Smokey And Friends

Smokey & Friends features Robinson’s best-known songs performed as duets with the likes of James Taylor, Sir Elton John, Aerosmith’s Steven Tyler, Sheryl Crow and Mary J. Blige. Together, they remake hits that Robinson recorded with the Miracles and as a solo act, as well as tunes he penned for Marvin Gaye (Ain’t That Peculiar, sung with Taylor) and the Temptations (My Girl, cut with Miguel, Aloe Blacc and JC Chasez).

Randy Jackson, the album’s producer, assembled the guests. “He asked them their favorite Smokey Robinson song,” Robinson says. “Whatever song they said, that’s the one I recorded with them.” The stylistic diversity of the artists who appear on the album mean some songs got significant makeovers. You Really Got a Hold on Me, a No. 1 R&B hit for the Miracles in 1962, becomes a rock record when Aerosmith frontman Tyler sings it. “It’s got the rock guitars and the screaming organs, all that,” Robinson says.” We let each singer put their own take on whatever song they picked, then Randy produced it in that manner.”