Music Merchant: The doomed record label that created northern soul classics
Things don’t always go your way, particularly within the cutthroat music industry, but for as many failed and forgotten artists, there are numerous obscure, independent, and long-forgotten record labels, too. The task of northern soul obsessives back in the 1970s was to uncover those labels and revel in the overlooked masterpieces they released.
Reduced to its simplest form, the northern soul scene was dominated by the pursuit of soul tracks evoking the popular sounds of Motown or Stax Records, while being on much smaller, forgotten record labels. After all, Motown was the dominant force of the American pop charts throughout the 1960s, launching an unparalleled number of now-iconic stars into the mainstream, and changing the landscape of soul, funk, and R&B forevermore.
In the wake of Berry Gordy’s label and its incredible success, a multitude of tiny independent soul labels sprang up all around the United States, but few—if any—were able to match its success.
A core principle of Motown’s success during its 1960s golden age was its ruthlessly talented team of songwriters. Gordy seemed to amass every half-decent songwriter in Michigan to aid in the creation of the Motown empire, and it was a policy which certainly paid off for the label boss. At the very forefront of that writing team was the Holland-Dozier-Holland partnership. The trio wrote more Motown hits than anybody else, and their tireless work turned The Supremes from the laughing stock of the label to its biggest success story.
Even still, the relationship between Motown and Holland-Dozier-Holland was rocky, to say the least. By 1968, amid various contract disputes and lawsuits over royalties, the trio severed ties with Motown, aiming to start their own record label. Invictus and Hot Wax Records both sprang up quite quickly after the trio’s departure but faded into obscurity with equal punctuality.
Undeterred by this difficulty or the horrendous legal battle the songwriters were embroiled in with Motown, they gave it another go, in the form of Music Merchant, which emerged in 1972. By this point, soul music was already beginning to lose favour with the American mainstream; even Motown was struggling to achieve the same level of regular success as the previous decade. That did not, however, stop Music Merchant from releasing some utterly groundbreaking soul music.
From the far-out psychedelic funk of Warlock to the classic soul sounds of ex-Motown hopeful Brenda Holloway, Music Merchant provided a home for them all; yet, the label was not rewarded with commercial success. Dozier left the trio in 1973, which then invoked yet another legal battle for the songwriters, and those legal difficulties tended to overshadow Merchant’s operations, which slowed down during the late 1970s and early 1980s.
Despite its relative failure, though, Music Merchant is still fondly remembered by the followers of the northern soul scene, which dominated the youth culture of northern England for much of the 1970s. Although the DJs who influenced the scene, spinning records at clubs like Wigan Casino, The Torch, or Blackpool Mecca, tended to look towards the 1960s for their material, Music Merchant released some contemporary fan favourites which found their way into the setlists of all-nighters.
One such track was ‘Love Factory’, released by the Texan vocalist Eloise Laws in 1973 on Merchant. Its dramatic opening, strong bassline, and powerful vocals made the song a natural fit for the dancefloors of northern soul clubs in the 1970s and beyond, making Laws something of a cult figure within the scene.
Similarly, Merchant released Just Brothers’ instrumental masterpiece ‘Sliced Tomatoes’ in 1972. That energetic, beating track took on a similar second life within the northern soul scene, thus boosting the label’s reputation even if the mainstream wasn’t interested. What’s more, ‘Sliced Tomatoes’ later became the core sample of Fatboy Slim’s ‘The Rockafeller Skank’, which was a Top 10 single in 1998, reflecting the timeless appeal of Merchant’s soul output.
Today, the label only exists as a means of reissuing tracks like ‘Sliced Tomatoes’ and ‘Love Factory’, which they have done on a multitude of occasions. However, the Holland-Dozier-Holland label does provide an interesting look at the development of soul music during an era in which the power of Motown was fading. Had the label bosses not been embroiled in various legal difficulties, there is no telling how big Music Merchant could have become. For now, though, it still remains a favourite among northern soul obsessives.
