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Gordy G 7037 (B), November 1964
B-side of Can You Jerk Like Me
(Written by Smokey Robinson)
Stateside SS 381 (B), January 1965
B-side of Can You Jerk Like Me
(Released in the UK under license through Stateside Records)
Okay, that was a surprise.
Not for the first time here on Motown Junkies, these pesky Contours throw me a curveball. Just as I’ve got them pegged as Motown’s most affable, acrobatic dancers, a rough and ready gang whose stock in trade was big, dumb, raucous dance tunes aimed squarely at moving the feet rather than the heart… now here they turn in a beautiful, low-key rendition of a wistful Smokey Robinson ballad. They don’t sound like the Contours at all, they sound like the Temptations teaming up with the Miracles.
Like I said, a surprise.
Smokey didn’t do much work with the Contours, but this is a forgotten gem. If it was a shock for audiences in 1964, it was too much for Motown’s Quality Control team back in the summer of 1963, when this was recorded (and when all was rosy in the Contours’ garden, before their acrimonious near-split and lineup change). Original Contour Joe Billingslea takes up the story in the liner notes to The Complete Motown Singles: Volume 4:
“People heard it around the studio and said ‘who’s that new group?’ Berry Gordy said: ‘Who’s that singing that song?’ They said ‘the Contours!’ Berry said, ‘the Contours? Oh no no no, we can’t have ‘em singing like that! No, no, put them back in their groove! Take them out of that bag!’… We were showing our versatility. But Berry was smart. He HAD smooth groups, pretty groups, singing groups. We were the rowdy group that was noted for our choreography. We’d tear up everybody.”
And you can see Gordy’s point – this sounds nothing like a Contours track. Even if the harmonies aren’t quite all there for this kind of heart-on-sleeve endeavour, it’s still a really beautiful song. I don’t know for sure that it’s the Miracles’ guitarist Marv Tarplin plucking the strings, but it certainly sounds like him. Eddie Kendricks would have been happy with the lovely lead vocal, dovetailing with the other Contours in literal call-and-response fashion, answering their questions.
…I finally got home tonight
(…What did you find?)
My baby had split the scene
(…Where did she go?)
Over the mountain and across the stream
(…What did you do?)
Tried to follow her every track
(…How come?)
I had to try and get my baby back…
Plus, once again Smokey the writer-producer (who must surely have known full well his decision to get the Contours to play against type would meet with resistance) still refuses to phone it in, providing a lovely lyric full of regret, the narrator cursing himself for not having tried harder to be there when it mattered. It’s unexpectedly touching, and it’s given a sensitive reading full of feeling – quite a turnaround considering these are the guys who at one point seemed to be having trouble reading a lyric sheet (cf the intro to Don’t Let Her Be Your Baby.
Indeed, it’s hard to believe these are the same Contours who’d made such a cacophonous, unlistenable hash of their previous attempt at a sweet ballad, the execrable Funny, one of the worst Motown records of all time. But this is in a different league.
Smooth and pretty, as Joe Billingslea noted, and really very sweet. It’s also completely out of character for the group – if you were asked to identify these guys on sound alone, “the Contours” would be the absolute last answer you’d give – but no worse for it. Nice surprises are the best kind of surprises, after all.
MOTOWN JUNKIES VERDICT
(I’ve had MY say, now it’s your turn. Agree? Disagree? Leave a comment, or click the thumbs at the bottom there. Dissent is encouraged!)
You’re reading Motown Junkies, an attempt to review every Motown A- and B-side ever released. Click on the “previous” and “next” buttons below to go back and forth through the catalogue, or visit the Master Index for a full list of reviews so far.
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| The Contours “Can You Jerk Like Me” |
The Miracles “Come On Do The Jerk” |
It’s definitely one of my favourite Contours’ cuts, after the Dennis Edwards and Joe Stubbs leads. I didn’t like Billy Gordon’s gravelly voice, nor his singing style. “Do You Love Me” was okay and Shake Sherry. But most of the rest of the original Contours’ songs were not much to my taste. (Of course, it’s the song, not the singing, that carries “First I Look At The Purse”). And there are also 2 nice, mellow, melodious (previously unreleasd) cuts by The Contours on their Ace/Kent CD.
