Two Unreleased Contours Recordings From 1961

I acquired this Bell Sound acetate late-ish last year and forgot to post it here. I tried doing some quick research prior to purchasing and found an entry on DFTMC for the Amos Milburn version of "Bewildered", so I assumed that's what this was an acetate of and imagine my surprise when I got home and discovered that it was two Contours recordings! Both tracks were written by Billy Gordon. I think "The Real Reason" is the better of the two, but I really enjoy the harmonizing at the end of "Bewildered".

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zfVJo9bfRJw
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2RHU6TWADWI

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Originally Posted by nsoule

I acquired this Bell Sound acetate late-ish last year and forgot to post it here. I tried doing some quick research prior to purchasing and found an entry on DFTMC for the Billy Eckstine version of "Bewildered", so I assumed that's what this was an acetate of and imagine my surprise when I got home and discovered that it was two Contours recordings! Both tracks were written by Billy Gordon. I think "The Real Reason" is the better of the two, but I really enjoy the harmonizing at the end of "Bewildered".

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This is a Great Find! And I agree that "The Real Reason" is the better of the two songs [it reminds me of the B-Side of "Whole Lotta Woman", "Come On And Be Mine"]. Thanks for sharing it with us!

I love them both. Had a spell of playing them on repeat. I posted a comment on the video a while back. There is more than one saved mix.

Was it this same type of acetate Motown would play in the weekly meetings to decide what should be released? Would, say, the producer have sent over a copy tape to the Bell people for the purposes of having the demo made - if so how long before they came back? Or was it typical to take the tape over and wait for the output? And how much to have an acetate produced [[presume different $ depending on whether one or two sided). I just like trying to understand the process.

Thank you nsoule for sharing with us, it`s great to hear 2 more Contours songs.

Thanks nsoule for letting us hear these interesting old songs. I like both better than most of the Billy Gordon led recordings by them. "Bewildered" is a halfway decent group harmony song. I think it beats out "Funny" by them. But, I wouldn't play it often as "listening music". I'd rather have heard a better arrangement and sung by a group with much better singers. The "Jump/Novelty" side is fairly "run of the mill", but interesting to hear for the first time. I do like some of the better Motown '50s Doo-Wop/Group Harmony style recordings by more polished groups.