Okay, yes, there was that London(German) issue of Shop Around by The Miracles but a lot of early Motown tracks found their way to Britain(and Europe) via Fontana and Oriole(and Oriole's Euro agent), then EMI-Stateside from 1962 to 1965, so my knowledge has to a degree failed me but the Decca(and Teldec) link with Motown was brief.
So one more closet Motown artist "comes out"! At the time this was issued, EMI still had the rights to Motown(for Britain, at least) and much of Europe, though in Australia, a company called Astor bought the rights and the purchase sent them headlong into the bankruptcy "wall". The Motown rights thereafter moved from company to company like a volleyball in flight during a game. To my knowledge, Teldec never handled Motown.
Besides Bobby Darin, there was also Jack Hammer ("Colour Combination"/"Swim", Soul 35088 – also pressed on Tamla Motown in more than one country, including Sweden and Portugal). So that's two Motown acts on this LP, and the brother and bandmate of a third.
PhilMH, you ol' devil, you! You sprung one on me! I didn't know Dorsey Burnette had appeared on a Motown-owned label.... WOW! And yes, you would expect Teldec to issue this one under the London banner as, at one time or other, these tracks had turned up on 45s issued in Britain, Germany, or even Australia under the London trademark, however Jimmy Jones is the odd one out, having appeared on the M-G-M label, he was on that label here in Australia in any case. Conway Twitty was also on M-G-M, I should add. And Sam Cooke was on RCA by the time he recorded Wonderful World though his earlier stuff was on London.
I take your point, Neil, but Bobby Darin actually recorded for Motown in the early 1970's. (And Johnny Burnette was the brother of a Motown artist, Dorsey Burnette having recorded for the Mel-O-Dy label around 1964/65, but that's stretching a point!) What surprises me about this record, though, is why it wasn't on Decca's London label, Teldec being the partnership of Telefunken and Decca, and I would imagine that most, if not all of the tracks, had been London singles in the UK and Germany.
I saw the title to this and thought - a Motown Compilation on a label not associated with Motown(licensee or otherwise) until I saw the track list - A definitely misleading title because "The Sound Of Young America" was Motown's motto and could be seen in the top-right corner of the rear cover of any 1960s Motown issue across all of Motown's labels. None of the artists or groups here ever graced a Motown record. As good as they were, they weren't good enough for Motown.