Smokey Robinson & The Miracles “If You Can Want” b/w “When The Words From Your Heart…”
You know the artist. You may even know the song. But I picked Smokey Robinson & The Miracles’ 1968 single “If You Can Want” for this week’s Crucial Soul 45 because (a) it slaps (b) so I could talk about Tamla vis-a-vis its bigger (and also younger!) sibling, Motown.
Trust me, there’s a lot of history to get through, so I’ll give you the short version. By 1959, Motown/Tamla founder Berry Gordy had already gotten his feet wet in the music biz by penning and producing a few hit singles.
He parlayed that success into creating his own label (and subsequently, the legendary Hitsville U.S.A. recording studio). Gordy wanted to name this nascent label “Tammy” (purportedly, after a Debbie Reynolds flick), but it was taken. So, Tamla it was to be. But not for long.
Within a year or so, Gordy consolidated Tamla and a few other indies under his aegis under the overarching Motown banner. The Tamla label remained a huge part of the Motown family. It was the home to Motown’s first big number one hit “Please Mr. Postman” by The Marvelletes, not to mention smash singles from Marvin Gaye, Stevie Wonder and, of course, Smokey Robinson.
A teenage Robinson first met Gordy in about 1957. A still-very-young Robinson quickly became integral to the Motown family as an exec, songwriter, producer and hitmaker. When I say “family,” I really mean it. He named a son “Berry” and a daughter “Tamla” for the label he helped create and released our single today.
“If You Can Want” is an interesting track. The tempo is quick-ish at about 120 beats-per-minute and it’s got a KILLER drum break complete with bongos. It’s definitely great for dancing, but it’s got the minor chords and an arrangement that makes it feel a bit ballad-y. That, however, is part of the genius of Motown. There are too many people to name—from Robinson to the Funk Brothers to the immortal songwriting team of Holland-Dozier-Holland and so many more. It truly was a hit factory. It thrived in the syncretism of pop, soul, blues and R&B, yet it became almost a genre in and of itself.
Whatever alchemy was happening in the Motor City back then, we can all send a big ol’ thanks for keeping us dancing in the street for almost seven decades.
