Smokey Robinson & The Miracles 4 Albums On 2 CDS (2-CD)

(Soul Music Records) 43 tracks, digipack featuring four rare albums from 1970 - 1972 and bonus tracks by Motown legends Smokey Robinson And The Miracles. with a deluxe 24-page booklet that includes a comprehensive essay by Joe Marchese of The Second Disc, drawing on new and archival quotes from Smokey Robinson, Claudette Robinson, Motown Tape Librarian Pat Cosby and Motown historian Sharon Davis, as well as detailed notes by Motown historian Andrew Skurow.

All four albums feature the classic Miracles lineup of Smokey Robinson, Claudette Robinson, Bobby Rogers, Ronnie White, Pete Moore and guitarist Marv Tarplin, who recorded the group in the creatively fertile, musically rich period before Smokey's extraordinary solo career.

• What Love Has Joined Together (Expanded Edition)
  
• A Pocket Full Of Miracles
  
• One Dozen Roses
  
• Flying High Together
  

The four albums include Robinson originals, collaborations with Stevie Wonder and Syreeta Wright, Henry Cosby, Nick Ashford and Valerie Simpson and Johnny Bristol, as well as beautifully re-imagined covers of classic hits by Bacharach and David, Thom Bell and Linda Creed, Paul Simon, George Harrison and Smokey himself - a musical treat for Motown fans everywhere.

Smokey Robinson & The Miracles

I Second That Emotion

Smokey Robinson & The Miracles

I Second That Emotion

Smokey Robinson had found himself a new songwriting partner. One of his first collaborations with Motown newcomer Al Cleveland (a former member of The Halos, a New York doo-wop group whose Nag was a '61 hit) was yet another smash for Smokey's Miracles, whose non-stop hit streak in 1966-67 had included Going To A Go-Go, (Come 'Round Here) I'm The One You Need, The Love I Saw In You Was Just A Mirage, and the impossibly tender More Love.

Smokey and Al accidentally stumbled across the clever title of one of the Miracles' top all-time sellers as Robinson tracked down just the right gift for his wife Claudette, who still contributed her sweet harmonies to the group (rounded out by Bobby Rogers, Ronnie White, and Pete Moore) when they entered the studio.

"We were Christmas shopping one day in a department store," says Smokey. "You know, there's an old saying, 'I second the motion.' So we were talking to this girl behind the counter about something, and Al says, 'Yeah, I second that emotion!' And we started laughing, because he had made that grammatical error." Thanks to co-producer Cleveland's slip of the lip, that clerk behind the jewelry counter at Hudson's unwittingly witnessed the inspiration for an enduring soul classic.

I Second That Emotion was brisk and danceable, with Funk Brother Eddie Willis and The Miracles' Marv Tarplin's liquid guitar runs winding around another sinuous James Jamerson bass line, more sly wordplay from Smokey, and the Miracles' delicious harmonies. It was their third R&B chart-topper (Shop Around and You've Really Got A Hold On Me preceded it) and sailed to #4 pop, the group's highest placement there since their very first hit for the fledgling Motown empire, Shop Around, back in 1961.

- Bill Dahl -

Various - Sweet Soul Music

Various - Sweet Soul Music 30 Scorching Classics From 1967

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