Marvin Gaye, released in 1964 on the Stateside label, value £200

STATESIDE records is primarily a British record label which initially released licensed American recordings, mainly of unknown acts struggling to find success in the music business. They were formed in 1962 with artists featured on different recording labels, including popular ones such as Veejay and Tamla Motown. The label attracted a lot of interest especially through the sixties and seventies with northern soul fans mainly for its Motown recordings for the UK market. The founder of Motown records, Berry Gordy, wanted to call his label Tammy after the song by Debbie Reynolds. However, that name was under copyright by a film studio so he changed it to Tamla. Based in Detroit which was then known as the motor city of America, it became Tamla Motown in 1959.

Marvin Gaye (1939-1984) was born in Washington DC. He travelled to Detroit and auditioned for Berry Gordy who was impressed with his keyboard skills. Gaye was also a first rate drummer and it was his drumming ability that led him to be offered a job as a session musician. Gaye played drums on most of the hit recordings of The Marvelettes, Mary Wells, and Martha Reeves plus most of Stevie Wonder's early hits. In 1961 he married Gordy's sister Anna and was eventually offered a solo recording contract. His first album The Soulful Moods Of Marvin Gaye did not chart and surprisingly is not listed as collectable? He did make the charts the following year with the single Stubborn Kind Of Fellow which reached the top ten. It was the album released in 1964 simply called Marvin Gaye which is still the most collectable album of his career, possibly because it features two classic songs which appear on side two, tracks four and five respectively, Wherever I Lay My Hat and Can I Get A Witness, the latter having been recorded by just about every soul and rhythm and blues band, including The Rolling Stones and Elton John.

This was the beginning of a career that produced 25 solo studio albums, 83 single releases and several albums of romantic duets with female singers, featuring Mary Wells, Kim Weston, Diana Ross and Tammi Terrell.