Anna, Ric Tic, Golden World, Tri Phi, Harvey etc

What exactly do Motown actually own of the buy out or take over of other recording companies? I realise it will be different for each one, but aside from selected titles, Motown hasn't really released a great deal from the wealth of recordings I think.

Clearly Edwin Starr, Fantastic Four, San Remo Strings, Junior Walker, Spinners and certain others have seen some of their pre Motown recordings integrated with their Motown albums. There have been odd singles from the likes of Laura Lee, Al Kent, Reflections and so forth. There was the. "Ric Tic Relics" album too, of course. Doesn't seem to be very much from Golden World, Anna etc.

The bootleggers, out of copyrighters and the likes of Ace have done the business so we have a wealth of material available on CD. But are there going to be any unreleased gems lurking in some vault somewhere?

In some cases there are some unreleased gems somewhere, but very few and in between unfortunately. Detroit was a hotbed of musical activity back then and while many of their stories began well they didn't end the same. Given that there were plenty of local labels in the city, the owners didn't see future value in their master tapes and either abandoned them and in some cases disposed of them. You'd be surprised how frustrating compiling Detroit soul can be due to a lack of session tapes. So many projects were cancelled as a result.

I'm not sure where the Anna tapes are located, but I want to say that Berry Gordy acquired the Harvey- Tri Phi stuff. Harvey Fuqua had a difficult time getting distributors to pay him and had to get out. He recorded at Hitsville quite a bit with Berry covering the expenses sometimes. It was only natural for Harvey to sell his holdings to him. A few of the songs that have surfaced on "MU1966" contained brand new overdubs on Tri Phi tracks so that says something to me. UMe would probably have to go very deep in the vaults to retrieve them as they've never been used for reissue. It's a good chance that those are safe and sound.

The Golden World/ Ric Tic story is another rascal. Ed Wingate only sold certain parts of his catalogue to B.G., he still retained ownership of the rest. In addition, he gave Don Davis a lot of his masters back when he sold the company in 1966. Sadly what tapes he did have are no longer in existence and are supposedly thrown out or destroyed. The "Relics" and "Guys/ Girls of Golden World" compilations are sourced from vinyl. I have all four releases and they used a fairly good turntable and noise reduction was great too. Universal planned a Reflections project early in the millennium, but scrapped it shortly thereafter. B.G. bought Harry Balk out too, but the deal didn't include the catalogue and the Impact story seems to be lost also with Harry not even having the publicity photos anymore at the time of his death. The Motor City has a rich musical legacy, but finding the tangibles to it can be a real drag. Hope this helped a little.

Very helpful, thanks Quinn.

I have a Reflections CD on Golden World 300 which presumably is a bootleg but sounds Ok and contains 32 tracks including instrumental and vocal versions of "Hungry For Love" [["I Love The Life I Live [[and I Live The Life I Love)" San Remo Strings and Tony Michaels respectively). Also has "Poor Man's Son" which was a UK hit back then for The Rockin' Berries. Plus "Ric Tic Relics" Volumes 1 and 2 on a Golden World label and the various Anna, Harvey, Tri-Phi collections from vinyl lift recordings and also that Marginal San Remo strings CD which is great. Would have been nice to have an official Reflections CD and other official releases. I expect Motown felt it had picked the cherries and already included what it wanted to in their own catalogue.