Originally Posted by
BigAl
VIP seemed to be sort of the step-child. An act would be assigned to VIP first, and if it showed promise or picked up some momentum [[or in Chris Clark's case, was personally involved with a higher-up), that act seemed to get shifted to one of the bigger labels. But if this were truly the case, why were The Velvelettes "upgraded" to Soul when the act had sort of run out of steam by that time, with all original members but Cal having left the act? Conversely, The Spinners got "demoted" from the flagship Motown label to VIP before moving to Atlantic, and the irony is that their highest-charting Hitsville number, "It's a Shame," was their final VIP recording. So perhaps this theory of mine is flawed. Maybe it could have been simply a matter of balancing the number of acts among the assorted labels, but it does seem that VIP seemed to serve as a "holding tank."
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