For all Unofficial / Bootleg releases of this label please use . American label. (For international imprint see Tamla Motown). Sublabel of the . Tamla Records was started on January 12, 1959 by Berry Gordy Jr. using $800 borrowed from his family’s loan fund. He originally wanted to name the label “Tammy”, after the Debbie Reynolds film, but that name was already taken. Later that year, he started his second label, Motown, which became Tamla’s parent label and the cornerstone of Gordy’s musical empire. via Discogs →