Joe Billingslea | |
|---|---|
 Billingslea in 2009 | |
| Background information | |
| Birth name | Joseph Billingslea, Jr. |
| Born | November 14, 1937 Hamtramck, Michigan, U.S. |
| Genres | R&B |
| Occupation(s) | Singer, performer |
| Years active | 1958-1964, 1971-present |
| Labels | Motown |
Joseph Billingslea, Jr. (born November 14, 1937) is an American singer and performer. He is most noted for being the lead singer and the founder of the R&B band the Contours in 1959. The Contours are best known for the 1962 hit single, "Do You Love Me".
Joseph Billingslea, Jr. was born on November 14, 1937, in Hamtramck, Michigan. Before his first birthday, his parents moved to Detroit where he was raised. He sang with the boys' choir while attending Chadsey High School where he graduated in 1954. After graduation, he enlisted in the United States Air Force. While stationed in the Maine, Billingslea formed a vocal group with four other airmen called the "Revere Tone Five". After receiving an honorable discharge following his four-year stint, he returned to Detroit in 1958. [1]
Upon his return from the air force in 1958, Billingslea was invited by an old high school friend, Billy Gordon, to join his singing group, the Majestics. In 1958, the group disbanded, so Billingslea and Gordon decided to form a new vocal group. Billingslea placed a want-ad in the local newspaper looking for singers. Billy Hoggs responded to the ad and became the group's third member. At Hoggs' recommendation, his friend Billy Rollins, became the fourth member of a group they named the Blenders. Within weeks, Rollins was replaced with another friend of Hoggs, Leroy Fair. In 1959, Hubert Johnson was added, making the group a quintet. At Billingslea's suggestion, the group renamed itself the Contours. [2]
That same year, the group signed a recording contract with Motown. The group released two records in 1960 and 1961 but got their big break in 1962 when the single "Do You Love Me" was recorded on Motown's newest label, Gordy. Within two weeks of its release, the song was at #2 on the Billboard Hot 100, taking the #1 spot on the R&B charts and #3 on the pop charts. It remained on the charts for five months. The song was the Gordy label's first million-seller, and it still holds the record as Motown's fastest rising hit of all time.
In 1963, Billingslea and the group charted another hit, sending "Shake Sherry" to the #21 position on the R&B charts (#43 pop). In 1964, they released "Can You Do It" which reached #41 on the R&B charts. Still in 1964, they recorded a ballad entitled "That Day When She Needed Me". [3] Billingslea, along with Hoggs, Johnson and fellow Contours member Sylvester Potts, departed from Motown in 1964. The group had creative differences with Motown and left. [4]
After leaving Motown, c. 1964, Billingslea took a job for the Chrysler Corporation at the Dodge Truck Plant in Warren, Michigan. In 1965, he was elected by his fellow United Automobile Workers as chief steward. He resigned from Chrysler in 1968 to join the Wayne County Sheriff's Department. In 1977, he put his years of law enforcement experience to work by joining the Detroit Correctional Department, eventually reaching the rank of Sergeant. [2] In 1972, he returned to the GM studio in Detroit to work with Michael Stokes and Joe Thomas on a project for Sussex Records that appeared as the Segments of Time.
In 1971, Billingslea reunited the Contours. The group, and Billingslea with it, play across the country even today. There have also been several new additions to the group. [5] [6]
Billingslea has seven children; four sons and three daughters.
His youngest son, LaMark Jefferson Billingslea, was murdered in 2012. On January 1, 2012, LaMark, the manager of HR's Lounge (a nightclub in Detroit), was killed while breaking up a fight between patrons at the club. [7] At around 1:30 am, LaMark was shot in the neck by an unidentified shooter. [8] LaMark died at a local hospital at the age of 39. [9]
Billingslea's eldest daughter, Dorothy Billingslea died on October 19, 2014, of cancer at the Barbara Ann Karmanos Cancer Institute in Detroit. She was 54. [10]
Billingslea currently resides in the Asbury Park section of Detroit.
The Temptations is an American vocal group formed in Detroit, Michigan in 1960 as The Elgins, known for their string of successful singles and albums with Motown from the 1960s to the mid-1970s. The group's work with producer Norman Whitfield, beginning with the Top 10 hit single "Cloud Nine" in October 1968, pioneered psychedelic soul, and was significant in the evolution of R&B and soul music. The group members were known for their choreography, distinct harmonies, and dress style. Having sold tens of millions of albums, the Temptations are among the most successful groups in popular music.
Jack Leroy Wilson Jr., also known as Jackie Wilson, was an American singer who was a prominent figure in the transition of rhythm and blues into soul. Nicknamed "Mr. Excitement", he was considered a master showman and one of the most dynamic singers and performers in soul, R&B, and rock and roll history.
Motown is an American record label owned by the Universal Music Group. Founded by Berry Gordy Jr. as Tamla Records on January 12, 1959, it was incorporated as Motown Record Corporation on April 14, 1960. Its name, a portmanteau of motor and town, has become a nickname for Detroit, where the label was originally headquartered.
