Arrangers: David Blumberg; Russell Turner; Gene Page; George Tobin; Hidle Brown Barnum; Mike Piccirillo; Paul Riser; Rick James ; Wade Marcus; Smokey Robinson; David Van De Pitte.
It's hard to go wrong with 40 tracks by Smokey Robinson and the Miracles, especially when nearly all of them are deservedly canonized pop classics. The two-disc GOLD series does its usual outstanding job compiling and packaging the artist in question, and with material as timelessly appealing as this, the compilation is a hands-down winner.
The essentials--"Tears of a Clown," "Tracks of My Tears," and "Shop Around"--are here, of course, alongside lesser known but no less deserving gems like "I'll Try Something New." One distinct advantage of the set is that, where most Miracles collections restrict themselves to the 1960s, GOLD reaches well into the '70s ("Cruisin'") and '80s ("Being With You"), and shows Smokey making the elegant transition to his "Quiet Storm"/urban contemporary mode without sacrificing the quality of his songwriting or singing.
