SONG: Do You Love Me
ARTIST: The Contours
YEAR: 1962
Listen to it here:
THE SONG:
Do You Love Me is considered a rhythm and blues song (who knew?) that was written by the owner of Motown Records, Berry Gordy Jr and recorded by the Contours. The song was originally earmarked for the Temptations as they had no top 40 hits to their name at that point. When Gordy went looking for the group to record it, he couldn’t find them as they had gone to church to see some gospel groups. Instead, the Contours, who had turned up at the studio to record another of their songs, were asked by Gordy to try singing Do You Love Me. After several attempts, they sang it exactly how Gordy wanted, and were asked to record it the next day.
The Contours, who were in danger of being dropped from the label since their first two singles failed to chart, immediately accepted. Gordy brought in the Funk Brothers for instrumental backing, and the recording session went smoothly.
The song was a successful dance record and peaked at number three on the Billboard Hot 100 for three weeks. In 1987, the Contours recording was used in the film Dirty Dancing, and the song charted a second time, reaching number 11.
THE ARTIST:
Joe Billingslea and Billy Gordon founded a singing group called the Blenders in their hometown of Detroit in 1959. They filled out the group with Billy Hoggs and Billy Rollins who they found through ads placed in local newspapers. A few months later, Hubert Johnson, a bass singer, was added and they changed their name to the Contours. In 1960 the group auditioned for Berry Gordy’s Motown Records, but Gordy turned them down. Through some connections they were able to set up a second audition with Gordy where they played the same songs in the same way as the first audition, but this time were signed to a seven-year contract.
The group struggled in the beginning as their first song didn’t chart. They went through a few personnel changes, recorded their second single, which also failed to chart, and then were given Do You Love Me as their third single.
The Contours never quite repeated the success they had with Do You Love Me, but charted a few times over the rest of the early 1960s. In 1964, most of The Contours left Motown, and Berry Gordy replaced them and turned them into a vocal quartet. They continued to record throughout the 1960s with a revolving door of replacements and returnees.
In the early 1970s, Joe Billingslea tried to resurrect the group for local gigs, and then in 1988, their big hit, Do You Love Me, was featured prominently in the movie Dirty Dancing. The song charted again for eight weeks, and The Contours were included on a Dirty Dancing Concert Tour.
For reasons unknown, the group continued changing lineups, suing and countersuing for rights to the name The Contours, and just trying to make a go of it, all the way through the 1990s and into the early 2000s.
FACTOID CORNER:
Berry Gordy said of the song: “It was recorded R&B but by the time it reached the half-million mark, it was considered pop. And if we hadn’t recorded it with a Negro artist, it would have been considered rock and roll.”
KELLY’S REVIEW:
This song reminds me of the movie Dirty Dancing and I’m not afraid to say I love that dumb movie. But this song is kind of also dumb! The whole notion of loving someone because they have learned to move their body to music in a visually pleasing way is ABSURD. But who knows, maybe this was the lynchpin for some people, maybe dance was a powerful currency at the time. I didn’t know this song was Motown or had anything to do with Berry Gordy because it’s kinda dorky. But there’s definitely that early 60s Isley Brothers-esque quality to the singing of it. It still has that reverb sound heavily favoured in the 50s and early 60s, but you can hear the clarity of the mix starting to come through. A definitely oddity of the production here was the slow fade on the chorus and you think the song is over but JUST KIDDING WE’RE BACK. The lead singer sounds good, and as mentioned before could be a long lost Isley – at least in this era of the Isley’s. The inner voices are ok, save for some dubious straining to hit some of the higher notes. The bass singer is either getting bored or having a good time by the end of the song as he starts doing some interesting lip work with his walking bass line. I kind of like that the song has a bit of a recitative at the beginning accompanied by a weird tremolo guitar. The instruments are pretty much pushed back in the mix and there isn’t a lot that really stands out with them, except maybe some snare shots here and there on the drums. I mean, there really isn’t a lot of substance to this one, but it’s fun! It totally makes me want to mashed-potato and twist along with it. Fun fluff.
HOLLY’S REVIEW:
Ah, another song that featured prominently on the oldies radio stations. This song is raucous in a way that sometimes works and sometimes doesn’t. The tuning gets really suspect at some moments with both the lead singer and the back ups trying to strain to get the right energy in the tune. It feels like none of the Contours singers really have the pipes to do the in your face singing they want to pull off. The background is very basic. One thing that’s weird is that the Contours have a bass singer, who I think is mainly just doing the same thing as the bass, and only shows up on his own twice during the song. I’d totally forgotten about this intro, which is weird and tinged with sadness until the drums take off. The drums and piano are fairly forgettable, and if there’s guitar, I sure can’t hear it. The weirdest thing is the fake-out fade out near the end. I think it would be much more effective if the song DIDN’T end with a fade out, since that fake out followed immediately by the real fade out just makes it sound like someone in the booth is just messing with the knobs. This song, to me, is just ok in the end.
Average mark out of 10:
Holly: 7/10
Kelly: 7.5/10
Other notable versions of this song:
Brian Poole and the Tremoloes did this song the very next year:
Dave Clark 5’s version:
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