The Solo Anthology

Product Description:

Personnel includes: Smokey Robinson, Barbara Mitchell, Rick James, The Temptations (vocals); Kenny G (saxophone).

Producers include: Smokey Robinson, Michael Sutton, George Tobin, Reginald "Sonny" Burke, Rick James.

Compilation producer: Harry Weinger.

Includes liner notes by Steven Ivory.

All tracks have ben digitally remastered.

Although Smokey Robinson was clearly at the top of his game when he was with the Miracles, and one could make an outstanding anthology simply of songs he wrote and produced for other artists in the '60s -- his solo career in the '70s and '80s was also fairly impressive. THE SOLO ANTHOLOGY, a double-disc compilation stuffed with 32 tracks of unceasing quality, is a perfect overview of an often underrated era of Robinson's career. Although all of Robinson's 10 solo hit singles, from 1974's "Baby Come Close" to 1987's "One Heartbeat," are present and accounted for, the collection also dips further into his career for gems like his funky duet with Rick James, "Ebony Eyes." Gorgeous ballads like "Cruisin'" and the slinky "Being With You" still sound terrific decades later, as does his career high point "Quiet Storm," possibly the only song to get an entire subgenre of music (bedroom-eyed R&B love jams of the '80s) named after it. A good Miracles anthology is essential, of course, but THE SOLO ANTHOLOGY is equally necessary.