The Heart of Rock and Soul by Dave Marsh

19 DO YOU LOVE ME, The Contours Written and produced by Berry Gordy Jr. Gordy 7005 1962 Billboard: #3

Next time somebody tells you Motown's too slick, slap this on the box and accept their apology gracefully. Benny Benjamin's drums are the lead instrument, and he's every bit as biting as anyone else's lead guitar. The drums overwhelm even Billy Gordon's hoarse lead vocal, which sounds like Frogman Henry after a shot of pure adrenaline. Breaking the beat down and putting it back together again, Benjamin dominates a record that has everything, from the best spoken introduction ever (" You broke my heart because I couldn't dance . . .") to an artful false ending (it fakes me out every time). * Berry Gordy's business genius sometimes makes him seem like nothing more than the Henry Ford of pop music. In fact, he was a superb musician, songwriter, arranger, and producer -- closer to Thomas Edison than Ford. Presuming he plays piano here (as he often did in Motown's early days), every one of those skills is put to use on "Do You Love Me" and the result is not only classic rock and roll but a tribute to his stature as the greatest backstage talent in rock history. * The glory of "Do You Love Me." it must be noted, has now been bowdlerized and traduced by contemporary hit radio stations, which play an edited version made for the soundtrack of Dirty Dancing, that omits, among other things, the fake ending. That's an abomination, of course, because the song's so short to begin with. only 2:49, and because omitting anything from such a seamless disc disrupts the greatness of the whole. Future generations may grow up thinking that there i s no other version of "Do You Love Me," which would be tragic and infuriating.

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