Tapes of NYC [[Outlet Book Company, Inc.) put out a special 3 vinyl album for collectors only set that includes on the box 's cover the original album picture of the 5 Chantels.