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Lost and Found: Along Came Love (1958-1964)

Smokey Robinson & the Miracles - Lost and Found: Along Came Love (1958-1964) Audio CD

A fair review of the Smokey Robinson & the Miracles "Lost and Found: Along Came Love (1958-1964)" Audio CD. Please note that the below review is the views of the authors, and authors only. You can get a complete list of all Smokey Robinson & the Miracles reviews here, or go back to the Smokey Robinson & the Miracles tabs.

Band: Smokey Robinson & the Miracles
Title: Lost and Found: Along Came Love (1958-1964)
Rating:

Release Date: 1999-09-28
Media: Audio CD

Tracks: 1: I Think We Can Make It 2: I Love Your Baby 3: My Mama Done Told Me 4: Along Came Love 5: Come to Me 6: You've Got to Pay Bills 7: I Need Some Money 8: Would I Love You - Smokey Robinson & the Miracles 9: If I Were a Bell 10: Easy Street 11: Don't Think It's Me 12: I Like It Like That 13: (Talking 'Bout) Nobody But My Baby 14: Yes, No, Maybe So 15: Mr. Misery [Featuring Claudett Robinson] 16: Don't Say Bye-Bye 17: I Need a Change 18: I Need Somebody 19: Please Say You Love Me 20: Shop Around [Live]

Simply Necessary
Three cuts make "Lost and Found" worth the money and effort. This is a necessary addition to any collection of Miracles early work -- especially if you value "From the Beginning," an LP that any sane producer would issue on CD. "Along Came Love" is in the tradition of the flawless "I Can't Believe" from the afore-mentioned LP. "Would I Love You" is as lovely as I remember it -- a bit doo-woppy, but so much a Smokey rendering. For the Miracles' livelier facet, there is the all-time, frequently forgotten "I Need A Change," one of my favorites from the group's Chess moment. The arrangement is as stirring and original as "Way Over There" and ". . . Just a Mirage," but no other recording surpasses Smokey's vocals here. If you enjoy that strange, raspy falsetto as it leaps in every direction, this is required listening. Post Script: Be sure to find the newly (to me) released discs that include "I Can't Believe", "Fork in the Road," and the standard "Embraceable You. " This latter piece has been sorely missed for much too long. Probably the most beautiful thing that Smokey ever recorded. If only he would consider an entire album of comparable standards -- in the same lilting style and arrangement.

Recovered from the vaults
The Funk Brothers must have been cooking away in the Hitsville Studio practically twenty-four hours a day only to see some of their most potent grooves disappear into a back room, apparently to never see the light of day. So much unreleased material has been retrieved from Motown's apparently infinite vaults that it seems to outweigh the official releases of the time - songs tried out by different artists, albums mixed and shelved, countless out-takes and forgotten songs.

Thankfully, a great deal of this material has subsequently been made available. There have been artists' retrospectives and anthologies with previously unreleased tracks, collections of newly recovered masters such as A Cellarful Of Motown, and collected unreleased masters by specific artists such as this first rate Lost And Found series. This has so far included Marvin Gaye, the Four Tops, the Temptations and the Miracles on the Motown label.

The Miracles' Along Came Love features recordings from 1957 to 1964 and unusually includes seven tracks that did come out, but which had been long unavailable, all but one drawn from the 1965 US double-album The Miracles Greatest Hits From The Beginning. Some of these have since reappeared on The Complete Motown Singles, Vol. 1: 1959-1961 box set and later Volumes.

The Miracles' association with Motown boss Berry Gordy predates Motown itself, having begun when they were still a doo-wop outfit recently known as the Matadors. Later Smokey was to become Berry Gordy's vice president and right-hand man at Motown: chef, main writer, producer and lead singer in the Miracles, but he began writing songs with Berry Gordy (who had already written songs for Jackie Wilson, Bobby Parker and others) almost as soon as they met in 1957.

Berry Gordy was involved in co-writing and/or producing all the early Miracles' singles, which were recorded, before the Hitsville Studio was established, in hired studios such as United Sound in Detroit and Olmstead Sound in New York, and released on small labels like Fury and End. Three of these raw sounding B-sides (but not their A-sides) are included here - My Mama Done Told Me; (I Need Some) Money and I Love Your Baby - plus an A-side that was licensed to Chess in late 1959, because of its better distribution channels, I Need A Change.

