The Ultimate Collection

Robinson, Smokey and the Miracles

album cover

A Motown Cornerstone

In the course of an extended run fronting the Miracles and writing songs for other Motown acts, Smokey Robinson exhausted every permutation of the love song. He came up with definitive blunt dismissals ("Shop Around") and tender endearments ("My Girl"), songs that captured a jilted lover's brave face ("Tears of a Clown"), and songs that puzzled over love's ever-unfolding mysteries ("Ain't That Peculiar," a hit for Marvin Gaye). Robinson's often breezy tunes told truths about the nuances of romance and its conflicts, and threw light on notions that are often difficult to express in words. This gift prompted no less an authority than Bob Dylan to once proclaim Robinson as "America's greatest living poet."

You might not agree with Dylan after hearing one Smokey tune on oldies radio. Or maybe two. But listen to a bunch of them, back-to-back, and suddenly it's hard to muster enough superlatives to do this body of work justice. A powerhouse on several levels, Robinson is a writer capable of sketching the many permutations of love's pain, and a singer capable of putting you in close proximity to that feeling. He draws on these different skills in constantly surprising ways—sometimes singing forcefully (as on the shout "You Really Got a Hold on Me") but at other times, most notably on his eternally amazing ballad "Tracks of My Tears," suffusing his voice with a trembling, anguished sense of longing. The twenty-five tracks here include all the Top 10 hits Robinson sang with the Miracles (but not his versions of songs like "My Girl," which was a hit for the Temptations). One reason to select this over the many other available anthologies is to hear several B sides that should have been hits ("Choosey Beggar" and "Way Over There").

Genre: R&B
Released: 1998, Motown
Key Tracks: "I Second That Emotion," "You've Really Got a Hold on Me," "Tracks of My Tears," "Tears of a Clown."
Catalog Choice: Going to a Go-Go; Live!
Next Stop: The Supremes: The Supremes Sing Holland-Dozier-Holland
After That: Marvin Gaye: Anthology.
Book Pages: 650–651