The Picture Sleeve also gives us insight into the way that certain countries’ record buying public could be persuaded to part with their money. In the US during the sixties era many record company’s issued their 45's with picture sleeves in order to entice the record buying public to part with their cash. Motown was no exception and early in the company’s development Motown issued a number of Pictures Sleeves. The early ones of Mary Wells were gray/black and white photos that show Mary smiling demurely but not exactly representative of the smouldering voice that would be found on the record inside the packet. This was remember, the early sixties and a certain decorum was required. The same can be said of the earlier Supremes pictures that adorned the earlier issues. Three very charming "buttoned up" young ladies from the Brewster projects. Who’d have thought at the time that they would go on to dominate the pop charts throughout the world. The other interesting fact from a collector/fans point of view is the fact that the back of the sleeves were used to promote other records, usually current LP's (Long Playing or 33 1/3 Albums) or those about to be issued. Some nice pictures of hard to find albums can be found on the back of these early issues.

As the company found it’s niche and following then the quality of it’s issues improved and became a standard industry leader in fact. The first full color photographs appeared and an early example of this upgrade in quality is the Debbie Dean issue of "Everybody’s talking about my baby" — 1025, followed by the Supremes, For Tops, Temptations, Marvin Gaye, Stevie Wonder and the remainder of the chart topping labels artist roster. A really nice one around this time was the issue of Eddie Holland’s "If Cleopatra took a chance" M-1030. It shows a rather well manicured, cool looking young Mr Holland just as he was about to explode creatively and become part of one of the most prolific song writing teams in the history of pop music. One of the obvious attractions for collectors is the way that the artists are portrayed and are saved for posterity so to speak. The pictures of Marvin Gaye & Mary Wells on their duet "What’s the matter with you baby —1057 is a great example. Taken from the "Together" LP M613. It’s a classic photo of the two of them as they really gained their early success. Mary would shortly leave Motown for pastures new with Jubilee and Atco records and the picture sleeves of her work at Motown are a window to the past for collectors. The same can be said of Stevie Wonder. Through the picture sleeves issued with his records you can both hear and see him maturing. A great way to watch his development. As the Supremes 45s pictures hit the shops so did their albums. The pictures of the three girls on their 45's and LP's became synonymous with the relevant hits and fans associated the pictures directly to the different songs and the albums from which they were draw from (or issued on depending on your point of view). The Supremes series sold well and can still be picked up quite cheaply even in good condition. They are a good intro to the picture sleeve collecting world as they are good quality, good pictorally and don’t cost a fortune to complete. A couple of nice ones the author would recommend are the Brenda Holloway "When I’m gone" Tamla 54111 which can be found at the top of this article and the Miracles "(Come around here), I’m the one you need" T54140 and any of the Four Tops ones have great photos on them and are within most collectors budgets.

As Berry Gordy’s company gathered momentum and expanded into new markets abroad Motown identified companys in Europe that it formed partnerships with in order to distribute it’s records and gain that all elusive market share. But record collectors are fussy people and no two countries record buying public are exactly the same. As Motown realised it wasn’t being given the attention it needed to bring success, especially in UK, then the company formed it’s own label and undertook it’s own attempts to get it’s records and artists onto the turntables and thus into the teenagers pocketbooks and wallets.
Good examples of this are countries that are mere 25 miles away geographically, but a million miles away in record buying habits. Britain and France.

In Britain during the 60's, Picture Sleeves were marketed, and proved successful for a time with the beat pop groups like the Beatles, Monkees, Dave Clark Five as well as the Motown company's Stateside releases selling reasonably well.

When Motown cancelled their distribution with Stateside and continued alone in the UK market it continued it’s Picture Sleeve traditions with the TME series. The idea was an extension of the U.S’s mini LP series of picture sleeves that were issued in the U.S. with Juke box title strips. What the U.K. called an EP. (Extended Play). The problem was, that most of the U.K. issued EP's were segmented from LP's. Therefore a lot of the time the buyer was duplicating the record in his collection. This meant that although some buyers bought the same record (song) twice, many would not be duped and so the EP sales were sluggish. Hence the scarcity of a number of UK EP issues on both Stateside and Tamla Motown.

The French record buyer, however, had a field day. Most Motown records of the day were issued in a single 45 format with a picture sleeve as standard. (As were a large number of other soul releases in the country). Therefore, French Picture Sleeves are readily available in today’s record buying market, and provide a Motown collector/fan with an ideal way of "capturing" the Artists of the day in their prime - well photographed, well presented, and just as importantly at a reasonable price! And ... you only had to buy it once!

Motown records including the Picture Sleeve issues turn up in the strangest of places. From the frozen Fjords on the Scandanavian Peninsula all the way to the shores of South America, and just about everywhere in between!! The only parts of the world that seem not to have been penetrated in any depth by Mr Gordy are Africa and the Middle East (although South African and indeed Israeli records can be found.) I think the vast cultural differences may have created a barrier that even the Motown Mogul couldn't penetrate! If however any reader knows of any records from these areas I'd be very interested in the details for Hitsville's historical archives.

Of all the countries that issued picture sleeves I think my favorite must be the Dutch issues. They were all quality photographs that were used and all the Motown artist that charted are represented. The 45's themselves ain't too bad either, good quality vinyl with the black Tamla Motown logo standing out well against the Orange background. In addition to The outstanding Supremes set there is also a fantastic series of Junior Walker and The All Stars Dutch issues that are particularly impressive and show the guys in their by now famous poses from back when they were regular visitors to the charts on both sides of the Atlantic.

The remainder of the European countries are also represented here with copies of the sleeves being produced in Germany, Spain, Portugal, Greece, Belgium, Turkey and behind the then Iron Curtain in Yugoslavia. Pictures of some of which can be found on these pages, alongside interesting Scandanavian ones issued in Sweden, Denmark and Norway.