Smokey Robinson

The Guy Who Plays Smokey Robinson

Charl Brown is nominated for a Tony for playing singer/songwriter Smokey Robinson in Motown: The Musical. He's great in the part--convincing as Smokey, yet bringing his own stuff to it the way good interpreters do. At a Tony nominees' event, Brown (Jersey Boys, Sister Act) told me the casting makes ... More >>

Motown The Musical Opens: My Review

An air-tight revue with classic songs presented as theatrical set pieces, with a minimum of superficial chatter in between them. That's not what Motown The Musical is. Instead, the story of how Berry Gordy Jr. created a dazzling black sound that managed to be upbeat, despairing, and socially relevan ... More >>

My 10 Favorite Motown Songs

With Motown The Musical jazzing up Broadway with "the sound of young America," let me look back and pick my 10 fave Motown singles of all time. Come on, let's get it on! (10) What Becomes Of The Broken Hearted," sung by Jimmy Ruffin Careful in its pace, soulful in its tone, this one is a heart wr ... More >>

The Tragic Story Of The Woman Who Made Motown

A new book called Mary Wells, The Tumultuous Life of Motown's First Superstar details the ups and downs of the sultry singer of "My Guy," "Two Lovers," and "You Beat Me To The Punch" as she went from fame back to obscurity. Mary was Motown's first solo superstar, soaring on Smokey Robinson-penned t ... More >>

Your Handy En Vogue Refresher

This Friday, one of the '90s most prominent r & b groups, En Vogue, returns to B.B. King Blues Club for a night of some of this generation's most satisfying soul music. While it was originally scheduled to be a 20th anniversary reunion tour, disputes this year within the group have left En Vogue as ... More >>

'Verboten' w/ dOP+Crazy P

R. Kelly's Write Me Back Rides The Retro Soulacoaster

Around this time last year, I saw R. Kelly at the Prudential Center, and it was one of the most impressive live spectacles I've been witness to in my two-plus decades of attending big arena shows; there was an onstage bar complete with cocktail-shaking mixologist, an acapella reworking of his 1994 s ... More >>

Motown The Musical Is Coming! Come And Get These Memories

In my column about theater last year, I bemoaned the fact that there have been jukebox musicals about everything except the one I want to see--Motown! Well, it's finally coming. Berry Gordy Jr. is planning a show called Motown which will tell his story while sprinkling in the Motown hits of the da ... More >>

HELLO. . . .

Is it Lionel Richie you’re looking for?

Drake and The Weeknd Wallow in their Misery

Riding the Bummer

People Who Died 2011: The Year In Obituaries

Amy Winehouse passed away on July 23. ​In memory of the people, places, and things that passed away in 2011, here's a collection of links and streaming-video artifacts.

Disambiguation: 11 Things Fork in the Road Is Besides a NYC Food Blog

1. Fork in the Road: An album by Neil Young, his 32nd, released on Reprise Records in 2009. There's a song on the album called "Fork in the Road," which has these lyrics: "There's a fork in the road ahead, I don't know which way I'm gonna go."

CMJ Day Two: Cubic Zirconia, Mux Mool, And Teen Daze Plug In At Cake Shop

Cubic Zirconia. ​CMJ Day Two: Gospel Music, Cloud Nothings, Widowspeak, Cubic Zirconia, Mux Mool, Teen Daze Better than: Walking around in the drizzle-cum-actual rain without an umbrella. Gospel Music had the best T-shirt of the day at Cake Shop yesterday afternoon—maybe of CMJ, perio ... More >>

My 13 Favorite Duets Of All Time

"It takes two, baby," as Marvin & Tammi once sang. So here are my all-time favorite twosomes -- musically, that is. (13) "Cruisin'," Gwyneth Paltrow and Huey Lewis, 2000 This cover version of the Smokey Robinson hit came from a rotten movie about karaoke, but it grabbed me, with Gwynnie's creamy ... More >>

Live: The Black Eyed Peas Grandstand, Survive The Rain In Central Park

The Black Eyed Peas The Great Lawn, Central Park Friday, September 30 Better than: Being kettled. Before Friday's Central Park show, the latest Black Eyed Peas news involved the group's announcement that they would be joining Christina Aguilera, Smokey Robinson, and Cee Lo Green on stage at a Mich ... More >>

The Gospel on Gospel in Rejoice and Shout

American Idol Season 10, Top 11: The Freaky Rictus Smile of Thia Megia

This person has no idea what Motown is. Photo courtesy Michael Becker/ FOX. ​Since last we spoke, Karen Rodriguez has gone back to MySpaceLand, Steven Tyler's wardrobe has grown impressively more absurd, and Jacob Lusk has bodied the fuck out of Heart's "Alone." I missed the last week of Ameri ... More >>

Download All The Songs Sampled On Kanye West's My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy

​Given Kanye West's total ubiquity these past few weeks/months/years, it's jarring to realize that his profoundly unraveled My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy is not even officially out yet. And yet the Internet dissection is well under way -- just as Girl Talk's All Day (which we can't exactly ... More >>

