Chi-Lites on Motown! Strange label mis-match.

[Guest]

This 45 was purchased from a Roman record shop and continues to puzzle me as The Chi-Lites were not, of course,  associated with Motown.  The issue originated in Panama. It's not in it's period sleeve but a green coloured Tamla Motown one which I don't recall seeing before.

How did the Chi-lites appear on Motown? Do members have other example of unlikely matches or unusual releases.

 

 

[Robbk]

Panama probably doesn't have a gigantic local record industry.  Perhaps Motown Panama is one of the largest distributors in that market, and they just picked up the distribution rights for that record, as whoever distributed Brunswick, at the time of that release, didn't think the potential oldies sales from it were worth paying for those rights; whereas Motown Panama wanted to expand their general oldies sales, and thought getting those two prestigious Soul oldies would help put their oldies series on the map, and also, they could promote it enough to warrant their paying for its rights?  To answer this question, one would have to know a lot about Panama's record industry's market conditions at the time of that release.  Chances are that it was Universal Records who distributed Brunswick.  So, it is very possible that that release occurred during the period that Universal has distributed Motown.  Based on that better likelihood, it may well be that Universal's major Soul oldies label at the time of that release was Motown.  Although there is no special oldies label text designation on that label, it may be a special Motown series dedicated only to Soul oldies releases.  The catalogue number series might provide a clue to answer that question.  I'd be willing to bet that either the "P" series of that catalogue number is NOT Motown of Panama's normal, current records series, OR the starting numbers "1900" series is different from their normal, current release series (e.g. a designation representing their "Oldies Series").

Edited May 4, 2022 by Robbk