612 Goodbye Smokey Robinson* - Indestructible

( *The  Four  Tops  featuring ... )

Chart  entered : 17  September  1988

Chart  peak : 55  ( 30  on  reissue  in  1989 )

Smokey  enjoyed  a  successful  career  with  The  Miracles,  peaking  when  "Tears  of  a  Clown"  made  number  one  in  1970.  In  1972  he  quit  The  Miracles  to  concentrate  on  his  role  as  vice-president  of  Motown.. However , just  a  year  later , he  commenced  a  solo  career. He  released  a  string  of  albums  and  singles  throughout  the  seventies  which  did  OK  in  the  US  but  were  barely  noticed  in  the  UK . He  scored  a  huge  hit  in  1981  with " Being  With  You"  which  went  to  number  one  here  but  didn't  appreciably  halt  his  slow  commercial  decline.

As  the  credit  suggests  he's  a  guest  on  "Indestructible", the  title  track  on  The  Four  Tops'  latest  album. Written  by  Sandstrom  and  Price ( ? ) ,  it's  a  very  synth-heavy  dance  pop  track  with  vacuous  strength  through  unity  lyrics  and  very  predictable  key  changes. There's  a  reasonable  hook  to  it  but  it's  safe, bland  stuff  from  an  act  long  past  its  prime. Smokey's  part  in  it  is  minimal; I  can  only  discern  three  lines  which  would  have  been  better  left  to   the  mighty  Levi  Stubbs, still  in  good  voice  here. It's  a  very  bathetic  way  for  such  a  lauded  artist  to  make  his  exit  from  the  charts. The  song  was  reissued  after  featuring  in  the  film Alien  Nation  and  did  a  bit  better  second  time  around.

When  Motown  was  sold  off  to  MCA  in  1988 , Smokey  had  to  step  down  as  vice  president  but  he  had  one  more  album  to  give  them , 1990's  "Love, Smokey"  which  has  more  named  producers  than  there  are  tracks. The  lead  single  "Everything  You  Touch"  sounds  suspiciously  like  Every  Time  You  Go  Away.  The  follow-ups  "Same  Old  Love"  and  "Take  Me  Through  The  Night"   are  similarly  bland  MOR  soul. None  of  them  made  the  US  chart  and  none  of  them  were  written  by  the  so-called  "greatest  living  poet"  either.  The  album  didn't  make  the  Top  100.

Smokey  then  cut  his  ties  with  Motown  and  released  his  next  album  "Double  Good  Everything"  on  the  SBK  label . He  jettisoned  all  the  eighties  production  and  attempted  to  return  to  his  R &B  roots. The  stripped-down  sound  is  welcome  but  it  does rather  emphasise  that  his  voice  isn't  what  it  once  was. "Skid  Row" has  some  lyrical  bite but  overall  the  album  does  end  up  sounding  rather  sterile. The  title  track  was  Smokey's  last  entry  on  the  US  chart  peaking  at  91. The  album  itself  failed  to  chart.

Smokey   fell  silent  for  the  next  8  years*  until  he  re-signed  to  Motown  for  the  release  of  "Intimate"  in  1999.  As  the  title  suggests  it's  a  set  of   languid and  erotic  contemporary   R &  B  songs. If  you  can  rid  your  mind  of  the  fact  that  the  guy  singing  them is  pushing  60, it's   a  convincing  effort  if  you  like  that  sort  of  thing. It  made  a  minor  showing  in  the  US  chart.

After  another  lengthy  silence ( during  which  he  got  married  for  the  second  time  )   Smokey  released  a  Christian  LP  "Food  For  The  Spirit"  in  2004, perhaps  as  penance  for  the  sexual  stuff  on  the  previous  album. He  also  sang  the  theme  to  children's  animated  series  ToddWorld. Two  years  later  he  released  a  standards  album  "Timeless  Love"  which  charted  at  109  and  was  nominated  for  a  Grammy.

In  2009  he  released  the  album  "Time  Flies  When  You're  Having  Fun"  on  his  own  Robso  Records  label. It's  a  desperately  plodding,   geriatric  ( Smokey  was  pushing 70  ) soul  effort  with  star  guests  Joss  Stone  and  Carlos  Santana  making  no  difference  whatsoever  to  the  torpid  songs  on  which  they  feature. Only  the  slinky  electronica  of  "Love  Bath"  is  worth  a  second  hearing. Nevertheless  it  reached  number  59  in  the  US  charts. The  following  year  he  reissued  seven  of  the  tracks  coupled  with  live  renditions  of  five  of  his  biggest  hits  as  an  album  "Now  And  Then"  which  itself  charted  at  131.

Smokey 's  latest  album  to  date  is  2014's  "Smokey  and  Friends"  , a  truly  dismal  affair  on  which  various  "friends " - Elton, Barlow, Jessie  J, Mary  J  Blige  etc - drop  by  for  a  duet  with  the  old  man  on  thoroughly  arthritic  versions  of  his  greatest  hits. It's  uniformly  terrible; I  can't  pick  out  any  high  or  low  points,

Smokey  Robinson  is  77  years  old.

*  I  did   sort  of  attend  a  Smokey  gig  in  1994  when  he  performed  at  Philadelphia's  4th  of  July  celebrations  that  year. From  where  I was  sat  with  my  pen-friend  in  the  city,  I  could  neither  see  nor  hear  him  but  the  fireworks were  good !