Smokey Robinson and the Miracles ‘The Tears Of A Clown’ paintings: Courtesy of UMG
As Motown devotees know, “The Tears Of A Clown” was a smash that was created within the U.Okay. The Smokey Robinson & the Miracles monitor, written by Smokey with Stevie Marvel and Henry “Hank” Cosby, had sat nearly unnoticed as a non-single on the Make It Occur album from the summer season of 1967.
However three years later, the U.Okay. firm’s impressed choice to place it out as a forty five led it to No.1 in Britain and a belated US launch. That took Smokey’s clown into the charts there on October 17, 1970, on to the highest of the Billboard R&B chart on December 5, and the Sizzling 100 summit every week later.
The Miracles had normally struggled to duplicate their big American success within the U.Okay., the place they didn’t hit large till a 1969 reissue of “The Tracks Of My Tears,” which was already 4 years previous. Karen Spreadbury, head of the British division of the Motown Fan Membership, was requested by John Reid (the label’s advertising head within the U.Okay. and later Elton John’s supervisor) to discover a single on the 1967 album. She had no hesitation in suggesting the extremely uncommon “Tears,” and historical past took its course.
The US follows the UK
The American single, Tamla 54199, went on to win a spot within the Grammy Corridor of Fame and got here out simply after the tune had spent every week on the UK summit, in between Elvis Presley’s “The Wonder Of You” and Freda Payne’s “Band Of Gold.” Within the States, it hit the pop chart at No.68, within the week that the Jackson 5 dominated the roost with “I’ll Be There.”
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Eight weeks later, “The Tears Of A Clown” began a two-week run on the high, earlier than giving technique to George Harrison’s “My Sweet Lord”/“Isn’t It A Pity.” Karen, again within the U.Okay., received a name from Smokey Robinson to thank her for beginning that ball rolling.
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