When Smokey ( Robinson ) Sings

So, like "Can't Hurry Love" by the Supremes, then. At least two of the three playing on that, with probably Eddie Willis doing the little fills with the frills. Willis has that sort of narrative style that counterpoints a vocal real well. But that's only a guess.

I wish Motown had kept more precise track of those details, pun intended. At any rate, it's great stuff, no matter who did it.

 

I do worship the Temptations and those specific albums they made with Smokey including Gettin Ready in particular but i have to disagree here . The guitars and the horns , the flow i do prefer the Isleys version.
one of my favourite , Smokey's penned and produced track is the gospel infused No More Water in the Well . amazing performance by Paul Williams
Another thing that makes Smokey so great as a songwriter were those bridges in the songs , always killer . Who was writing like that ? unique .
Prime example is Tracks of my Tears , my favourite Miracles song .

 

True.

That "semi mournful" Motown "lead fill" sound of the mid to late 60s is such a unique sound.

I on a cursory listen of "you can't hurry love" there's at least 2 guitars. One you can hear strumming in a lower position during the "I need love love" part. The other high up on the neck doing the "chank" sound with the snare drum. They probably didn't need a 3rd running fills (or the 3rd is strumming with Guitar #1) since the "ba ba ba ba" melody on the vibes repeats thru the entire song.

 

A lot of the earlier Miracles B-sides are still easily among my favorites.



https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PgPPfg2ruLI

 

As wonderful as "I Second That Emotion" is, you have to flip the 45 over to the B-side and listen to one of Smokey's most gorgeous vocals ever, "You Must Be Love."

This song is awash in pure swoony romance.

 

Incredible song !
" Just a minute ago your love was here \All of a sudden it seemed to disappear \Sweetness was only heartache's camouflage \ The love I saw in you was just a mirage "

 

You can tell a really great artist when their B-sides are as good as many artists A-sides. The second 45 I picked up by Smokey and the Miracles was "Going To A Go-Go" in 1971, turned it over and found another favorite, "Choosey Beggar".

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gpt2MZRvNO8

 

My very favorite Smokey-on-record moment among many? When he sings the bridge of “Ooo Baby Baby." Just wow. I've heard the track a zillion times in a zillion places over my 60 years, but his delivery on the bridge never - never - fails to give me goosebumps. The masterfully subtle yet emotive way in which he intonates certain syllables to convey tender desperation turning momentarily to tenuous hope creates a compelling passage that's both heartbreaking and sublime in the same instant -- a moment of transcendent pop music.

I'm just about at the end of my rope
But I can't stop trying, I can't give up hope
'Cause I feel that one day, I'll hold you near
Whisper, I still love you
Until that day is here, I'm crying...

 

He was on “Live From Daryl’s House” Season 1 Episode 3. I have it DVR’d. Outstanding!

 

I have to confess to being a recent Smokey convert, but both his voice and especially his lyrics have blown me away since U heard Silent Partner In A Three Way Love Affair and Just My Soul Responding for the first time in years. Enjoying the Quiet Storm album a lot too. I would honestly say he is one of the greatest lyricists of the pop era, and I hope to enjoy a lot more of his work soon.

 

That whole song is one long goose bump experience for me! I first really took note of it in 1978 when it got a lot of play on a really good radio station here in town. It's one of the greatest Motown singles, no question. It's been covered by a lot of artists (my favorite cover is by the Five Stairsteps) but Smokey's original is definitive.

 

From Head To Toe. I love this song, it has a childlike quality to it that charms me everytime. With the handclaps, the festive atmosphere and the spontaneous sounding voices echoing Smokey's lead, it would have been perfect for the Muppets to cover it.

 

Another favourite of mine, You Only Build Me Up To Tear Me Down, structured as to illustrate the lyrics, never quite reaching the climax promised by her but some kind of plateau, an impasse before starting all over again till the last chorus when Smokey tries a desperate move by , what to my untrained ears sounds like a change of key (upwards, of course), but again to no avail , finding himself perennially condemned to ascend but never quite reaching her, as in a variation of the myth of Sysiphus.

 

There's a very good interview (hour long from 09' I think, other singers pay tribute during it) with him on a channel called All Arts. He had said Stevie Wonder had the music for Tears of A Clown and gave it to him.