Of all Smokey albums - why Four in Blue?
liliana donadio | Dallas, TX United States | 09/03/2001
(2 out of 5 stars)
"As a very big Smokey Robinson fan, I was delighted to see Motown reissue these long out of print CDs again. I was even more excited to find that this reissue would include "Four In Blue", an album that had never before been released in CD format.First, for those who have never heard this material, Time Out... has a number of great tracks on it. "Doggone Right", "Baby Don't Cry", "Once I Got to Know You" (truly marvelous) and "The Composer" are all stand outs. But this album also has its share of tracks that simply don't work, (namely The Hurt is Over and Witchita Lineman) as well as a few tunes that could have been remarkable were it not for the horribly out of tune background voices (the covers of "Abraham, Martin, and John" and "For Once in My Life"). This album by itself would probably rate around 3 stars.But the real disappointment lies in the choice of Four In Blue as the second album. The first two tracks, especially "You Send Me", are wonderfully crafted Smokey Robinson originals. But after that, this CD travels downhill faster than an avalanche. Most of the remaining tracks were written by other songwriters, (only 2 other tunes were written by Smokey out of the last ten), and frankly, they shoud have never been recorded.As such a big fan of Smokey's, I think it's really unfortunate that another album like Pocket Full of Miracles or One Dozen Roses wasn't chosen for the second half. If the decision to choose Four In Blue was because it was chronologically released after Time Out, that would make sense only if the intent was to release Smokey's entire catalog. Otherwise, I'm sure that Motown could have found a much stronger selection of songs to re-release. Very disappointing indeed.As a final note, for those who have the Time Out For Smokey CD that was originally released in 1986, if you truly enjoy these songs and care about such things, this CD is well worth the purchase for the remastering alone. Songs like "My Girl" were originally mastered very poorly. You could actually hear the tape trying to catch up with iself at the beginning of the song, creating a sound that resembled a warped record. This reissue's only saving grace, is that those problems from the first go round are cleaned up very well. But for those of you looking for a CD to familiarize yourself with Smokey Robinson's material, stay away from this release until you become a die hard fan who wants to hear it all."
Mellow late sixties soul music
Peter Durward Harris | Leicester England | 04/13/2005
(5 out of 5 stars)
"Smokey Robinson and the Miracles recorded most of their best music in the early to mid-sixties, after which Smokey gave a lot of his best songs to other Motown artists. Thus, these albums from 1968 and 1969 do not capture the group at their best but they are still worth hearing if you are a committed Motown fan.
The first album, Time out, yielded four American top forty hits although three of them only made the thirties. Baby baby don't cry was the first single from the album and the biggest hit by far, making the American top ten. It missed the British charts and no further singles from the album were released in Britain. The three other American hits were Doggone right, Abraham Martin and John and Point it out. Marvin Gaye also recorded Abraham Martin and John, his version being released as a British single and making the top ten. Although I'm more familiar with Marvin's version (and therefore my be biased), I really do think Marvin's version is superior and wonder what would have happened if his version had been released in America instead of Smokey's.
The other songs on Time out include covers of My girl (actually written by Smokey but a 1965 hit for the Temptations), Wichita lineman (Glen Campbell) and For once in my life (Stevie Wonder). Another reviewer suggests that Wichita lineman doesn't work but I quite enjoyed Smokey's version of the song. Nevertheless, I agree that The composer is a really great song. Now, why wasn't it released as a single? It would surely have done better (at least in America) than some that were released.
The second album here is Four in blue. It may not be their greatest album but I really don't think it's as bad as another reviewer suggests. Having said that, Motown didn't release any singles from it in Britain or America, so perhaps they weren't impressed by it. The songs that everybody will surely recognize are the covers of Hey Jude (Beatles), You've lost that loving feeling (Righteous brothers) and My world is empty without you (Supremes). Are they as good as the originals? No, but they are different and I enjoy them.
The remaining songs on Four in blue include four written by Smokey and several others written by Motown staff writers such as Nickolas Ashford and Valerie Simpson. Among the highlights are California soul, Dreams dreams and You send me your good loving.
These two albums may not be the best that Smokey Robinson and the Miracles recorded, but I find them relaxing and enjoyable. If you are building a collection of their music, you may be better to buy their earlier albums first."
