Random Thoughts

When Berry Gordy founded the Motown Record Company in 1959, success did not come his way immediately. That all changed in the mid-1960s when Motown artists were selling millions of records and receiving lots of airtime on radio stations.

Motown songs were not only popular with African Americans but also with radio listeners and record buyers of other races.

At any rate, many Motown artists in the 1960s had numerous hits. One of those groups was the Temptations. But they took a while to catch on with the public. They started recording in 1962 but had only modest success for the next three years.

Then Gordy wrote a song called “Do You Love Me?” that he thought would be a hit for the group. But when Gordy finished working on the tune, the Temptations were out “on the road” playing concerts.

Another group that Gordy was not as “sold” on as he was on the Temptations was a local quintet known as the Contours. They had had almost no success.

The first time they auditioned for Gordy, he decided not to sign them to record for his label. He changed his mind, however, after giving them a second attempt to impress him.

By 1962 the Contours had recorded just two singles, and neither made the musical charts. Unlike the Temptations, however, they were not out on the road. Instead, they were hanging around the studio doing nothing.

So Gordy grabbed the Contours and they recorded “Do You Love Me?” the very afternoon that Gordy finished writing it. It quickly zoomed up the musical charts to No. 3 and earned gold record status for selling a million copies.

But that was it for the Contours. For the next five years they recorded albums and released singles, but they failed to have another Top 40 hit. In 1967 Gordy fired them.

But the group’s lone big hit, the result of an unexpected opportunity that they seized, gave the Contours their brief moment in the sun and a place in American music history.