No Description Available
No Track Information Available
Media Type: CD
Artist: ROBINSON,SMOKEY
Title: DEFINITIVE COLLECTION
Street Release Date: 05/03/2005
Domestic
Genre: SOUL/R & B

In Celebration of Motown's 50th Anniversary, Motown releases ten new compilations to add to The Definitive Collection series. Each "Definitive" disc contains: Original stereo recordings, digitally remastered; Booklet with classic photos and extensive liner notes; No. 1 hits, anthems and classic B-sides; Familiar Motown greats from every era all whilst being beautifully packaged with a consistent line look. Ten legendary names in music join the all-star "Definitive Collection" roster!

Import collection from the Motown legends, arguably the best single-disc compilation available on the market. Combining Smokey's endlessly inventive twists on romance (good and bad) with the Miracles' handful of straight-up party hits, it showcases one of American pop's most sure-footed and touching acts. The frontman's prowess as singer, writer, and producer lights up each of these single mixes; less-celebrated tracks like "My Girl Has Gone," "(You Can) Depend on Me," and "The Love I Saw in You Was Just a Mirage" stand as tall as the many oldies-radio staples featured here. While he and The Miracles remain one of the Motown label's most successful acts, Smokey is also known for his top-notch songwriting skills for other label mates as well as his own successful solo career. 25 tracks.

Smokey Robinson was a reluctant solo artist. After embarking on an emotional farewell tour with the Miracles and leaving his longtime group in 1972, Smokey became a full-time Motown executive - until the studio and the stage came calling. He returned a year later with the LP simply titled Smokey, featuring the smash hit "Baby Come Close," and followed it quickly with Pure Smokey, highlighted by "Virgin Man." Smokey then became a hugely successful solo artist, lasting until the present day. Yet most of Smokey's classic Motown albums are out of print. UMe and Motown/Hip-oSelect.com are changing that with the introduction of a series, The Solo Albums, which will feature his Motown solo output, beginning with Volume I: Smokey and Pure Smokey, together on one CD. Beautifully remastered, the albums are now back in print for the first time in 20 years. These classics are housed in a lovingly rendered package with a 24-page booklet featuring restored artwork - including lyrics for the debut LP as originally printed - and detailed annotations. U.K. author Peter Doggett interviewed Smokey specifically for this series and his liner notes tell the story. Look for more releases in the Smokey Robinson Solo Albums series the rest of the year and in 2011.

Motown legend, Smokey Robinson unleashes a new album of original material featuring guests Carlos Santana, Joss Stone and India.Arie lending their estimable musical talents plus famed graphic artist Shepard Fairey's Studio Number One providing the package art. Smokey's newest album will undoubtedly galvanize new fans as well as longtime admirers as this Motown trailblazer and national treasure is sure to dominate in 2009 as he celebrates a dazzling 50 years in the limelight.

Add Smokey Robinson to the list of sophisticated crooners sidestepping the race to rack up songwriter credits in favor of revisiting standards. Don't add him to the list of well-loved pop statesmen willing to let a team of backing musicians do the heavy lifting, though. With Timeless Love, Smokey situates himself in a candle-lit lounge of the mind: these may be other artists' songs, but he sketches in the details with the very stuff of his soul. Which, as anybody who's ever sung along to "The Tracks of My Tears" knows, is leagues more potent than most. Heart-stabbingly so. In Frank Sinatra's quite capable hands, for example, "Fly Me to the Moon" is a bawdy, puff-chested romp; in Smokey's it's a tender celebration of blinding love (ditto for "I've Got You Under My Skin"). Cyndi Lauper's "Time After Time," meanwhile, becomes less brooding and more pleading as he ups the romantic balladeer quotient--there's something in the twists and turns of that gorgeous, trembling tenor. While Smokey, at 67, is still able to run vocal circles around many of the artists more closely associated with these numbers, it's with his own song, "I Love Your Face," that he threatens to do the most damage to the already weak-kneed. Couples in black tie might have been swirling around him as he recorded this disc: dim the lights and sway accordingly. --Tammy La Gorce

In the history of Motown there is only one person more important in its evolution and everlasting success than Berry Gordy, and that's Smokey Robinson - the only artist at the label to also become a class songwriter, producer and company vice-president. Robinson was beginning to reap the benefits of a reluctant solo career by May 1978, when he wowed an enthusiastic crowd at Los Angeles' Roxy nightclub. A recording of that night became the double-live LP Smokin', an extraordinary document of the man in his vocal prime - which, until now, has never been on CD.

Smokin', back in print in any format for the first time in 30 years, includes definitive live versions of classic Miracles songs "The Tracks Of My Tears," "The Tears Of A Clown" and more - even a surprise medley of the group's earliest ballads, "Bad Girl" and "(You Can) Depend On Me." Among the Smokey solo hits are extended live versions of "Quiet Storm," "Baby That's Backatcha," "Vitamin U" and "Baby Come Close." Also included is the album's original studio bonus track, the R&B-charting single "Shoe Soul."

Smokin', as Volume 5 in the Smokey Robinson Solo Album Series, not only new includes a reproduction of the LPs' original artwork, its booklet features additional photos from the original performance at the Roxy. And, as in previous volumes, there are newly commissioned liner notes by U.K. author Peter Doggett, who calls the album "a supreme demonstration of how a great artist can make a concert venue feel like a small room."

No Description Available.
Genre: Soul/R&B
Media Format: Compact Disk
Rating:
Release Date: 25-SEP-2001