Smokey Robinson

Bullseye with Jesse Thorn

Jesse Thorn

Society & Culture

4.5 • 2.6K Ratings

🗓️ 1 August 2023

⏱️ 61 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

There's no other way to put it, Smokey Robinson is a legend. The Motown great and former frontman of The Miracles is responsible for some of the greatest pop hits of the 20th century – "You've really got ahold of me," "Tears of a clown," "I Second That Emotion," "Crusin'" and many others. In 1960, The Miracles released "Shop Around." The song became a huge success. It became Motown's first million-selling hit record. Robinson eventually became Motown Records vice president and helped turn the label into a household name. Smokey Robinson is now 83. He's still recording. He is still writing. Earlier this year, he released Gasms. We'll talk with the Motown legend about his time with The Miracles, his solo career, his songwriting process and his brand new erotic concept album.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Bullseye with Jesse Thorn is a production of MaximumFun.org and is distributed by NPR.
0:17.2	It's Bullseye.
0:18.2	I'm Jesse Thorn.
0:19.3	For most artists, it would be enough to have one signature hit, one all-time great,
0:27.6	like this one.
0:30.3	And if you didn't just sing it, you also wrote and produced it.
0:58.1	I mean, that would be pretty extraordinary.
1:02.5	In this case, for that song, the extraordinary talent in question is, of course, Smoky Robinson,
1:09.9	the former frontman of the Miracles and Motown legend, who is my guest this week.
1:16.4	And Smoky didn't just write, record, and produce one all-time great hit song.
1:23.6	He is responsible for a pile of the greatest pop hits of the 20th century.
1:30.9	Tears of a clown.
1:52.7	I second that emotion.
2:19.0	Cruisin.
2:23.7	Cruisin.
2:32.7	Cruisin.
2:41.7	And literally, dozens more.
2:57.4	Smoky Robinson is now 83 years old.
2:59.9	He is still recording, still writing.
3:03.2	Earlier this year, he released a new album, Gazzoms.
3:07.4	Yes.
3:08.4	That's the title.
	...

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