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Motown M 1008 (A), February 1961
Reissued May 1961
b/w Come On And Be Mine
(Written by Smokey Robinson, Billy Gordon and Billy Hoggs)
Early 1961, and the future Motown hitmakers are starting to come together now. This is the first appearance of the Contours, best known nowadays for cutting early Motown smash hit Do You Love Me a year later.
A self-admitted bunch of chancers who’d become more famous for their acrobatic stage shows, filled with slides, splits and somersaults on stage, than their records, the Contours’ stock in trade was not exactly comedy records per se, but a sort of lighthearted, rough-edged pop aimed squarely at the dancefloor.
They were exactly what Motown needed in those formative years, even if Berry Gordy had initially been cool on the idea of signing them; ultimately it wasn’t their considerable dancing and singing talents that got them signed, but rather the fact that one of them was related to Gordy’s pal Jackie Wilson. By the time their seven-year (!) Motown contract ended, they’d have been through a complete line-up change, their final Motown release featuring none of the Contours who appeared on the first version of this record.
I say “first version”, because as was pretty much standard Motown practice in the early days, this one comes in two flavours, both unhepfully issued with the same catalogue number: there’s the raw, almost out-of-control regionally-released original, and then a slicker, but sadly more conventional, second pressing, a re-recorded version with the original’s excesses smoothed out and toned down for national distribution. Me, I much prefer the rough and ready unsanded edges of the crazed first version; the second pressing sounds watered-down by comparison. Which isn’t to say it’s not still one of the roughest and toughest of all Motown singles.
Personnel nerds note: the liner notes to The Complete Motown Singles: Volume 1 have a quote from Billy Gordon which reveals that Sylvester Potts replaced Leroy Fair (who was booted from the group for not being able to dance to the level of the other Contours) in between the two recordings being made.
Anyway, the song. It’s very good, the roughest, rockingest thing Motown had released since Barrett Strong’s smash hit Money (That’s What I Want); co-written by two of the group and polished by Smokey Robinson, it’s a riveting, pounding number, featuring gutsy sax, barrelling piano and a tambourine being smashed to within an inch of its life, while (especially on the original version) Billy Gordon’s superb, screamed lead vocal could strip paint from the walls. When he delivers the title of the song, with unprecedented violence, it makes your own throat hurt in sympathy for his battered larynx.
The real hook here, though, is the song’s unexpected use of repeated lines in unusual places – firstly a verse being lengthened, presaging a later bridge, with “it’s you I care-for / it’s you I a-dore“, and then a bit later on a simply brilliant bit where you think we’re heading into the lead-in to the chorus, but no, instead Gordon sings “so you could be beside me / to lead me and guide me / to lead me and guide me”… the effect is quite astounding. It’s an effect that’s lessened in the smoother second version, but still surprising.
This did nothing at all on the charts, but it’s great nonetheless. They’d go on to justify Motown’s faith (and that seven year deal) by scoring one of the fledgling company’s biggest early hits just over a year later, so this one’s failure isn’t so bad, but it deserved better. Perhaps it was just too raw, too unpolished, to make a dent in the genteel atmosphere of the charts of 1961. Who knows? Good stuff, though.
Apparently the first version is one of those records for which an original master couldn’t be found for The Complete Motown Singles: Volume 1, meaning the copy of the first version found there had to be dubbed from a 7″ 45rpm single; unlike some other recordings in the box, with this one you really can’t tell. Bravo, mastering people!
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 “Come On And Be Mine” |
Motown Junkies 
Another TCMS oops here. There were THREE, not two, versions of this song. The second version we included on the CD is in fact the LP version. Only after the CD was issued did a copy of the second SINGLE version surface – and we didn’t find a tape of it in the Vaults.
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Again, thanks for the information! Of the two versions included, I very much prefer the first version; the “lost” second single version would have to go some to outstrip it, in my eyes anyway.
It’s an interesting notion, though, which reminds me of an essay I read back when I was studying Shakespeare at university (no, really, stay with me) – the versions of Shakespeare’s plays that everyone knows today are widely acknowledged to be, in effect, wrong to a certain extent, having been badly transcribed, had bits taken out etc., but they’ve become so widely-known and so much study has built up on top of them that even if someone found a box of original manuscripts in an attic tomorrow, worldwide news though it would be, it wouldn’t necessarily be for the better. I was thinking, the same thing applies to Don McKenzie and the Contours as to Shakespeare (sentences you didn’t think you’d be reading today!), in that in the future, because of the erroneous exclusion of what in theory should be “better-known” or “canon” versions, or whatever you want to call them, the ones that were included (the theoretically rarer versions – a white label of McKenzie’s, a first pressing and an album cut for the Contours – well, to a kid wandering around iTunes in five years’ time, TCMS is available and old crackly vinyl isn’t, and so the included first version of the Contours single (for instance) becomes the “definitive” one. Something that Leroy Fair would probably enjoy, even if he couldn’t possibly have envisaged it fifty years previously.
Literary theory and Motown, together at last.
Anyway, thanks again for the frank information! I’m very grateful to you for flagging this up for future readers.
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That was more interesting than anything I learned in class today = )
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It wil be quite some time before we get to a review of Brenda Holloway’s “Play It Cool, Stay In School”.
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Never heard of this song. Can’t wait for the review, which I will probably have graduated from school by then.
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I wonder about the Motown 1008 pressing of “Never Again”/””I Want a Guy” by The Supremes. It has been said to have been assigned erroneously. Apparently, Berry Gordy planned first to have The Supremes be Motown artists, and later changed his mind (after one press run). As only one copy is known (and it wasn’t in the official Motown Record File, perhaps only the 6 pressing plant test pressings were made (and the two company copies in the official files were removed after the release was changed to Tamla Records)?
It is ironic that they were changed back to Motown after two Tamla releases.
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To me , the first version is one of the best Motown singles –ever!!!!!. I mean if you really analyze it [or anal-ize it as most junkies of any label would], this is a prime example of a secular group “goin’ to choitch”. This could’ve gone on for seveal minutes, but the 3 minutes or so is just enough to drive one into a frenzied state of euphoria—I said -a-daddy daddy daaaaaaaady!!!!!
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Testify!
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After listening to this song my throat hurts (lol). But this what I call Rock n Roll. This is Motown’s first gritty record since “Money.” No it’s not perfect, but the A+ for effort is definitely there.
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Whole Lotta Woman is a piece of work The Contours to me were a group that should have had the succes te Tempts The Tops or Miracles had. But anyway this song is real rocker the singer nose sounds stuffy but it fits this go round surprised Smokey wrote it lol 6/10
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Smokey was a decent guy. MOST of the time when a producer “polished” a song written by the artist(s), his name was added to the writers’ credits, and he then got a cut of the songwriter’s royalty payments. It is interesting that he decided not to do that in this case.
It is the same situation I have in writing film scripts and comic book stories. If a colleague asks me to critique a script and suggest changes, IF my suggestions are used in the submittal, AND they represent more than say 10-15% of the story’s “value” (key occurrences to change the plot line(key to holding the suspense in or changing the outcome of a mystery), or key comedy elements that change the overall value of the comedy, I ask to be listed as a co-writer, and generally ask for a cut of the pay.
That same situation is appropriate in songwriting. Smokey must have used his judgement to decide that his “polishing” didn’t change the flavour of the song enough to grab some of the credit and potential earnings from the original writers.
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Wiki says “Whole Lotta Woman” was released Feb. 29, 1961 (1st version). I wasn’t aware that 1961 was a leap year.
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Here’s a great cover of this song by Memphis garage legends, the Compulsive Gamblers. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3B-FawfA2MQ
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