It’s really nice for The Contours. But, based on the ratings I’ve been giving other songs here, I couldn’t make it quite as high as a 7. I’d give it a 6+.
A tender side of the Contours. Nice Smokey composition. Great call and response vocal arrangement My rating = 8/10
A solid 9 for me, or I’m not honest. I adore this heartbroken little song. When it’s truly caught me off guard it has had my eyes stinging by its last moments.
Not only do I think it’s one of Motown’s best call-and-response tunes with a sad bent, it is the foremost example that comes to mind for me whenever I read about Robinson’s generosity. Not only did he not keep this fine song for himself, but he fought against the crystallizing conclusion that the Contours were only good for remaking “Do You Love Me” again and again.
It’s one of many Motown nuggets that deserves to be much better known than it is, and I’ve no doubt at all the group remained perpetually grateful to Smokey for bringing out such a very different side of their talent. (And he’s not done giving gifts.) Love it.
This song comes up regularly on my Ipod (the shuffle function is useless at times) and until I read your review, had forgotten it was the The Contours. I always love the tune and knew its wasn’t one of the Motown headline male groups but totally agees that you would never guess its a Contours tune. My rating # 7/10
“..The Temptations teaming up with the Miracles” – great way to summarize this song Steve D. What a pleasant surprise this song is! I can’t help but wonder if this was released what direction would the Contours recording career had taken.
S/O to Smokey this is such a great and touching song. The inner turmoil of letting down the person you love, replaying it over and over and your head, and warning other don’t make the same mistake. Beautiful song! I must also S/O whoever is on lead. He conveys the right amount of shame, guilt and sorrow which really helps to sell this song. The only part of the song I don’t like is the bridge. The song seems to fall dead at that point. For that reason I agree with the 7/10 verdict.
Back in the days when I was hosting the radio show “The Motown Files” That was dedicated to the 1960′s Motown input…It was on from 1973-1976 I did a special “B” side program from time to time!!! this is a song that I got a lot of feed back from the listeners!!! a lot of request to play again and listeners re guesting more information about it. Some times they could not believe it was the contours. And it would be a regular request for air play since that presentation!! it wound up being regular in the line up of records that was featured on my show since then!!!!. It was a great Smokey tune with a great call,Question and answer Hook to it!!! I think that was one of the things that caught a lot of listeners about the song… This was a period of time where a new generation was beginning to listen to Motown music and I was Trying to keep Motown’s Past Alive as Well as promoting the new!! This was the early to mid 1970′s in the U.S. and at the time it seemed like at least for some of the young people that the Contours Where almost but forgotten!! But this was another example of how a song can be almost like a revival!! As I recall this song never came out on any other form than the original 45rpm single “B” side which was long a go out of print at the time!!! I enjoyed Doing that show and have more and some times better memories than some of my regular R&B/SOUL ,Top 40, m.o.r. or progressive Rock Programs during that time period !!!! You have to understand that I Grew up on and being in the business with Motown and Soul music,so I was partial to It!! and I enjoyed also educating the young kids at the time on some of the great tunes of Motown’s great past classics!!!!!!especially when some of the original songs started to be covered by other artist on other labels ETC. Some times while doing one of the “OTHER” format shows and one of those cover songs came up to play, I would also play The Motown original right after or before the cover version and I would get some times better listener response on the Motown originals than some of the cover versions!!! I would agree With Steve and also give this at least a ” 7 ” on the song….. but a 9 or 10 on the memories!!!
p.s. I forgot to mention, that a day latter being started, the name of the program was changed to ” THE MOTOR TOWN FILES ” due to legal and trade mark issues and concerns..
Cool! = )
Great review and comments…the only false note on this song is the shouted “Yeah, yeah, yeah” at about 1:30. Totally out of character for the tune.
Agree!
9/10 for this one —one of my faves