Well, do you love me, now that I can dance

The story goes:  Berry Gordy

was so anxious to record this

extremely strange song, right 

away, that he grabbed the first

group he ran into in the hall,

and said, Like, OK, now, you do

it. Mashed potatoes recur, in a

constant refrain having to do

with whether one likes it like

this; and I had always prized

Mr Porter for being silly. But

billions of this thing are in

print; I mean billions, rush-

ing down to the sea as we speak,

videos of it streaming all over.

I was motoring down our little

Constitution Highway, only yes-

terday - the part musing past

Somerset Plantation, whence you

can see fuh absolutely evah -

I couldn't get this crotchety, 

nagging lyric to go away. It 

started shaping the tongue, de-

forming the lips, invading the 

ear, can you stand it. It then

came over me, the whole thing

is involuntary; it flies under

the radar of criticism, avoid-

ing cognition, itself, hence

its ridiculous persistence. I

could see why he'd be so impa-

tient to get it out there, as

its writer. There wasn't any

time to book The Temptations;

and so The Contours got it -

as you must have heard.

Berry Gordy, Jr.

Music and Lyric

Do you love me?

Motown, 1962©