HI,

DOES ANYONE KNOW IF THIS IS OUT ON A VINYL 45 OF ANY SORT ?.

 

 

 

THE CONTOURS # I CAN'T STOP THIS FEELING.

 

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=18sQpv0Q5SM

 

PLUS IS THIS REALLY THE CONTOURS ?

DOES ANYONE KNOW FOR SURE.

JOE.

Is that really The Contours?  The only Contours' leads that sang mellow like that that I know of were Joe Stubbs and Dennis Edwards.  That doesn't sound like Joe Billingslea, Billy Gordon, Bill Hoggs or Sylvester Potts (ALL of whom had gravelly, rather than smooth voices).  Was this Hubert Johnson?  If this really IS The Contours, I wonder why Kent Records didn't put it on their "Dance With The Contours" CD?

 

I don't remember seeing a bootleg 45, or even acetate or studio demo of this.  I never saw it in The Motown Vaults, and don't remember it from any Universal/Motown, Hip-O-Select, or any other Motown unreleased CDs.

 

I's very good - right up there among their best 5 cuts.

Upon listening again, I hear no background group on this recording.  That's a shame.  It would sound so much better with a group singing harmonies.  It would have been a great song for The Temptations, Monitors, Spinners, Originals.....etc.

There's always a back story to tracks such as this .. so I'll share what I know

 

In the 80's a Motown collector associate of mine purchased a number of acetates and tapes that had been retrieved from the Woodward building in Detroit.

 

The tracks on the tapes were by various artists and were what we called 'safety copies' .. meaning you could listen to them but  weren't able to move them on as they had 'bleeps' superimposed on the tracks at regular intervals throughout the songs. Our understanding is that these were tapes that writers or producers could take home to listen to and had therefore left the 'security' of the tape library and studio.

 

One of the songs on these multi-artist tapes was ' I Can't Stop This Feeling'. The tape was damaged on the intro but recovered in time before the main vocal started. A number of the long-time Motown collectors listened to it and the conclusion was that it must be a demo, probably by the writer or a random singer, as opposed to any known Motown artist.

 

My friend, at a later date, gave a copy to Ian Levine. who was very excited by it. He 'repaired' the damage by doing a piano studio overdub and proclaimed that it was a Contours recording and he knew because he had worked with them and knew their voices up close and personal, so in his  mind there was no doubt. That is a difficult position to disagree with but none of us are deaf and not one of us had ever reached the same conclusion.

 

So ... my view is a simple one. It almost certainly is not the Contours or any other obvious recording artist from that era. We have, as far as I can recall (need to check) ever identified the songwriter(s)  ... but is is more than likely that the writer is the singer ... it could be James Dean or William Weatherspoon ... the songs is in their style.. but in reality who knows

 

And in answer to the original question ..... No it isn't available on vinyl or any official CD release

 

Regards

 

Andy Rix

would anyone at soulful detroit know

I'd bet my house that that's not James Dean.  As for William Weatherspoon, I've only heard his singing on one demo  (was it "Baby, Hit and Run"?).  In any case, I remember Weatherspoon's singing much more smooth and velvet-like.  This is somewhat grittier (although a lot smoother than all the regular Contours).

Edited January 12, 201411 yr by RobbK

Can't hear any bleeps on this recording but it does fade out rather quickly.

Great tune though.

Ive got it on a CD that he cannot be named did to promote The Rocket...it definately has bleeps on it .

to my ear the only original thing is the vocal the strings etc seem to be over dubbed,but still a fantastic track

CP Spencer ?

very nice,I want one.

THANKS TO ANDY RIX AND EVERYONE ELSE WHO REPLIED,

MAYBE SOMEONE WILL PUT ONE OUT NOW IF THEY HEAR IT ON THIS THREAD ??,

JOE

is this not R dean taylor

is this not R dean taylor

Where is the blue font?

 

After a bit of detective work by a friend of mine,

The so-called Contours song 'Can't Stop This Feeling' was registered with the US Copyright Office on 17 April 1969 as written by William Weatherspoon, James Dean and Marilyn McLeod.

So it looks like my friend's guess of a William Weatherspoon songwriter demo would be right.

joe.

On 11/01/2014 at 22:16, Robbk said:

Is that really The Contours?  The only Contours' leads that sang mellow like that that I know of were Joe Stubbs and Dennis Edwards.  That doesn't sound like Joe Billingslea, Billy Gordon, Bill Hoggs or Sylvester Potts (ALL of whom had gravelly, rather than smooth voices).  Was this Hubert Johnson?  If this really IS The Contours, I wonder why Kent Records didn't put it on their "Dance With The Contours" CD?

 

I don't remember seeing a bootleg 45, or even acetate or studio demo of this.  I never saw it in The Motown Vaults, and don't remember it from any Universal/Motown, Hip-O-Select, or any other Motown unreleased CDs.

 

I's very good - right up there among their best 5 cuts.

Apparently there was some issues with label release and contracts so it ended up being unreleased completely motown , ....   This demo was erroneously credited to the Contours, but it is unknown who is singing lead. It was suspected possibly William Weatherspoon, one of the song's writers, but I don't know his voice to be sure if its him. It was never written or intended for the Contours and I believe by this time they were no longer recording at Motown.

