Where’s there’s Smokey, there’s fire — onstage, at least. That was the case with Smokey Robinson at Tuesday’s two-hour blast from the past at the Apollo Theater.
Robinson lived up to his reputation as an electric performer. He was all heart, soul and heat, laying down the best of his songbook, including “Tears of a Clown,” “You’ve Really Got a Hold on Me” and even a few time-tested covers, such as “Fly Me to the Moon.”
The singer moved to the music like a sure-footed panther, and his whispering velvet-tenor falsetto sent shivers down your spine, whether he was doing the first big hit he wrote (for the Temptations), “The Way You Do the Things You Do,” or one of the few new ones, like “Time Flies.” It was a simple yet stylish production. Smokey, in a dark suit, was backed by a nine-piece band all in white.
A pair of pretty young dancers in skimpy costumes flanked him, nicely augmenting Robinson’s opening tune, “Going to a
Go-Go.”
After that, the Motown legend delivered “I Second That Emotion” and “You’ve Really Got a Hold on Me.” Each was better than the song before it, and Robinson seemed to shed years as the program moved forward and the crowd’s cheers got louder.
It got better with “My Girl” (another hit for the Temptations) as a singalong anthem; “Tears of a Clown,” introduced with a story about its co-writer, Stevie Wonder, complete with Robinson imitating the famous
Wonder wobble; and an outstanding “The Tracks of My Tears,” with a glorious crescendo climax.
He’d just finished “Ooo Baby Baby” — another tear-the-house-down peak — when Robinson gave the Apollo a top-to-bottom scan from the stage. “I’m trippin’,” he said, “because right here, on this stage, was the real beginning of my career. I remember the first time me and the Miracles played here. I didn’t open my eyes, I was so scared.”
Back then, not everyone noticed Smokey’s fear or his eyes clamped shut. Concertgoer Justine Adams, 59, who was admiring an early ’60s black-and-white photo of Smokey with the Miracles displayed on the Apollo’s Wall of Fame gallery before the show, said, “I saw Smokey here when I was a girl, and it was amazing.”
Nothing has changed.