Let’s take a moment to praise one of the 20th Century’s great songwriters, universally acknowledged – Smokey Robinson. He’s still very active at the age of 76.

Going back to 1957 (almost 60 years!), Smokey was Berry Gordy’s original partner on the creative end at Motown Records (originally call Tamla). Often with his frequent partner, Marv Tarplin (guitarist of The Miracles), and sometimes with other Motown writers – including Berry Gordy, and with in-house artists like Marvin Gaye and Stevie Wonder, starting as a teenager Smokey wrote or co-wrote many of Motown’s most classic songs.

Most of these have been hits numerous times, for many artists, and you still hear many of them today:

Shop Around
You’ve Really Got A Hold On Me
I Second That Emotion
Tears Of A Clown
Ooh Baby Baby
Tracks Of My Tears
(Originally for Smokey Robinson & the Miracles)

The Way You Do The Things You Do
My Girl
My Guy
Ain’t That Peculiar
Since I Lost My Baby
Get Ready
One More Heartache
(Originally for other Motown artists like Marvin Gaye, The Temptations, Mary Wells)

Plus many other beautiful songs of all types; too many to get into here! But even just these make quite a list. Most of his classics were written in the 1960s.

Smokey, along with Berry Gordy, defined the template of the ‘Motown song’: great to dance to (including slow dancing), catchy Titles and Choruses, straightforward lyrics that either told a story or were List Songs that  illustrated the Title in a clever but natural-sounding way.

Smokey was particularly skilled at the ‘List Song’. Some examples:

I’ve got sunshine on a cloudy day
When it’s cold outside I’ve got the month of May…
I’ve got so much honey the bees envy me
I’ve got a sweeter song than the birds in the trees…
(My Girl)

You’ve got a smile so bright
You know you could’ve been a candle
I’m holding you so tight
You know you could’ve been a handle…
(The Way You Do The Things You Do)

Maybe you wanna give me kisses sweet
But only for one night with no repeat
And maybe you’ll go away and never call
But a taste of honey’s worse than none at all…
(I Second That Emotion)

And I have to mention one of the greatest opening lines ever written (from ‘You’ve Really Got A Hold On Me’):

I don’t like you but I love you…

Talk about getting right to it!

Smokey also has a unique singing voice – a swoony, gentle falsetto that not only suited his graceful melodies but also always managed to bring out their inherent bluesy, funky quality.

I think it’d be hard to find a songwriter who doesn’t love at least some of Smokey’s songs and who doesn’t respect and appreciate the art and craft of his songwriting… which really cuts across all boundaries.

The songs offer considerable pleasure in just the listening. But also when we songwriters take a closer look at them it’s plain how well- and solidly-constructed they are. Even the worst wedding band, try as they might, can’t ruin them – they’re that sturdy!

Even though his songs, like all great ones, are very much of their time, they don’t seem dated or corny today. They’re beautiful, joyful, sad, soulful… still fresh, and always remarkably natural sounding and unforced (though I don’t doubt how hard he and his partners worked to make them sound so ‘easy’).

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