I am sure this entire Smokey Robinson And Friends album does exactly what it is gerrymandered to do: make Smokey Robinson more money because, cmon, if it it is between Bloomberg getting richer and Smokey getting richer, who wouldn’t go for Smokey? So yeah, I do, I say, let it be Smokey, I say.
After all those songs, and all those years, if he wants to spend the last quarter century of his life re-recording em, let him.
And this duet, the first release from the And Friends album, released, is just exactly and absolute no more than you think it is: Cee Lo Green and Smokey this classic Motown staple written by the incomparable genuis. But do you need it? Or even want it? It lacks the youthful charm and razzamatazz of the Temptations version, and it sure doesn’t have Eddie Kendricks.
Look: Smokey has every right to take the money and while the co-writer Miracle Bobby Rogers died last year, I am sure his family will take the royalties. But let’s not fool ourselves about how iffy a performance and a production this is. I absolutely agree that there was zero Cee Lo has to add to the proceedings and it is not his fault. “The Way You Do The Things You Do” was the Temptations first hit and you can hear why: this is the immaculate Motown house band and a great singer and harmonies just at the exact moment they became great. How could this version be anything at all? It isn’t anything at all. It has no choice but to be product.
Incidentally, you can stream the entire album on Itunes this Monday.
Grade: C+