Berry Gordy III, also known as Berry Gordy Jr., is an American retired record executive, record producer, songwriter, film and television producer. He is best known as the founder of the Motown record label and its subsidiaries, which was the highest-earning African-American business for decades.
The Miracles were an American vocal group formed in Detroit, Michigan in 1955. They were the first successful recording act for Motown Records and are considered one of the most important and most influential groups in the history of pop, soul, rhythm and blues and rock and roll music. The group's international fame in the 1960s, alongside other Motown acts, led to a greater acceptance of R&B and pop music in the U.S., with the group being considered influential and important in the development of modern popular music.
The Funk Brothers were a group of Detroit-based session musicians who performed the backing to most Motown recordings from 1959 until the company moved to Los Angeles in 1972.
The Contours are an American rhythm and blues vocal group.that recorded for Motown Records. They are known their 1962 smash hit single "Do You Love Me", which sold over 1 million copies and became a major hit again in 1988.
"Money (That's What I Want)" is a rhythm and blues song written by Tamla founder Berry Gordy and Janie Bradford, which was the first hit record for Gordy's Motown enterprise. Barrett Strong recorded it in 1959 as a single for the Tamla label, distributed nationally on Anna Records. Many artists later recorded the tune, including the Beatles in 1963 and the Flying Lizards in 1979.
Robert Edward Rogers was an American musician and tenor singer, best known as a founding member of Motown vocal group the Miracles from 1956 until his death. He was inducted, in 2012, as a member of the Miracles to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. In addition to singing, he also contributed to writing some of the Miracles' songs. Rogers is the grandfather of R&B singer Brandi Williams from the R&B girl group Blaque and is a cousin of fellow Miracles member Claudette Rogers Robinson.
"Do You Love Me" is a rhythm and blues song recorded by the Contours in 1962. Written and produced by Motown Records owner Berry Gordy Jr., it appeared twice on the Billboard Hot 100 chart, reaching numbers three in 1962 and eleven in 1988.
Do You Love Me (Now That I Can Dance) is the only album issued by The Contours during their recording career at Motown Records. Issued on Motown's Gordy subsidiary in October 1962 (see 1962 in music), the album includes the hit title track and the number 21 R&B hit single "Shake Sherry". Also including the early singles "Whole Lotta' Woman" and "The Stretch", Do You Love Me is notable as the first LP to be released by Gordy Records. The song was also performed in the movies Dirty Dancing, Getting Even With Dad, Teen Wolf Too (by Ragtime), and "Beethoven's 2nd". It was performed by Bootsy Collins and the Funk Brothers in the movie Standing in the Shadows of Motown and in 2016 was used in a Pepsi-Cola commercial featuring Janelle Monáe. It also appeared in a 2020 Boston Dynamics commercial featuring dancing robots.
"First I Look At the Purse" (G7044) is a 1965 song recorded by R&B group the Contours on Motown Records' Gordy label. It was written by Miracles members Smokey Robinson and Bobby Rogers, the authors of the Temptations' first hit single, "The Way You Do the Things You Do".
"Whole Lotta Woman" is a 1961 single recorded by the Contours for the Motown Records label. Written by Smokey Robinson, and Contours group members Billy Hoggs and Billy Gordon, and produced by Motown CEO Berry Gordy, Jr., it was the group's debut single for Motown.
"Can You Jerk Like Me" is a 1964 R&B song by Motown Records group The Contours, issued on its Gordy Records subsidiary. It charted on the Billboard Hot 100, reaching #47, and a Top 20 hit on its R&B chart, reaching #15. A single-only release, it did not appear on any original Contours studio album, as the group only had one album release during their five years on the label, 1962's "Do You Love Me ".
"That Day When She Needed Me", is a 1964 R&B song by the Motown Records group The Contours, on the label's Gordy Records subsidiary imprint. Issued as the "B" side of their hit "Can You Jerk Like Me", this song broke out as a hit on its own, reaching No. 37 on the Cash Box R&B listings that year.(Billboard had temporarily suspended its R&B Chart in 1964.)
"Shake Sherry" was a 1962 R&B song by Motown Records group The Contours, issued on its Gordy subsidiary label. It was the follow-up to the group's million-selling top-5 hit single "Do You Love Me", and was taken from their album of the same name.
Freddie Gorman was an American musician and record producer, most famous as a singer, songwriter for the Motown label in the late 1960s and mid 1970s.
Joe Stubbs was an American R&B/soul singer who became the lead singer of four different groups throughout his recording career. He was the younger brother of The Four Tops' lead Levi Stubbs.
Hubert Johnson was an American singer and performer. Johnson is best known for being one of the original members of the Motown R&B vocal group The Contours. Johnson was also the cousin of the late Jackie Wilson.
Sylvester Potts was a singer and composer as well as an off and on member of The Contours and a one time member of The Four Sonics. Songs that he has either composed or co-composed have been recorded by The Contours, Mamie Galore, Jimmy Ruffin and The Temptations.