Why were The Detroit Emeralds not signed to Motown?

[Hotspurman]

This may have come up in earlier posts, but if so I can't find them [[as a relatively new member). As The Detroit Emeralds had their first hit on Ric Tic a short while before Berry Gordy bought the label out, I was wondering why The Detroit Emeralds did not go on to appear on any of the Motown labels. Is there a particular reason for this?

[Kamasu_Jr]

[QUOTE=Hotspurman;90525]This may have come up in earlier posts, but if so I can't find them [[as a relatively new member). As The Detroit Emeralds had their first hit on Ric Tic a short while before Berry Gordy bought the label out, I was wondering why


I believe The EMERALDS WERE SIGNED TO mOTOWN IN THE EARLY sIXTIES, BUT THEY WERE THE gOSPEL pRONOUNS AT THE tIME. By the time they recorded for Ric Tic & Westbound, the group personnel had changed.

[randy_russi]

Didn't they have their big hit, "Wear This Ring", on the Westbound label. Wasn't that a label out of Chicago?

[P-Shark: The Revenge]

Westbound was from Detroit, owned by Armen Boladian. Their biggest acts were Funkadelic & Ohio Players
My favorite DE song from Westbound

[motony]

my fave by the Detroit Emeralds is "Baby Let Me Kiss You". There use to be a poster on here, Sisdetroit, that was either related or was friends with the group.

[marv2]

Westbound was from Detroit, owned by Armen Boladian. Their biggest acts were Funkadelic & Ohio Players
My favorite DE song from Westbound

These two songs along with "Feel the Need" were their biggest hits. They were quite popular regionally speaking in the early 70's.

[marv2]

Here's their other big "Regional Hit"........."Feel The Need". I was more than a bit disappointed that there does not seem to be any performance footage of the guys on Youtube. I do recall they appeared on local television in Detroit and in Toledo several times. These brothers were smooth and could move!

[robb_k]

When Berry Gordy [[Motown) bought out Golden World in 1966, they only wanted to pick up the contracts of J.J. Barnes and Edwin Starr. Ed Wingate continued to operate Ric Tic Records. The Detroit Emeralds were signed to RicTic AFTER Gordy purchased Golden World [[and Studio B).

The Pronouns sang some great Gospel cuts for Motown. I hope the are released on CD some day.

[Hotspurman]

Thanks everyone - my own favourites by The Detroit Emeralds are Feel The Need and You Want It You Got It, both of which were hits in the UK.

[paladin]

You Want it You Got it was one of my faves, but here's one I had forgot about.......ha, ha......

[StuBass1]

These guys were real good musicians. They even worked as backup musicians for me a couple of times when I was with The Strides. Dune played some mean guitar. I think that Motown got top heavy with talent and The Emeralds didn't have a fit there. Berry didn't even know what to do with The Spinners who left and went onto major success in Philly.

[Kamasu_Jr]

when berry gordy [[motown) bought out golden world in 1966, they only wanted to pick up the contracts of j.j. Barnes and edwin starr. Ed wingate continued to operate ric tic records. The detroit emeralds were signed to rictic after gordy purchased golden world [[and studio b).

The pronouns sang some great gospel cuts for motown. I hope the are released on cd some day.

thanks robb. That kinda makes sense because the emeralds/pronouns had already been signed to motown.

[robb_k]

thanks robb. That kinda makes sense because the emeralds/pronouns had already been signed to motown.

The Detroit Emeralds were already signed to Ric Tic when Gordy and Motown bought out Wingate for the 2nd time [[Ric Tic Records then being shut down) in 1968. But Motown didn't sign The Detroit Emeralds. They just signed The Fantastic Four in that purchase [[possibly one or two other artists). By that time, Motown had already had way too many secondary artists to give decent marketing backing as it was. They couldn't have pushed The Monitors, Spinners, Fantastic Four AND The Detroit Emeralds, along with The Four Tops and Temptations.