** This is just a short biographical summary – for the full story, check out this artist’s reviews! **

Always dancers first and singers second, the Contours nonetheless cut some of Motown’s best-loved hits of the early- to mid-Sixties, surviving a complete line-up change to stay relevant as Motown went from a regional power to a worldwide phenomenon. Their acrobatic stage shows and raucous, hellraising style carried over onto their early hit records, but this rough-and-ready approach – a freewheeling fun attitude popular with fans as an antidote to the more stately fare offered elsewhere on Motown’s books, and popular with the writers and musicians as a way to let off some steam – was dated by the mid-Sixties. As more and more of the original members were replaced, the group’s style gradually moderated into a much smoother upbeat soul sound in the style of the Isley Brothers.

The Contours eventually left Motown in late 1967, and fell apart soon after.

Review Archive: The CONTOURS (1961-65)

We have 18 reviews for the Contours currently available here on Motown Junkies – see our archive for more details, or click a link below:

1. Whole Lotta Woman
2. Come On And Be Mine
3. The Stretch
4. Funny
5. Do You Love Me
6. Move Mr Man
7. Shake Sherrie
8. You Better Get In Line
9. Don’t Let Her Be Your Baby
10. It Must Be Love
11. Pa (I Need A Car)
12. You Get Ugly
13. Can You Do It
14. I’ll Stand By You
15. Can You Jerk Like Me
16. That Day When She Needed Me
17. First I Look At The Purse
18. Searching For A Girl

---