Motown, the Beatles & EMI

[jsmith]

THIS HAS PROBABLY BEEN DEALT WITH IN THE PAST BUT EVEN SO ....
...... ....
EMI Record Co. has gone from being a global power in the 1960's to just a page in history now. On the back of the international success of the Beatles [[+ other British beat groups) the company expanded and had branches right around the world. They rode the worldwide success that the Beatles recordings were enjoying from late 1963 onwards but even before that the guys in the group were massive Motown fans.
They had started to include their version of "You Really Got A Hold On Me" in their live act as early as summer 1963 if not sooner [[the Miracles own version had only escaped in the UK in March 63). It was a staple song in their live shows for many months. They cut their studio version of the song & this was released in Nov 63. The fact that the lads were praising Motown product & cutting Motown songs obviously had a big influence on EMI.

The company took over UK licensing of Motown product in October 63 [["Heatwave being their 1st release after the Miracles "Mickeys Monkey" had been the final non-EMI UK 45 release). By the end of 1963, with the Beatles about to break big in the US, talks between the group's manager & US TV music show bookers were about to become serious. Dec 63 also saw the 1st Beatles US 45 release on Capitol [[which EMI had bought back in 1955) escape and within weeks Beatlemania hit America.

Anyone here know just what part [[if any) the Beatles played in getting EMI to take on Motown's catalogue in the UK and around the world ??
.... I know that in April 64, Capitol Records got an agreement with Gordy / Jobete Music to allow the Beatles covers of Motown songs to be released on a Capitol LP [["The Beatles 2nd Album") and there are lots of stories around that fact [[it seems Capitol had already pressed up 1000's of copies of the new album before Jobete's licensing agreement had been received).

When would Gordy have become fully aware of the free promotional work the Beatles were doing on Motown's behalf [[obviously some time before April 64) ?

Anyone know if Gordy would have been personally involved in Motown's decision to let EMI take over the labels product in the UK [[+ many other countries) and if it was the UK label that came chasing the US outfit or if Motown started to court their interest ?

[jsmith]

No longer handling Motown product ... but in summer 64, Oriole were still promoting old Mary Wells releases in the UK ... Attachment 14218