In Berry Gordy's autobiography TO BE LOVED( which I read about 12 years ago), Gordy in the last few chapters says that around sometime in the late 60s/early 70s, he became friendly with Herb and Jerry, particularly Jerry, and says something to the effect that Motown and A&M briefly joined together to help each other's companies with distribution and I believe as well production.
I've read and done a lot of research on both companies, but nowhere does this relationship between the companies come up. But at the same time, they both(from what I've read)were the two most popular independent record labels in the 60s, so ther is a possibility this collaboration may have occured.(Not doubting Gordy, but I just never heard of this joint venture 'til Berry mentioned it.)
Also,a few years back, in '99/2000, there was a two night Motown anniversary special, which was hosted by Diana Ross, and featured not only Berry, but Smokey Robinson, Martha Reeves, Sean "Puffy" Combs,Motown historian Nelson George, and also Jerry Moss. Jerry was there to talk about how tough it was for even successful independent labels such as A&M and Motown to get the distribution that they needed; the old "mom and pop" record stores and distributors were going out of business,(Jerry was talking about the late 70s) so I believe such a joint venture may have happened.
Anybody else out there ever heard of such a venture between A&M and Motown? Like I say in closing: would like to know!
I've read and done a lot of research on both companies, but nowhere does this relationship between the companies come up. But at the same time, they both(from what I've read)were the two most popular independent record labels in the 60s, so ther is a possibility this collaboration may have occured.(Not doubting Gordy, but I just never heard of this joint venture 'til Berry mentioned it.)
Also,a few years back, in '99/2000, there was a two night Motown anniversary special, which was hosted by Diana Ross, and featured not only Berry, but Smokey Robinson, Martha Reeves, Sean "Puffy" Combs,Motown historian Nelson George, and also Jerry Moss. Jerry was there to talk about how tough it was for even successful independent labels such as A&M and Motown to get the distribution that they needed; the old "mom and pop" record stores and distributors were going out of business,(Jerry was talking about the late 70s) so I believe such a joint venture may have happened.
Anybody else out there ever heard of such a venture between A&M and Motown? Like I say in closing: would like to know!
