American. MC was a Country label started up by Mike Curb, who had previously been responsible for setting up and contributing productions to Motown's Melodyland / Hitsville (q.v.) Country music outlet. It first saw the light of day in its home land in September 1977, by which time Hitsville had breathed its last. After some six months or so of being distributed by Motown it formed closer links with that company - 'Music Week' of the 11th of March 1978 reported that the companies had signed an agreement, and 'MW' of the 1st of April observed that MC was 'affiliated' to Motown in the same way as the Prodigal (q.v.) label. MC featured several artists who had been recorded either by Curb or by independent producer Ray Ruff for Melodyland / Hitsville, but it was less successful and shorter-lived than those labels had been. Its final single in America came out in August 1978, less than a year after its first.
The only two MC records which came out in Britain were both singles, and they surfaced in the spring of 1978. They were numbered in an MC-7000 series and, like Motown itself at the time, were pressed and distributed by EMI and were handled by EMI's its Licensed Repertoire Division. Surprisingly, given their Motown parentage and with the resources of EMI behind them, they seem to have sold poorly and are rarely met-with today. After the first single came out (1) the catalogue number and publishing details on the label swapped places for some reason (2). Demo copies were marked with an 'A' above the spindle hole and the appropriate text below it (4).
Copyright 2006 Robert Lyons.