Do You Love Me
A Motown dance hit revived by the film Dirty Dancing.
Berry Gordy Jr., the founder of Motown, wrote and produced "Do You Love Me," a rhythm and blues track performed by the Contours in 1962. It charted on the Billboard Hot 100 twice: at number three in 1962 and number eleven in 1988. Multiple British Invasion acts covered it. Brian Poole and the Tremeloes took their 1963 version to number one on the UK Singles Chart, while the Dave Clark Five also scored a hit with it, reaching number eleven on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1964.
Quick Facts
- Artist
- the Contours
- Album
- Do You Love Me (Now That I Can Dance)
- B-side
- Move, Mr. Man
- Released
- 1962
- Studio
- Hitsville USA (Studio A)
- Detroit
- Michigan
- Genre
- Rhythm and blues; rock and roll
- Length
- 2:54
- Label
- Gordy
Facts from the source article.
Background and recording
Berry Gordy wrote "Do You Love Me" with the Temptations in mind, a group that had yet to score a top-40 hit. When Gordy went to find them for the recording session, they were nowhere to be found; they had gone to church to watch gospel acts like the Dixie Hummingbirds, the Harmonizing Four, and the Swan Silvertones. The Contours happened to be at the studio that day to cut their own track, "It Must Be Love." Gordy asked them to try singing "Do You Love Me" instead. After a few attempts, they delivered the performance exactly as Gordy wanted, and the song was recorded the next day. In a 2009 interview, Contours singer Joe Billingslea said the Temptations could never have handled the song because it didn't suit them, but Gordy pushed the Contours to sing it his way. The Contours were in danger of being dropped by the label after their first two singles—"Whole Lotta' Woman" and "The Stretch"—failed to chart, so they jumped at the chance. The instrumental track featured Joe Hunter on piano, James Jamerson on bass, and Benny Benjamin on drums, musicians later known as the Funk Brothers. Gordy explained that the song's concept came easily: he remembered a time when he couldn't get the girls he liked because he didn't know how to dance. The lyrics name-check 1960s dance steps like the Mashed Potato and the Twist, and the track opens with a spoken recitation.
Release and reception
The Contours' 1962 single "Do You Love Me" was a dancefloor hit, driven by the intense, screaming delivery of lead vocalist Billy Gordon. It sold over a million copies, spent three weeks at number three on the Billboard Hot 100 starting October 20, 1962, and hit number one on the Billboard R&B Singles chart. That same year, the track appeared on the album Do You Love Me (Now That I Can Dance). The song found a second life in 1987 when it was featured in the film Dirty Dancing. A reissue from the More Dirty Dancing soundtrack climbed to number 11 on the Billboard Hot 100 in August 1988. A separate 1988 single offered a newly remixed version by Brian Tankersley and Iris Gordy. Riding the film's success, the Contours—now consisting of Joe Billingslea and three new members—joined Ronnie Spector and Bill Medley on a "Dirty Dancing Tour." In 1992, the recording appeared in the Tiny Toon Adventures episode "Toon TV," where Buster Bunny lip-syncs the song while showing off dance moves to Babs Bunny. Years later, in 2002, Bootsy Collins performed the song live with the Funk Brothers for the documentary Standing in the Shadows of Motown, filmed in Detroit, Michigan. Music journalist Dave Marsh called the track a showcase for Berry Gordy's skills as a musician, producer, arranger, and songwriter, calling it a tribute to his status as rock's greatest backstage talent. Gordy himself saw the song as proof of the crossover between rhythm and blues, pop, and rock and roll, telling Billboard in 1963 that it was recorded as R&B but became pop after selling half a million copies, and would have been considered rock and roll if not recorded by a Black artist.
Brian Poole and the Tremeloes version
Brian Poole and the Tremeloes came across "Do You Love Me" while listening to the Contours' album of the same name. Since other beat groups were also covering Contours material, the Tremeloes chose this track as the next single after their top-five success with "Twist and Shout". They recorded it using the same technique as that earlier hit: positioning microphones in front of a PA system inside the studio to capture a live-performance feel. Their take on the song differs sharply from the Contours' original. According to academic Andrew Flory, the Tremeloes delivered a polished Merseybeat version of a Motown rock tune, smoothing out the raucous energy of the Contours through normalized pitch and rhythm, altered instrumentation, and different vocal tones. The single came out in late August 1963, backed with "Why Can't You Love Me", a track written by rhythm guitarist Alan Blakley. Originally slated for a late September release, it was rushed to stores on 31 August to ride the wave of "Twist and Shout" and to beat a competing version by the Dave Clark Five, due out on 6 September. "Do You Love Me" reached number one on all four major UK music paper charts, becoming the group's sole chart-topper before Brian Poole left in 1966. (The Tremeloes later scored another number one with "Silence Is Golden" in 1967.) Sales exceeded 250,000 copies, earning a silver disc from Disc magazine. Critics praised the song's energy. Keith Fordyce of New Musical Express called it raucous and hard on the vocal cords but bursting with excitement. Don Nicholl of Disc described it as a brash, noisy band delivering a beat tailor-made for dancers. The lineup featured Brian Poole on lead vocals, Rick Westwood on lead guitar, Alan Blakley on rhythm guitar, Alan Howard on bass, and Dave Munden on drums.
The Dave Clark Five version
The Dave Clark Five put out their take on "Do You Love Me" as their fifth single, hot on the heels of Brian Poole and the Tremeloes' rushed release. At that point, the band had yet to score any chart success. The song finally broke that streak, becoming their first single to chart, though it only appeared on the UK charts in late September or early October 1963 and didn't climb very high. While it marked a breakthrough, it also stung a bit: the group had previously recorded "Twist and Shout" before the Beatles did, but weren't allowed to release it as a single, and that song later became a hit for both the Beatles and Brian Poole and the Tremeloes. After "Do You Love Me," the Dave Clark Five decided to try an original song for their next single. That was "Glad All Over," released in November 1963, which shot to number one in the UK and became an international smash. Once "Glad All Over" and its follow-up "Bits and Pieces" found success in North America, Epic Records in the US and Capitol Records in Canada decided to issue "Do You Love Me" as a single in April 1964. The UK original had "Doo-Dah," a reworked cover of "Camptown Races," on the B-side, but the North American version swapped that for an older UK B-side, "Chiquita." The single did well, peaking at number 11 on the Billboard Hot 100 and number 8 on Canada's RPM chart, pushing total global sales past one million copies. New Musical Express critic Keith Fordyce called it a strong rival to the Tremeloes' version, though not quite as good, but said it was a close call. Cash Box described the track as a "pull-out-all-the-stops" pounder already breaking loose on the charts.
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