This song was written by William Weatherspoon, James Dean, and Marilyn McLeod in 1968 and assigned to the Four Tops. Levi added his lead vocal to the track and background vocals provided by the Originals and the Andantes. Surprisingly, no Tops on this track. The song was left in the vaults until a few years ago when it was finally released on Ace's One Track Mind - More Motown Guys. As for this demo, if I remember correctly the beginning portion with the piano riff was added in the 80s by Ian Levine because the beginning part was missing from the acetate.

 

then theres this  too, Records actually show two demo vocals and two leads of this track being recorded with the very first late in 1968 and there is no mention anywhere of the Contours - the only group associated with the song are The Tops. Only the one released (eventually) vocal by Levi remains although there is a Tops stereo mix still to come (hopefully) some day. My guess is the acetate was indeed by producers - writers for evaluation and the increase in speed has been caused by constant re-recording and sharing over the years onto tape by fans. But ive seen the promo in a video it does exist and i want one lol 

 

thx you lot ❤️

thx joe .... 

 

Apparently there was some issues with label release and contracts so it ended up being unreleased completely motown , ....   This demo was erroneously credited to the Contours, but it is unknown who is singing lead. It was suspected possibly William Weatherspoon, one of the song's writers, but I don't know his voice to be sure if its him. It was never written or intended for the Contours and I believe by this time they were no longer recording at Motown.

This song was written by William Weatherspoon, James Dean, and Marilyn McLeod in 1968 and assigned to the Four Tops. Levi added his lead vocal to the track and background vocals provided by the Originals and the Andantes. Surprisingly, no Tops on this track. The song was left in the vaults until a few years ago when it was finally released on Ace's One Track Mind - More Motown Guys. As for this demo, if I remember correctly the beginning portion with the piano riff was added in the 80s by Ian Levine because the beginning part was missing from the acetate.

 

then theres this  too, Records actually show two demo vocals and two leads of this track being recorded with the very first late in 1968 and there is no mention anywhere of the Contours - the only group associated with the song are The Tops. Only the one released (eventually) vocal by Levi remains although there is a Tops stereo mix still to come (hopefully) some day. My guess is the acetate was indeed by producers - writers for evaluation and the increase in speed has been caused by constant re-recording and sharing over the years onto tape by fans. But ive seen the promo in a video it does exist and i want one lol 

luke, can you edit your above posts to give the source/credit (and ideally links as well) of the text clips you posted above

thanks

On 12/01/2014 at 00:16, Sunnysoul said:

CP Spencer ?

No.  This guy's voice isn't as smooth, mellow, or sweet as C.P.'s.  I don't think it is William Weatherspoon, because this voice doesn't sound like the so-called Witherspoon demo version of "Baby Hitand Run" (although, that isn't 100% confirmed to be Weatherspoon).  Maybe this IS James Dean.  But, I thought that Weatherspoon (generally supposed to be the better singer) (who sang in DooWop groups) supposedly sung all their writer demos.

On 11/01/2014 at 23:02, Andy Rix said:

There's always a back story to tracks such as this .. so I'll share what I know

 

In the 80's a Motown collector associate of mine purchased a number of acetates and tapes that had been retrieved from the Woodward building in Detroit.

 

The tracks on the tapes were by various artists and were what we called 'safety copies' .. meaning you could listen to them but  weren't able to move them on as they had 'bleeps' superimposed on the tracks at regular intervals throughout the songs. Our understanding is that these were tapes that writers or producers could take home to listen to and had therefore left the 'security' of the tape library and studio.

 

One of the songs on these multi-artist tapes was ' I Can't Stop This Feeling'. The tape was damaged on the intro but recovered in time before the main vocal started. A number of the long-time Motown collectors listened to it and the conclusion was that it must be a demo, probably by the writer or a random singer, as opposed to any known Motown artist.

 

My friend, at a later date, gave a copy to Ian Levine. who was very excited by it. He 'repaired' the damage by doing a piano studio overdub and proclaimed that it was a Contours recording and he knew because he had worked with them and knew their voices up close and personal, so in his  mind there was no doubt. That is a difficult position to disagree with but none of us are deaf and not one of us had ever reached the same conclusion.

 

So ... my view is a simple one. It almost certainly is not the Contours or any other obvious recording artist from that era. We have, as far as I can recall (need to check) ever identified the songwriter(s)  ... but is is more than likely that the writer is the singer ... it could be James Dean or William Weatherspoon ... the songs is in their style.. but in reality who knows

 

And in answer to the original question ..... No it isn't available on vinyl or any official CD release

 

Regards

 

Andy Rix

@Andy Rix Do you know then, how come the track is available on YouTube? G

It got shared with a couple of people who then shared again ... so the inevitable happened

Don't know if this helps with voca

 

 

list ID?

18 hours ago, Andy Rix said:

It got shared with a couple of people who then shared again ... so the inevitable happened

Ah, ok. Thank you foir taking the time to answer @Andy Rix

It really is superb. 

Is there any chance of this being made available on any format in the future?

Ebay flooded with boots.

They have the wrong writer credits.