VIA Hip-O Select:
SITE PRE-SALE DATE: 8/13/2010
SITE SHIP DATE: 8/27/2010
“People considered me to be a quiet singer,” Smokey Robinson explains, “so I said to myself, ‘I’d like to go back and take the business by storm.’”
Smokey Robinson didn’t want to be a solo star, but after the success of his first two albums away from the Miracles, solo success came calling. Those albums, Smokey and Pure Smokey, available on a single disc from Hip-oSelect.com, laid the groundwork for his next release: A Quiet Storm not only had hit singles, including the No. 1 “Baby That’s Backatcha,” it became a phenomenon; a standard-bearer of smooth, sultry soul and the inspiration for a radio format of similar-sounding music. His follow-up was Smokey’s Family Robinson, an underrated near-classic album that featured both stunning ballads and a couple of funk bombs, including the top 10 single “Open.”
Both albums are now on a single CD in Volume 2 of the Smokey Robinson Solo Albums Series, available at
http://www.hip-oselect.com. A Quiet Storm, released in 1975, is now digitally remastered for the first time in more than 20 years, while Smokey’s Family Robinson, originally issued a year later, is now on CD for the first time. This Volume 2 includes a rare bonus track: “An Old-Fashioned Man,” a soundtrack single released later in ’76 that is also on CD for the first time.
Like Volume 1, these classics are housed in a lovingly rendered package with a 24-page booklet featuring restored artwork and detailed annotations, as well as liner notes by U.K. author Peter Doggett, who interviewed Smokey specifically for this series.
Look for more releases in the Smokey Robinson Solo Albums series the rest of the year and in 2011.
1. Quiet Storm
2. The Agony And The Ecstasy
3. Baby That's Backatcha
4. Wedding Song
5. Happy
6. Love Letters
7. Coincidentally
8. When You Came
9. Get Out Of Town
10. Do Like I Do
11. Open
12. So In Love
13. Like Nobody Can
14. Castles Made Of Sand
15. An Old-Fashioned Man - Bonus Track
