Mojo - The Music Magazine

...ROBERT WYATT
TV On The Radio’s Kyp Malone on Smokey Robinson And The Miracles’ The Tracks Of My Tears

Smokey Robinson & The Miracles
The Tracks Of My Tears
(Tamla 7-inch, 1965)

Kyp Malone (TV On The Radio): “I first heard this before I could even talk; my parents were huge fans of Smokey Robinson & The Miracles, so that was something that got played a lot in our house. It's one of the first songs I can remember putting on the stereo on my own, on purpose [laughs]. It's a perfect marriage of vocals and music, where the whole is greater than its parts: the band is incredible, the production is incredible, everything that happens, happens perfectly. There were a lot of great musicians and geniuses in the room when that record was being made. And I really like Smokey's voice; he was behind so many Motown hits. If you ever listen to a Miracles singles collection, it doesn't let up until really late on, and even that shit, right at the very end, is still better than a lot of the pulp on Motown. I can't remember the last time I actually played the song on my stereo; something that's so nostalgic, you can hear it in your head without having to put the record on. I'd totally dance to it if I heard it in a club; the Miracles are probably some of the first music I ever danced to, in the kitchen with my mother when I was a little kid.”

Read great pieces about the 100 Greatest Motown Songs in this month’s MOJO magazine.