Originally Posted by
robb_k
Those 2 Five Stars' cuts were NEVER released on a legitimate record. That Ray-Ber pressing was a bootleg. Those 2 Five Stars' cuts were recorded at the same time as Berry Gordy-produced "Ooh Shucks" and its flip, which were released on George Goldner's Mark-X records in late 1957. At that time, and through early 1959, ALL the Gordy productions, those by Gwen and Anna's Anna Records, and those by Berry and Ty Carlo [[Billy Davis), were released on George Goldner's own labels, or those he distributed [[End[[Miracles and Five Stars), Anna [[Voice Masters [[former Five Stars and future Originals)), Mark-X [[Five Stars), and Vega [[Little David Bush[[David Ruffin)). In spring 1959, The Gordy's changed their pressing and distribution affiliation to Chess Records, through their new affiliation with Harvey Fuqua [[how Harvey and Marvin Gaye came into The Motown Family).
The Ray-Ber label was used for that Bootleg, to help sales, by having people think it was a really rare early Motown release. That could seem reasonable to many people, because the late 1957 sound could "fit", soundwise, with the sound late 1958 recordings by Wade Jones, which actually DID come out on Ray-Ber Records. That label issued no other records, despite Berry and Raynoma getting several more records pressed up while operating Ray-Ber Music Company. However, they chose to lease those other productions to already existing small Detroit labels [[Don McKenzie and Bryan Brent & The Cut-Ups), or making DIFFERENT new labels [[Mike Power), all for releases of non R&B/non-Soul music other genres. Bryan Brent's record company was given a name more consistent with his group's Pop/Surf sound, and Mike Power's schmaltzy Tin Pan Alley tune sound was given a label name that appeared to be a Jewish-sounding name. Clearly, Berry and Raynoma weren't able to place Mike Power's cuts with an existing label, so they gave their new label name something that could make it appear "legitimate". They may have split recording/pressing costs with Bryan Brent & group, and so, COULD have released it on Ray-Ber, had they wanted to. But, they thought the Pop-sounding name would help them get more airplay. They COULD have released Power's cuts on Ray-Ber, but it would have had even less clout than on a Jewish-sounding label, so they didn't make that decision. Getting their other productions financed by other owners, gave the latter the choice of release label [[which was a better situation financially for Berry and Raynoma, given that ALL those Ray-Ber productions failed to sell at all [[and were, thus, money down the drain). In the case of the leased tapes, Berry and Raynoma made out much better, getting the production fees from the recording artists, but not putting out much overhead money, getting the distributing label to pay for record pressing and distribution, or, sometimes, even the recording studio fees.
Berry and Raynoma probably released the Wade Jones recording on their own, Ray-Ber Records label, because they thought it had a real chance to become at least a local or regional hit, because it was the kind of music they were experienced in producing, and the kind they knew how to market, and had the marketing connections to have a realistic chance to get radio airplay. Jones' Ray-Ber record was distributed by Robert West's B&H Record distributors.
Berry had produced sessions on Eddie and Bryan Holland, and Nancy Peters, for Robert West's Kudo Records, and The Gordy's had allowed Robert West's 1959 Falcons' release "Just For Your Love", to be re-released on their Anna Records, then distributed by Chess, when the earlier Chess release did nothing, and it was thought that The Gordy's and West's combined clout in The Detroit/Michigan, and western and northern Ohio markets would be better than Chess' [[e.g. they could give it more attention than Chess could), and so get the record off to a better start.
Bookmarks