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Special Occasion (The Miracles album)

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Released
  
August 26, 1968

Studio
  
Hitsville USA, Detroit

Special Occasion (1968)
  
Live! (1969)

Release date
  
26 August 1968

Recorded
  
1967–1968

Length
  
32:23

Artist
  
The Miracles

Label
  
Tamla

Special Occasion (The Miracles album) httpsuploadwikimediaorgwikipediaenff3Mir

Genres
  
Soul music, Rhythm and blues

Producers
  
Smokey Robinson, Norman Whitfield

Similar
  
Time Out for Smokey Robinson, One Dozen Roses, A Pocket Full of Miracles, Four in Blue, Away We a Go‑Go

Special occasion smokey robinson and the miracles 1968


Special Occasion is an album by Smokey Robinson & The Miracles released in 1968. It contains three Top 40 hits: "If You Can Want", "Yester Love", and "Special Occasion". Also included are versions of the Motown hits "I Heard It Through the Grapevine" and "Everybody Needs Love" (both made popular by Gladys Knight & The Pips) and The Beatles' "Yesterday". The album's biggest hit was the uptempo "If You Can Want", which just missed the Billboard Pop Top 10, peaking at # 11,and was performed by the group on their first appearance on The Ed Sullivan Show in 1968 . The Miracles were actually the first group to record "I Heard It Through the Grapevine", before the later hit versions by Marvin Gaye and Gladys Knight & the Pips were done, although the master used on this album is a re-recorded version prepared following the release of the Pips' version.This album also includes the popular Miracles regional hit "B" sides, Much Better Off (which inspired a cover version by late rapper J Dilla), and Give Her Up. Give Her Up first appeared on Martha & The Vandellas 1963 album Come And Get These Memories as Give Him Up.

Contents

Side one

  1. "Yester Love" (Smokey Robinson, Al Cleveland)
  2. "If You Can Want" (Robinson)
  3. "Special Occasion" (Robinson, Cleveland)
  4. "Everybody Needs Love" (Norman Whitfield, Edward Holland, Jr.)
  5. "Just Losing You" (Robinson)
  6. "Give Her Up" (Robinson)

Side two

  1. "I Heard It Through the Grapevine" (Whitfield, Barrett Strong)
  2. "Yesterday" (John Lennon, Paul McCartney)
  3. "Your Mother's Only Daughter" (Robinson, Cleveland)
  4. "Much Better Off" (Smokey Robinson, Warren Moore)
  5. "You Only Build Me Up To Tear Me Down" (Robinson)

Personnel

The Miracles

  • Smokey Robinson – lead vocals, producer, executive producer
  • Ronnie White – background vocals
  • Bobby Rogers – background vocals
  • Warren "Pete" Moore – background vocals
  • Claudette Robinson – background vocals
  • Marv Tarplin – guitarist

    • Other Credits

  • Norman Whitfield, producer ("Everybody Needs Love", "I Heard It Through the Grapevine")
  • The Funk Brothers: instrumentation

    • Songs

    1Yester Love2:19
    2If You Can Want2:27
    3Special Occasion2:19

    References

    Special Occasion (The Miracles album) Wikipedia
    (Text) CC BY-SA