Motown’s Smokey Robinson going strong: ‘I want to be Beethoven’

Article content

At 82, Smokey Robinson is a miracle.

Article content

The Motown singer and prolific songwriter — who once fronted Smokey Robinson and the Miracles — is still going strong despite a recent bout with COVID-19 in 2020.

“I was very sick — I was in the hospital for 11 days with it — but I came through,” Robinson said down the line from his L.A. home.

The Detroit-born songwriter behind such classics as Shop Around — Motown’s first million-selling hit record — You’ve Really Got a Hold on Me, I Second That Emotion, The Tears of a Clown and The Tracks of My Tears, says the key to staying healthy is once you’ve turned 40, your part-time job is looking after yourself.

“I feel as good if not better than I did when I was 50 because I’ve always tried to take care of myself,” added Robinson.

“I work out everyday, just about. I’ve been doing yoga for 40 years. And age is just a number.”

Article content

Next up for Robinson, who started doing shows again in December 2021, will be the 35th edition of the TD Toronto Jazz Fest on June 28 at Meridian Hall.

“Toronto is one of my favourite places,” said the Rock and Roll Hall of Famer. “I’ve just been coming to Toronto all my life. I grew up in Detroit. And I was right across the bridge or under the tunnel to Windsor. I love Toronto. Toronto’s beautiful.”

Robinson, who calls his songwriting “a gift from God,” said he could have never anticipated his career would have such longevity.

“I know when I was a kid, I used to watch every show that came on TV that had anything at all to do with music. So I would watch like Ed Sullivan and all the guys from the Rat Pack, and they’d be like, ‘Man, you know, we’ve been doing this for 25 years.’ And I’d think to myself, ‘How could somebody be possibly doing this for 25 years?’ So I’ve been doing this now for 65 years.”

Article content

Robinson said his first song came to him when he was just six years old.

“I wrote it for a play I did in elementary school,” recalled Robinson. “My teacher was playing a little melody on the piano to open the play and close the play, and I asked her if I could write some words for it.”

He said his first substantial song was Got A Job — his answer to the Silhouettes’ hit Get A Job.  It was  released with the help of songwriter Berry Gordy, who found Tamla Records the same year in 1958, which later became Motown Records in 1960.

As for what he thinks of people who have covered his songs over the years?

“I want to be Beethoven. So if people record my songs, I love it.”

He’s also been the subject of tributes like George Harrison’s 1975 song Pure Smokey and ABC’s 1987 hit, When Smokey Sings.

Article content

“I knew George well,” he said. “George was my favourite guy in the Beatles. He was my man. ABC, I was in Belgium, and I was doing a TV show, and I didn’t know ABC was going to be on that show, and they didn’t know I was going to be on that show. So the producer introduced us. They were wonderful.”

Oliver Stone also used The Tracks of My Tears in a memorable party scene in 1986’s Platoon.

“Oliver and I were really close. And Oliver told me, ‘We used to play Motown music in the foxholes at night. Just to keep ourselves company.’”

Of the new crop of artists, Robinson likes Taylor Swift, Bruno Mars and Beyonce.

“You’ve got a lot of young people out there making some really good music,” said Robinson.