Four Tops Breaking Through question

[MadLad]

I was playing one of my old Motown lp's and noticed the ad on the sleeve for Breaking Through. [[here it is)

Of course this lp never came out but I was wondering if Motown ever pressed any copies of the lp or its cover. What's the story.. why was it never put out? and how come when it was finally released in 1999 they used this cover [[see below) and not the original cover?

[nomis]

I would hedge a bet a few copies,not many,were pressed for those intense strategy and marketing meetings they used to have..other unreleased lps certainly made it through to limited vinyl pressings for internal discussion..maybe they just thought the art work and color scheme was outdated for reissue..

[hwume]

Motown often prepared sleeves, and/or created catalog numbers, in anticipation of LP releases that as we know sometimes didn't happen. The original Workshop Jazz label edition of Breaking Through was not released. When we were putting together that album's official release in '99, we had as a reference the same [[one and only) little pic of that proposed cover from an inner sleeve. The actual artwork - if such a thing actually existed, it may have been that one promotional/advertising mockup or a few for the strategy meetings nomis cites - is no longer in any archive we've come across; if it survived it may be in the Museum archive, or could have been tossed out when the group was partnered with H-D-H.

We searched for the photograph shown on the proposed cover, hoping to re-create the original idea. [[That image, in fact, was the basis for the illustration on the Four Tops' Second Album.) But it seems also to be gone.

So, we created what we felt was an appropriate cover and companion booklet artwork.

[thommg]

Breaking Through is one of my favorite releases. The original cover idea was okay but the new one really shows them ready to take off! ;-) It's a great picture of the Tops.

[MadLad]

that makes complete sense thanks so much Harry! I do like the photo you guys used on the 99' release. Now I know what I've been wondering for some time.

Motown often prepared sleeves, and/or created catalog numbers, in anticipation of LP releases that as we know sometimes didn't happen. The original Workshop Jazz label edition of Breaking Through was not released. When we were putting together that album's official release in '99, we had as a reference the same [[one and only) little pic of that proposed cover from an inner sleeve. The actual artwork - if such a thing actually existed, it may have been that one promotional/advertising mockup or a few for the strategy meetings nomis cites - is no longer in any archive we've come across; if it survived it may be in the Museum archive, or could have been tossed out when the group was partnered with H-D-H.

We searched for the photograph shown on the proposed cover, hoping to re-create the original idea. [[That image, in fact, was the basis for the illustration on the Four Tops' Second Album.) But it seems also to be gone.

So, we created what we felt was an appropriate cover and companion booklet artwork.

[144man]

Does anyone know why "The Night We Called It a Day", which was scheduled for "Breaking Through", was omitted from Lost and Found despite its existence on acetate?

[hwume]

Good question. Rifled through notes to remember, and Stu Hackel reminded me: The harmonies are a bit off and if, at the time, we had the technology to do a proper [[re)mix, it might have been included. Honestly, we always wanted to re-do the whole thing. Maybe when/if we do the 60s albums set...

[robb_k]

I had some record sleeves that had a photograph of the Four Tops' "Breaking Through" mock-up album cover on them [[along with existing and a few projected album covers of other artists) as a future album release. I'm sure that album was never pressed up on vinyl as DJ copies, or even as only pressing plant masters. I don't think real album cardboard jackets were printed. The album WAS scheduled, but later dropped. I think someone inside told me that the mock cover had come with everything in the move to L.A. But, not sure what happened to it. It probably ended up in the hands of a collector, like so many other things. No one that I've talked to has ever seen it or heard of it being pressed up. I think its release got delayed, and then, The Four Tops' success with Soul material made a Jazz release superfluous.

I also saw tapes and acetates of "I Left My Heart in San Francisco" and "Stranger On The Shore" while looking through The Vault. I taped them. I didn't see "The Night We Called It a Day", or one or two others of the songs listed on the album's song list. But I wasn't really interested in The Four Tops' Jazz cuts for "From The Vaults". We knew they were too jazzy to be commercial for a "Motown Oldies release". Maybe the mix wasn't finished, so the producers felt it would be best to leave it off?

[144man]

Thanks for info. The tape I heard of "The Night We Called It a Day" didn't sound wonderful.