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FeedMar 5, 201203:03 PM
Memphis Symphony Pops Features The Contours
"Watch me now, oh!"
Who can't get their groove back when "Do You Love Me" rocks out from an oldies station? On Saturday, March 10th, at the Cannon Center for the Performing Arts, you can hear The Contours — who made that song a phenomenal hit back in 1962 — team up with the Memphis Symphony to perform "A Tribute to Motown."
Dubbed as "Motown's Number One Party Group" for 40 years, The Contours provide a righteous wrap-up to MSO's Pops Concert season. Now led by Sylvester Potts, who joined The Contours in 1961, the band claimed several 1960s chart-climbers, including "Shake Sherrie" and "Just a Little Misunderstanding." But none performed as well as "Do You Love Me," which soared to the number-two spot within two weeks of its release. Twenty-five years later, the song — written by Motown CEO Berry Gordy — garnered a new generation of fans when it was featured in the Oscar-winning movie Dirty Dancing.
In addition to their own tunes, The Contours will perform works by the Temptations, The Four Tops, Stevie Wonder, and other Motowners.
Making music for 50 years, the Memphis Symphony Orchestra has had only four conductors: Vincent de Frank, Alan Balter, David Loebel, and Mei Ann Chen. Since 2003, it has performed at the Cannon Center, which is considered among the best facilities in the nation for orchestral music.
For ticket information, visit www.memphissymphony.org/pops.
One of the most exciting of Motown’s early groups was the Contours, whose “Do You Love Me” filled dance floors in 1962. Its writer, Berry Gordy, said the song was meant for the Temptations instead. But one of the Contours says that was just a ploy to elicit a better performance. Rockaeology at http://bit.ly/gOy0dz tells the story of the song’s great fake fade-out, which then blasts back to full volume.