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The Contours grew out of the Blenders, a late-1950s Detroit duo of Joe Billingsley and Billy Gordon who recruited Billy Hoggs and Billy Rollins through a newspaper ad. After Leroy Fair replaced Rollins and bass singer Hubert Johnson joined, they renamed themselves. Berry Gordy rejected them at a fall 1960 audition, but Johnson’s cousin Jackie Wilson pressed Gordy for a second look. The group sang the same songs the same way and left with a seven-year contract. Their first singles, Whole Lotta Woman and The Stretch, failed, and lineup changes followed. In 1962 Gordy nearly moved Do You Love Me to the Temptations when the Contours struggled in rehearsal, but they fought to keep it, and Gordon’s shouted lead took it to No. 1 R&B and No. 3 on the Hot 100.

Overshadowed by the Temptations, Four Tops and Miracles, four members walked out in 1964, and Gordy rebuilt the act around Gordon and guitarist Huey Davis. The shelved album Can You Dance, a revolving cast of singers and the 1968 loss of Dennis Edwards to the Temptations ended the first era. Billingsley revived the name for Detroit clubs in the 1970s, and the 1987 film Dirty Dancing sent a reissue of Do You Love Me to No. 11 in 1988, leading to a tour and two albums for Motor City Records. In 2004 Sylvester Potts formed a rival Contours, the two men sued each other, and a settlement allowed both groups to perform.

• Do You Love Me sold over a million copies and earned the group a gold disc.
• Joe Stubbs, brother of the Four Tops’ Levi Stubbs, briefly sang lead before Dennis Edwards took over.
• The 1988 reissue spent eight weeks in the Billboard Top 40.
• Hubert Johnson, who secured the second audition, died by suicide in 1981 at 40.
• Joe Billingsley gave his final performance in November 2022, days before turning 85.