Customer Reviews

Tracks of My Tears

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In Britain, Smokey and the Miracles are remembered primarily for two songs, these being Tracks of my tears (later revived by Linda Ronstadt) and Tears of a clown, but they were more successful in their homeland. Among their American hits to be found on this collection are I second that emotion (later revived by the Supremes and Temptations), Shop around (later revived by Captain and Tennille), Mickey's monkey and You've really got a hold on me. All of those hits came in the early sixties, before Motown's success spread internationally.

Smokey was a prolific songwriter, but as the sixties progressed, he gave many of his best songs to other Motown acts, so hits for his own group tended to be smaller and fewer. The last significant American hits they had together were If you can wait, which just missed the American top ten in 1968, and Tears of a clown, which was actually released on an album in 1967 but became a transatlantic number one in 1970. So their biggest hit came at a time when they were a fading attraction. It did not revive their career, which ended as a unit with 1972's We've come too far to end it now - an interesting title in the circumstances.

Separate compilations are available for the music by Smokey Robinson as a solo singer (including Being with you) and the Miracles without Smokey (including Love machine). Although they made great music separately, the music they made together (as showcased here) is what most people remember them for.

This budget compilation is not as strong overall as Ultimate collection, but it contains all the really important classics that Smokey Robinson and the Miracles made as a unit.

Much bigger in America than in the UK, the Miracles (as they were still called in the UK until 1967), nevertheless had a few Top 20 UK hits in the 1960s and there is a fair smattering of these on this handy Spectrum/Tamla Motown 20 track budget-priced compilation. 
The title track flopped when first issued in Britain in 1965 but reached no. 9 when reissued in 1969, and Tears Of A Clown, a 3-year old album track first extracted as a single in 1970 by the British Tamla Motown label, reached number one here and subsequently in America (an earlier Spectrum compilation was called Tears Of A Clown, and that song is duplicated here in its mildly truncated and remixed US version).
A generous 15 of the titles here were A-sides, the remainder being album tracks. There are 3 non-album A-sides, including I Second That Emotion, but no non-album B-sides.
It is not documented that 5 of the tracks are monaural versions, including at least 3 previously available in stereo elsewhere. Ooo Baby Baby is slightly clipped at the start of the track

This is Without a Doubt one of the Greatest Songs ever Written.Smokey Robinson has So Much Emotion&Thoughts into His Creative Process.this song is timeless.He is a Poets Poet.