Posted February 1, 200718 yr I'm just looking at some early Tamla Motown reference numbers and I see: For EP's: TMEXXXX For LP's: TMLXXXXX But for singles: TMGXXX Is there any logic in that G???!! Thanks if anyone can satisfy my curiosity. MB
February 1, 200718 yr tabitha m said: Sure its Gordy . Sounds reasonable. But why R for Parlophone and DB for Columbia? Godz
February 1, 200718 yr Godzilla said: Sounds reasonable. But why R for Parlophone and DB for Columbia? Godz Hi I was under the Impression that it was the code for the Country of release.
February 1, 200718 yr 45cellar said: Hi I was under the Impression that it was the code for the Country of release. No mate that is London. HLU, HLX, HLM etc. All Parlophone and Columbia releases begin with R and DB.
February 1, 200718 yr Pete-S said: No mate that is London. HLU, HLX, HLM etc. All Parlophone and Columbia releases begin with R and DB. Hi Pete Thanks Pete, saved me the search. I was just looking for Australian Tamla Motown, South African Tamla Motown etc, Just something I was I was once told.
February 1, 200718 yr Thank you very much for the various suggestions. Matt - Thanks for the website link but that seems to be a later U.S. scenario - whereas I am looking at U.K. 1965. Having said that I feel 99.9% certain now that the G is for Gordy. Of the first 5 releases on the U.K. Tamla Motown label: TMG501 = The Supremes - from the U.S. Motown label TMG502 = Martha & the Vandellas - from the U.S. Gordy label TMG503 = The Miracles - from the U.S. Tamla label TMG504 = The Temptations - from the U.S. Gordy label TMG505 - Stevie Wonder - from the U.S. Tamla label Quite likely these first U.K. releases and the promotional tour were deliberately contrived to include a good balance across the 3 main U.S. labels. And maybe the U.K. label was originally intended to be called Tamla Motown Gordy. They docked it by one word but left the numbering prefix as TMG. But with the G kind of superfluous they could play around with the third character for EP's and LP's. I am well and truly convinced - unless anyone can tell me otherwise!! Thanks all. MB
February 1, 200718 yr Pete-S said: No mate that is London. HLU, HLX, HLM etc. All Parlophone and Columbia releases begin with R and DB. The letters from Decca's London HLU (or HLA, HLM etc) catalogue number prefixes stood for (H) HOME, (L) LONDON and the third letter U (for example) was an export code to indicate which territories they had licenses for. I think U was for the world outside the USA and Canada. I saw a list somewhere of their territory codes. On Decca's matrix numbers, by the way, the Z prefix indicated stereo. They didn't have bar codes in those days so I suppose life must have been a bit dull. Paul Mooney
I'm just looking at some early Tamla Motown reference numbers and I see:
For EP's: TMEXXXX
For LP's: TMLXXXXX
But for singles: TMGXXX
Is there any logic in that G???!!
Thanks if anyone can satisfy my curiosity.
MB