Another early Tamla B-side, issued as by Ron and Bill (Ronnie White and Bill "Smokey" Robinson), was modelled on the Everly Brothers in the hope of a hit. Don't Say Bye-Bye was not taken from Greatest Hits From The Beginning, but was the B-side of It in 1959.

The other two tracks from the compilation From The Beginning were the 1964 non-album B-side Would I Love You (also on Early Classics), a luscious ballad with sweeping strings, recorded in Chicago, and the atmospheric non-album single I Like It Like That, the only stereo recording on this CD. This stereo mix made its debut on From The Beginning and had a different lead vocal to the one on the single, as most easily identified by a falsetto "please" twenty-five seconds into the stereo mix. Newer longer stereo mixes of both these tracks can be found on Ooo Baby Baby: The Anthology.

That leaves the previously unreleased material, beginning with the confidently soulful I Think We Can Make It. It seems unlikely that something this strong would be shelved, but it was recorded the very same day as You've Really Got A Hold On Me, and even that was only thought worthy of a B-side release. The title track Along Came Love is a ballad that shows their doo-wop roots, and was probably considered for Cookin' With The Miracles. Marv Johnson's Come To Me was the first release on Tamla, recorded in December 1958, and the Miracles' more upbeat reworking comes from December 1959, during their Chess period. You've Got To Pay Bills, a song about placating the landlady, and Don't Think It's Me, were both recorded on 11 June 1964, but Smokey returned to Don't Think It's Me for a bigger production on the Make It Happen album in 1967 (Make It Happen/Special Occasion), when Earl Van Dyke's tentative organ fills were replaced by full on strings.

If I Were A Bell (from Guys And Dolls), with second lead vocals from Claudette Rogers Robinson, and Easy Street, which has impressive Four Freshmen-style harmonies, were planned for an abandoned album of standards to be called The Miracles Sing Modern in 1962. It shows their versatility but isn't what I listen to the Miracles for. (Talkin' Bout) Nobody But My Baby definitely is though. It uses the same backing track prepared by Norman Whitfield for the Temptations, who added vocals on the same day as the Miracles, but it was the Temptations' version that was chosen over a year later in 1964 and came out on the back of My Girl (ironically a song that Smokey had written, about his wife Claudette), while Smokey's gospelly lead was consigned to history. Claudette gets a rare lead vocal on the excellent Mr Misery from 1962, the same year as Yes, No, Maybe So, which is a cover of Barrett Strong's 1960 single, written by Smokey and Berry.

I Need Somebody is a James Brownish blues, another recorded in Chicago for the strings, probably arranged by Riley Hampton; and Please Say You Love Me is a Smokey Robinson/Janie Bradford song, a begging soul-blues production, with what sounds like Earl Van Dyke on organ and Marv Tarplin guitar, but no details as to date, line-up or producer are given.

The album closes appropriately, as it was Motown's first million seller, with a live recording of Shop Around, backed by Richard "Popcorn" Wylie's band, from a road show appearance in Cincinatti a few months after the single came out. It was the climax of the show and the Miracles were joined onstage by a chorus including Mary Wells and Singin' Sammy Ward, the Contours and Chuck Jackson, with Smokey's voice all but shot by the end of a fervent performance.

Nothing here deserved to be abandoned and forgotten and Motown are to be applauded for bringing them back into circulation for our appraisal and enjoyment.

From humble beginnings...
The live version of "Shop Around" is essential. These once hard-to-find gems are worth having in your collection. I like to think of these songs as words of wisdom ("You've Got To Pay Bills"). Claudette Robinson gave a great performance on "Mr. Misery (Let Me Be)". A must have for your collection!.

More from the world greatest living poet....
Sometimes I wondered when he was in the studio recording these songs was he actually serenading Claudette (considering they were still newlyweds when The Miracles and Motown were just hitting big!). For those that remember the vinyl edition of "Greatest Hits from the Beginning" take note - almost half the CD comprised of the tracks from that same LP that was released in 1965! - But since we are now in the age of CDs (and these tracks, particularly my favorite "Would I Love You") has not been available for nearly 25 years (the LP was reissued in the '80s), This CD breathes new life to wonderfully classic and vintage Smokey. Anyway enjoy this magical trip down Hitsville Memory Lane, It's worth every penny (including the sales tax - if applicable in your state!).

Perfect for a little dinner party!
You will love it!. Great music and songs, some you've never heard before.

You can see a complete list of all Smokey Robinson & the Miracles discography, or go back to the Smokey Robinson & the Miracles tabs. There is also a good guide on how to read guitar tabs here.