Great new album from veteran Smokey Robinson

It may surprise many music fans that a 74-year-old veteran of the Motown records soul music era is still recording and touring five decades later. William “Smokey” Robinson has just released “Smokey and friends” a duets album that pairs him with an all-star cast of current and veteran artists.

The album, released this month by US label, Verve Records, is produced by Randy Jackson (not Michael’s brother), who is known to worldwide TV audiences as the mentor on the popular talent show, American Idol.

Robinson has recorded songs with an all-star line-up that includes Elton John, Mary J. Blige, Cee Lo Green, John Legend, former Boyzone singer Gary Barlow and a host of others.

The choice of songs digs into the veteran singer’s catalogue of hits going back 50 years. These are the songs he wrote for himself and his group The Miracles as well as those written for other Motown acts like Marvin Gaye and The Temptations.

Enduring Motown classics like “The Tears of a Clown,” Ooh Baby Baby,” “My Girl,” “The Tracks of My Tears,” “The Way You Do the Things You Do” and countless others were either written or co-written by Smokey.

Remodelled

On the new album, the songs are remodeled with a modern twist while still retaining their classic value. There are 11 songs on the album that will fill most fans of that famous light and smooth voice with nostalgia, though inevitably there will be some who will be find the attempt to give a new edge to their favourite oldies repulsive. Younger listeners who may not necessarily be familiar with these songs will find enough on the album to help them create images of a bygone era.

Robinson best explains reaching out to that new demographic: “I would like younger listeners to take away that somebody who is their era or in the genre of the music that they like is singing with me and they are going to be curious as to why this particular person wanted to sing with me if they don’t know who I am, “ he says in comments released by his record company

Producer Jackson who also plays bass on the album says every artist he spoke to was eager to record with the legend but he had to blend the guests’ voices with that famous tenor. Robinson, who has produced songs for half a century, took the back seat on the recording on this album, focused on singing and left Randy Jackson to worry about all the production elements.

The guest vocalists sent in their interpretations of the songs and Jackson then arranged the tracks around what he heard.

Hence there is a whole new spin on sings like “Ain’t That Peculiar” a song that Robinson wrote for Marvin Gaye but is turned into a version that veers between funk and rock - thanks to a guest appearance by James Taylor.

John Legend appears on “Quiet Storm,” initially the title track of a 1975 album while the trio of Miguel, Aloe Blacc and JC Chasez get together with Robinson for The Temptations’ song “My Girl.”

Mary J Blige sings “Being With You” a song first recorded by Robinson in 1981 and one that was very popular on Kenyan radio during that decade.

Elton John who has been friends with Robinson for more than 30 years is a guest on The Tracks of My Tears, in his opinion, “the greatest pop song ever written.”

In a video clip released by Verve Records, Elton compliments the songwriting prowess of Smokey: His lyrics always struck me as being so great, so direct, so simple and so heartfelt.

Few other living artists have enjoyed a music career as successful and prolific as that of William “Smokey” Robinson. It is easy to understand why Bob Dylan, himself a revered singer and songwriter, once famously described Robinson as America’s “greatest living poet.”

Smokey Robinson wrote, produced and performed for Motown, both with the Miracles and as a solo artist, and also served as Vice President to Berry Gordy at the company.

The two men first met in 1957 when Robinson impressed his future boss with his songwriting and they went on to run what is still the most successful record companies in the history of American music.

Besides his own work and that of the Miracles, Smokey would write and produce songs for The Temptations, Mary Wells and Marvin Gaye.

After five decades of writing music, Robinson still writes songs at every available opportunity, scribbling down lyrics on a pad or humming tunes on his own voice mail.

He has written more than 4,000 sings and revisiting just 11 of those for “Smokey and Friends” is proof that his legacy will endure for generations for come. The album is available via iTunes and can also be ordered from the Amazon online store.