Pearls from Afar

Mama's Pearl was widely distributed around the world. Here are some of the 45s I've collected over the years.

• The Unadorned Pearls

Neither of the two 45s I have from South America have picture sleeves, but you know how I love those Latin American pressings. Here's one from Argentina:


And a promo copy from Chile:


The Netherlands issued the single in their typical boring printed sleeve.


India also issued the single in a printed sleeve. Not terribly interesting as a visual, but releases from India are rare.


And, like the U.S., the U.K. only rarely issued J5 singles in picture sleeves. Unfortunately, "Mama's Pearl" was not one of them.

• Third Album Redux

Some releases used art from the Third Album photo shoot. Here are picture sleeves from Germany, Norway, Japan, and Portugal respectively.





Italy didn't use a photo from the Third Album session but they at least got the era right.

• Retro sleeves

France, Sweden, Turkey, and Spain reached way back into their photo archives to design their sleeves.



All my favorite picture sleeves come from Spain. This is one of them. I love they way they have placed the song titles on the outstretched hands of Marlon, Michael and Jermaine:

And look at the song title Michael and Jermaine are holding. More on that tomorrow.

Michael Monday: I Wanna Be Where You Are

When Corey wrote the other day about "Maria (You Were the Only One)," the B-side of Michael's first solo single, a reader asked about picture sleeves for Michael's solo 45s. There was only one picture sleeve issued in the U.S. for a Michael solo on Motown, and that was for "I Wanna Be Where You Are," the third single pulled from his debut solo LP.


The sleeve uses the same photograph of Michael that appeared on the LP, so it wasn't terribly creative or exciting, but it was better than nothing, which is what we usually got with our American 45s.

Kids in other fared better when it came to picture sleeves. Germany could always be counted on for a nice picture sleeve...



...as could Italy.


The Italian sleeve had the added bonus of using a rare photo of Michael which was seldom seen in 1972.

And when it came to dependability and consistency for exciting and beautiful packaging, no one topped the Japanese...


...although this photo paired with the song title does make Michael look a little bit like a stalker.

The Japanese could always be depended on, too, for including a lyric sheet. And in the case of "I Wanna Be Where You Are," the lyrics were correctly translated, except for the second verse.



But considering Motown's stinginess with picture sleeves here in the U.S., maybe the Japanese translation comes closer to the truth: Motown, you are "making to disturb us" when you show us you can make picture sleeves, but choose not to.