Customer Reviews

Make It Happen / Special Occasion

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

I can't say how happy I am that this and the other two two-album CDs have finally been released- they weren't available at all previously. Of all of the three CDs, this middle one is in my opinion the strongest musically and lyrically, with trademark Smokey wordplay and some of the most brilliant titles ever ("After you put back the pieces (I'll still have a broken heart)"). It's also more emotionally complex than ever before, and with Smokey, this is the key thing.

Make It Happen is, in my opinion, Smokey's masterpiece album. Extremely rarely for this time period, it only has one or two fillout songs, and the last six are exceptionally an unbroken series of masterpieces, from the greatest positive love song in history, More Love (famously the only "true" song Smokey ever wrote), to Smokey's most played classic, Tears of a Clown. My personal favourite on this album (with the exception of the aforementioned) is You Must Be Love- One of Smokey's finest expressions ever.

Special Occasion, while not as good, definately ranks in the top five Smokey albums, with a number of classic cuts like the title track, and the brilliant You Only Build Me Up To Tear Me Down.

Overall, If you're going to buy one Smokey two-album set, buy this one.

Make it happen, the first album here, was released in 1967. All but one (I'm on the outside looking in, cover of a song written and first recorded by Little Anthony and the Imperials) of the songs here were written by Motown songwriters, with Smokey Robinson himself co-writing many of them. In the album charts, this one made the top 3 in the R+B charts and the top 30 in the American pop charts but didn't chart in Britain. The first single from the album, The love I saw in you was just a mirage, just made he American top 20 in the pop charts, and just made the top 10 in the R+B charts. The follow-up, More love, made the top five in the R+B charts but stalled outside the top 20 in the pop charts. Both singles were released in Britain but neither charted. Nevertheless, there is much to commend this album with plenty of other great tracks, from the opening The soulful shack to the closing Tears of a clown, which we`ll come back to later.

Before the follow-up album, Special occasion, was released in 1968, Smokey Robinson and the Miracles had a huge American hit (top five pop, number one R+B) with their classic song, I second that emotion, which also became a minor UK hit. It is a pity that this track was not included here as a bonus track, though it is readily available on compilations of the group's music as well as on some multi-artist Motown compilations.

Special occasion, the album occupying the second half of this twofer, made the top 50 of the American pop album charts and the very top of the R+B album charts. It didn't chart in Britain. Smokey Robinson wrote or co-wrote all but two of the songs. One of the exceptions is the Beatles classic Yesterday, while the other is the Motown classic I heard it through the grapevine. Apparently, four different versions were recorded of this song before Motown chose to release the one by Gladys Knight and the Pips as a single. It was very successful, but a year later, another of the four original versions, that by Marvin Gaye, was released as a single and it became an international number one hit. Still, the version here, also one of those four original versions, is an excellent version in its own right, though I can't deny that Marvin's version is the best one. The other version making up the quartet was by the Temptations, their version appearing on one of their 1969 albums, Cloud nine.

Three singles were released from Special occasion. None charted in Britain, but all made the American R+B top 10 and they all made the American pop charts. Of these, If you can want (the first single) just missed the top 10, while the other two (Yester love and Special occasion) were minor hits. Like the first album here, the album is of a consistently high quality throughout, with plenty of great music.

Britain was slow to really appreciate Motown, but interest increased in the late sixties. Smokey Robinson and the Miracles, thus far largely unsuccessful in Britain, had their first big UK hit in 1969 when Tracks of my tears, an old album track (from Going to a-go, featured on a different twofer in this series), was released as a single and made the top 10. It wasn't released in America, but Linda Ronstadt eventually covered the song and had a huge American hit with the song in the mid-seventies. In 1970, another old Smokey Robinson and the Miracles album track, Tears of a clown, was released as a single. It did far better than Tracks of my tears, going all the way to number one in the UK charts. American Motown couldn't ignore this, especially as the group were struggling somewhat in the pop charts, although they were still doing the business in the R+B charts. So Tears of a clown was released as an American single, matching its UK success by making number one in both the pop and R+B charts. The question that can never be answered is why was this track overlooked as a potential single originally?

If you enjoy the music of Smokey Robinson and the Miracles, and wish to explore what else the group has to offer besides the obvious hits, this is a great twofer to listen to.

catching The Genius Writing of Smokey Robinson in His Prime is a must.you get all the Motown Trimmings&then you combine that with Smokey's Voice&Lyrics&it takes it to a whole different level.two for one&something that stays on your Mind.just for a song like "Tears Of A Clown" you will be Moved.the thing about Smokey's Stuff is when it hit it had no time frame.it moved you then as now.Smokey&The Miracles are Underrated to Me for there Harmony.you gotta hear to the Feeling&Vibe set fourth.enjoy.

"No need to say much, buy the cd, it's beautiful music to anyones ears!"

Remember were rating Smokey Robinson & The Miracles, need I say more!!!

NOT INTERESTED IN THIS PERSON AT ALL. NO OFFENSE TO HIS MANY FANS, BUT I'M NOT FEELING HIM.. NEVER DID.

MARVIN GAYE, STEVIE WONDER, PRINCE, LUTHER (RIP) LENNY KRAVITZ, ETC., CAN HANDLE THE SLOW GROOVE, SUNDAY GROOVE, QUIET STORM, ETC., FOR ME!!