SOUL ALIVE

Hawthorne grooves for every era

Marky Ramone Joins Weird Celebrity Food Universe With Line of Pasta Sauce

Marky Ramone now has something to put on his Meatball Sandwich: the former Ramones drummer has just introduced his own line of pasta sauce. Check out the above YouTube promo for Marky Ramone's Brooklyn's Own Pasta Sauce, where Ramone tells disbelieving viewers, "Hey everybody, this is Marky Ramone ... More >>

Bruce! Sam! Billy! Bonnie! Live From The Ludicrously Star-Studded MSG Rock Hall Extravaganza

Rock and Roll Hall of Fame 25th Anniversary Celebration Madison Square Garden Thursday, October 29 The first half of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame's two-night benefit concert and 25th-anniversary celebration lasted six hours, ended at 1:30 a.m. and featuring star-studded sets by curators Bruce S ... More >>

Live From a Somewhat Michael Jackson–Themed Amateur Night at the Apollo

Live Blogging the Michael Jackson Memorial

Live Video streaming by Ustream For all the lovely grace notes, homages, and eulogies that have flowed from any number of erudite and compassionate individuals in the wake of Michael Jackson's untimely death at the young age of 50, a celebrity's death is not over in American until the huge, gaudy, ... More >>

MJ in LA: Smokey, Gospel, Pastor, Mariah

About a half-hour ago Smokey Robinson made a nice speech and conveyed regrets from Diana Ross and Nelson Mandela, who counseled the family to "stay strong." Then there were several minutes of nothingness, during which Fox anchors blabbed. Now a gospel group is singing "We Are Going to See the King ... More >>

MJ in LA Update

Latifah said, "I'm here to represent millions of fans who loved Michael... all of you." She reads a Maya Angelou poem, "We had him," composed for the occasion: "Beloveds, now we know that we know nothing/Now that our bright and shining star can slip away from our fingertips like a puff of summer win ... More >>

Jackson Memorial Worthy of a Master Showman

The Michael Jackson all-star memorial concert at the Staples Center was so riveting I expected Michael to pop out of the shiny, silver coffin and do one last moonwalk. Janet and LaToya really turned it out fashionwise (and dignity-wise); old-time Motown legends like Berry Gordy, Stevie Wonder, and S ... More >>

Ow American Idol Top 10: Scott is Still Cheesy, Adam Gets Sensitive, Allison Shows Her Fuck Side

Sharyn Jackson is your American Idol host for season eight. This week: the Top 10! all photos by Michael Becker / FOXAdam Lambert, slicked back hair It feels like months have gone by since I last watched Idol. That's because we were pre-empted Tuesday for one reason or another. It's all a bit diso ... More >>

American Idol Top 10 Results: The Live-Blog

Sharyn Jackson is your American Idol host for season eight. This week: the Top 10! Ray Mickshaw /FOXWow, this is ridiculous. Last night's Motown show was another rough one. As Season 8 shapes up to have some of the worst singing we've ever seen on this show--and that's saying a lot--I'm not hopefu ... More >>

Age, Beauty Before Youth at Grammys

Despite myriad concessions to modishness and a Twitter feed, it was a Steely Dan sort of year at the Grammys as Robert Plant and Alison Krause's Raising Sand won five awards including Album Of The Year, Record Of The Year ("Please Read the Letter"), and awards in the Country and Contemporary Folk ... More >>

Possibly 4th Street 26: The Explorers Club

Rob Trucks's "Possibly 4th Street" expositions, in which he invites musicians to perform live and impromptu somewhere in New York City, run intermittently here at Sound of the City. The Explorers Club plays the Mercury Lounge, February 5 and the following night at Maxwell's in Hoboken. photos by ... More >>

Comedy's Got A Brand New Bag

U.K. trickster genius swings between laugh-ins and love-ins

Levi Stubbs: Mourning the Voice of Little Shop of Horrors

The Jesus and Mary Chain Gleefully Confound Both their Fans and Themselves

Stupid Shit: Mike Ditka's Pork Chops

Live: Interpol, Cat Power at MSG, 09.14.07

The American Idol Finale: A Running Diary

Crazy Covers Curated by Very Special Guest DJ Colleen

The Grammy Awards: A Running Diary

Face Off

Slow jam superproducer returns to AC with vintage but divaless set

Cupid's Cut

Nelson George brings the romance; Cervenka, the metal

Accept Substitutes

The Loser's Lounge ventures into the present and other dangerous conceptual realms

Greatest Whatevers

Just because you can spell 'forbearance' correctly doesn't mean you'll get a gold star

She Stays and She Goes

Fuck you, Heidi Fleiss! Fuck you, Scott Weiland! Linda Non-Blonde Honey, see ya around

Hooked on a Feeling

The 'Times' Records a Year of Bitterness

Re-make/Re-model

Music

Who Isn’t Jill Scott?

Dog Lick 2000

My High Guy

The Long Distance Soulster