Quote Originally Posted by sup_fan View Post

another point though is that the "specialty" albums were not really intended for teens to buy. while i wasn't around in the 60s, i understand that teens then didn't have the discretionary cash that they do today. so they would have been very judicious with what they did buy. basically motown gave them 1 lp per year - Where in late 64, More in mid 65, Symphony in late 65, A go Go in summer 66, HDH in early 67.

Sam Cooke, Country, Merry Christmas, R&H, etc were really geared more to the parents of the teens that bought the hit lps.
Even those specialty albums needed a Motown Sound. Listen to the cuts intended for Mary Wells' MOR album. That's how Liverpool, Sam, and Christmas should've been put together, regardless of who the intended audience was. But even subscribing to your 1 lp a year theory, they dropped the ball with Symphony.