The Stax sublabel most famous for Southwest FOB seem to have two separate label designs and most of their 45s exist with both variations, anyone know which came first and what the story is?
The 1st pressing on H.I.P. is the red / light purple with aqua-blue filled lettering for the H.I.P logo.
As the 45 became popular and charted on Billboard in October, 1968, the label design switched to the crimson filled H.I.P. letters. The label design colors for the new label design vary, depending on where the record was pressed.
That scan is the 2nd pressing, when the label design was changed from the red & light purple, The logo / H.I.P letters are filled in, colored aqua-blue
I've never seen the red & brown H.I.P label for any release numbered prior to the Southwest FOB single.
There are a dozen or so releases with the three digit 100 series that commenced in 1966.
When Stax was sold to Paramount in mid 1968, the labels were updated.
8000 number series pressings may have both the old and the new label if a pressing plant still had quantity of labels in stock. Seems like one plant contracted for pressings had stock of the red / light purple after the label design was changed.