Movie Music Monday – Dirty Dancing

One of the great soundtracks of the 1980’s was from the film Dirty Dancing. I have featured songs from it before, but not this one.

The soundtrack features classics from the 60’s like Hey Baby, Love is Strange, Be My Baby and Stay. It also features a song that was released on this day in 1962, and because of this soundtrack was a hit all over again.

“You broke my heart, cause I couldn’t dance. You didn’t even want me around. And now I’m back to let you know, I can really shake ’em down!”

Do You Love Me was written by Motown president Berry Gordy. He actually wrote in for The Temptations to record. Instead of arriving for the recording session, they were out listening to watch some gospel groups perform. As luck would have it, in a different Motown studio, The Contours arrived to record the song “It Must Be Love,” but Berry had other ideas. He asked them to try “Do You Love Me” instead. They rehearsed it a few times and eventually got it exactly the way Gordy wanted it and laid down the track.

The song became one of Motown’s first hits, and helped save the Contours. They had released a couple singles that didn’t do much and the label was considering dropping them. Do You Love Me solidified their place at Motown. The song would go to #3 on the charts.

After being featured in  Dirty Dancing, the song was re-released (26 years after it was originally recorded). This time, it charted at #11. Songfacts.com states “The song was a good fit for Dirty Dancing, which despite featuring some modern, original songs, was set in 1963. This was a great song of that era for a dance scene.“

The Dave Clark Five would also have a hit with their cover of the song a year later.