Smokey Robinson & The Miracles: Special Occasion - 1968

Smokey Robinson & The Miracles released three pretty acceptable albums in the mid-late sixties in Going To A Go-Go, Make It Happen and this one, containing some good songs and delivered with a good sound quality. I have to say the quality is superb on this one. It is a really good album overall too, even though it includes the now seemingly obligatory Beatles cover. 

Yester-Love is a great opener, full of brass breaks, great drums and a sublime Robinson vocal. This was Robinson and The Miracles at their very best. Great songwriting, great harmonies. If You Can Want has a fine rhythm to it that is almost proto-funky. Check out that drum/bass interplay. This was a definite underrated Miracles tune. I really like it. 

Special Occasion continues the quality with more sumptuous bass and drum backing and another killer vocal. These really were three corkers to open the album with. Everybody Needs Love, with its catchy Northern Soul-ish vibe, is another excellent cut, too. Just Losing You is a typical smooth, slick Robinson ballad. Personally, I prefer the more chunky, upbeat numbers but there is no doubt that it is beautifully done. 

Give Her Up is another slow number, but it has an impressive bassy backing to it and more solid drums. Sandwiched between Gladys Knight & The Pips' original version and Marvin Gaye's iconic one comes Smokey's take on I Heard Through The Grapevine. All versions of the song have to be compared to Gaye's, however, but, taken in isolation, this is a solid rendition. 

Then there is Yesterday. No need for this cover of the Paul McCartney classic, but, of course, Smokey does it appealingly, slowing it down to walking pace and enhanced by The Miracles' harmonies. 

Back to some classic Smokey, I think, and it arrives with the uplifting Your Mother's Only Daughter, which has echoes of I Second That Emotion. Much Better Off is a typical ballad and You Only Build Me Up To Tear Me Down ends the album in classic mid-pace Robinson style. 

On balance, this is probably my favourite Smokey Robinson & The Miracles album, just edging out Make It Happen.

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