New Smokey CD out NOW

[Jimi LaLumia]

picked up the second to the last copy of "Smokey And Friends" at Barnes & Noble just now, I thought it was being released in Sept. but it's out now, Top 5 on Amazon's best sellers, perhaps a #1 CD for Mr. Robinson on Billboard.. I love it, second Motown related CD I bought this month, after grabbing the still #1
Guardians Of The Galaxy CD which features the J5, and Marvin & Tammi..might be time to put out that album, Stevie Wonder!..2014 is a Motown year!!

[Bokiluis]

Congratulations Smokey! The #1 iTunes R&B Album and #21 iTunes All Genres Album.....great start out of the gate!

[smark21]

But is the album any good?

[jobeterob]

The reviews haven't been very good; I've seen two very lukewarm reviews. It is too early for its Billboard debut. And we'll see if it plunges the following week.

I recently read that the last Aretha Franklin album did not sell even 50,000 copies.

The era of those heritage artists selling a lot of CDs is gone.

[Jimi LaLumia]

I think it's quite good..it's obviously not the Motown Sound, it's released on the legendary "Verve" imprint, a classic jazz label, and it's not jazz, but it is 'jazzy' in spirit, mainstream jazzy; nothing groundbreaking, a 'duets' celebration of brilliant songwriting and, for me, anyway, an enjoyable listen aimed at the casual music buyer [[who is buying, on Amazon, itunes, and physical retail, right now.

[Bokiluis]

But is the album any good?

I personally don't like the 1:30 snippets on iTunes. But I am also clear that it wasn't necessarily designed for me, a fairly committed fan. This is an effort to reach the masses. I will probably buy it to add to the collection, but, it probably won't get played very much, if at all. It is the new trend for heritage artists since Lionel Richie's "Tuskegee" worked, Streisand has one coming on September 18th, "Partners". It seems to be the new "covers" album concept. It is designed for the casual fan, a dinner party record for the masses. David Foster intentionally stayed away from any Motown association so the line-up didn't surprise me.
Once again, I wish him tremendous success! The timing is perfect with the success of "Motown, The Musical". But if you want a great Smokey album, pick up 2011's "Time Flies When You're Having Fun". I view this just like the release of another greatest hits compilation...a less demanding release for the masses.
Rolling Stone gives it 3 out of 5 stars. If he can secure a television special, it has the potential to go platinum.

[Mark Desjardines]

Just some thoughts to share on Aretha Franklin's last CD, "A Woman Falling Out Of Love." Aretha released this on her own label, "Aretha Records" with a deal set up for distribution at Target locations. There was a defect in the cut "A Summer Place" and there was a recall. Confusion as to how to process returns occurred, and sales stalled. Personally I enjoyed the entire CD which featured Aretha returning to playing keyboards, and doing some writing and producing. If there had been a better business plan and promotion in place, sales would have been much better. Most people don't even know about this release and a quick search showed this release isn't on most of Aretha Franklin online discography sites.

As for Smokey's new duets album, it seems to be getting lots of promotion and that is the key to getting sales.

[smark21]

Listened to some samples of the album over at iTunes. Meh. Another crass duet remake cash in project. Actually it started with Frank Sinatra in the mid 90s with his two duet albums that sold a lot but for Sinatraphiles represented the artistic nadir of his career.

[Lulu]

I downloaded "Being With You" featuring John Legend! Me likey! Smoke's my favorite male voice at Motown along with dear Eddie so I'm biased! LOL!

[paul_nixon]

The John Legend duet along with the CeeLo Green track are the best on the collection IMHO along with Being With You featuring the amazing Mary J Blige. A couple of the tracks that take the Smoke's material way out rock'n'roll and country stylee do it no favours. With the label being Verve there are jazz tinges and if it just wakes up a few new converts to Smokey's 60's catalogue then that has to be a good thing. Not sure about the spoken tributes by John Legend and Jessie J that front up two of the tracks though

[thommg]

Just some thoughts to share on Aretha Franklin's last CD, "A Woman Falling Out Of Love." Aretha released this on her own label, "Aretha Records" with a deal set up for distribution at Target locations. There was a defect in the cut "A Summer Place" and there was a recall. Confusion as to how to process returns occurred, and sales stalled. Personally I enjoyed the entire CD which featured Aretha returning to playing keyboards, and doing some writing and producing. If there had been a better business plan and promotion in place, sales would have been much better. Most people don't even know about this release and a quick search showed this release isn't on most of Aretha Franklin online discography sites.

Mark, I was interested in getting that cd but heard about the defect. No one seems to know if it was ever fixed or if anything was done about it so I didn't buy it.

[jobeterob]

The album fell from 12 to 37 in its second week.

[reese]

The album fell from 12 to 37 in its second week.

Not surprising. I haven't seen any tv promotion for it, besides a very brief story on "exTRA". I bought it the day it was released but have yet to play it.

[jobeterob]

It has done reasonably well even if it disappears fairly quickly, which appears likely.

[carlo]

I think due to the nature of duet albums, they always tend to do fairly well and make money, which is all that the record label cares about at the end of the day. That's why Smokey was back on Universal for this project. They saw the earning potential. Not only will the Smokey fans buy such an album, but also the fans of all of the other artists involved in the project. I heard the album and unfortunately I was not impressed. The classics cannot be improved, in my opinion.

[jobeterob]

I think due to the nature of duet albums, they always tend to do fairly well and make money, which is all that the record label cares about at the end of the day. That's why Smokey was back on Universal for this project. They saw the earning potential. Not only will the Smokey fans buy such an album, but also the fans of all of the other artists involved in the project. I heard the album and unfortunately I was not impressed. The classics cannot be improved, in my opinion.

This makes sense ~ economic sense from the point of view of the record company.

The reviews for this CD weren't great pretty much across the Board. I suspect it won't chart for all that long.

[Jimi LaLumia]

the fact that it charted Top 20 at all is a,,em..MIRACLE!..
it's not 1965 anymore!.. or 1975..or1985..
who else from the Motown lineup besides maybe Lionel Richie has done that lately?.. Congrats to Smokey!

[jobeterob]

It's true; if any of them can make the Top 100 now........WOW!

[jobeterob]

It's true; if any of them can make the Top 100 now........WOW!

It's in the 80's after 4 weeks.

[alanh]

Release of the album in the UK was a little later - it entered the album chart at 21 last week [[the week of release). On yesterday's new chart it fell to 51.

[reese]

I finally got around to listening to it. It is pretty good, although I don't know how wrong it could go with such great material. Faves of mine are CRUISIN', BEING WITH YOU, and QUIET STORM.

[Jimi LaLumia]

on the Oct. 4th BILLBOARD albums chart, Smokey & Friends zooms back up from 83 last week to #47 this week..it ain't over yet, he was interviewed on Stern, appeared on morning tv, and the album continues to SELL!!..it's a MOTOWN year, bay-bee

[jobeterob]

Nice to here; it should sell all the way through Christmas; as someone pointed out, these Duets albums are popular with the record company because the CD sells to the fans of the artist involved plus those of all his duet partners.

[jobeterob]

Lady Gaga and Tony Bennett are now #1; Barbra Streisand is #3; Smokey Robinson, Linda Ronstadt and Johnny Cash are in the 80's and 90's.

Seems there isn't a lot new out there these days.