motown sound: the miracles- show me you can dance

Either it's an invitation.... or a serious challenge...

There was a period where the Miracles were coming up with some monstrous dance tracks: "Mickey's Monkey," "I Gotta Dance To Keep From Crying," and a whole LP devoted to various songs associated with dancing, (again) "Mickey's Monkey." Maybe that was the inspiration behind this unreleased heavy-hitter by Robert Walker, Robert Staunton and Charles Jones.

"Show Me You Can Dance." look out... That ringing guitar riff that opens the tune means business- serious business. Whenever you see a writer/producer credit by these guys, you better believe the music is gonna be killer all the way and this is no exception. The beat is actually relaxed, but there is such a full battery of instruments in the mix- guitars all strumming, horns, piano- you name it. It isn't so much the instruments as the way they're arranged on a Staunton / Walker production that will batter you all over the dance floor.

Smokey is your tour guide through the land of a thousand new dances-one more frenetic than the other. He's been around and has noticed how there seems to be a LOT more dancing these days- in fact, they're all dancing like mad. Smokey is vocally covering the full range here from light and sweet, exhorting, cajoling and sometimes singing with downright reckless joyful abandon!

The Miracles- Claudette, Bobby, Ronnie and Pete are there to attest to the flood of dancing that seems to be happening everywhere. They also are exhorting us all to "KEEP DANCING." The truly wonderful thing about this song is how, as it goes along, the title almost seems to become more of a challenge: SHOW ME YOU CAN DANCE!!

This may just turn out to be one of the most hardest-hitting of all the Motown dance songs ("he's doing his best / you do the rest / show him that you can move") as well as one of the most literate: "at hops like these / the one you should appease / is out there dancing with you" high marks for working the word "appease" into a song!

So, get out there and do The Jerk, The Swim, The Fly, The Monkey, The Hully Gully, The Mashed Potatoes, Mickey's Monkey and whatever else you can- and just so you won't be alone, many of your Motown favorites are here showing off their fancy footwork too!

Category:

Music

Tags:

• the miracles
• smokey robinson
• motown
• tamla motown
• northern soul
• dance
• show me you can dance
• motown sound
• youtube smokey robinson
• robert walker
• robert staunton
• charles jones
• detroit
• youtube motown

[ButterflyInGlassMaze]

Such a rich track; love it!

[tomovox]

@ButterflyInGlassMaze Hi Butterly! I like how you describe the track- I just can't get enough of listening to it in my car! Thanks very much for stopping here and for your comment!

[standingbeark]

pt.2) weeks later, she comes back down to the studio and this attractive woman was with her. she said, "this is my friend, claudette robinson". we hugged, etc, and talked for awhile.

this tid bit is for free: my friend also told me she and marvin wrote a song together, "ecstacy and agony" , i'm sure you've heard it. if you look on the credits it says "d. moffit and m. tarplin"

[tomovox]

@standingbeark That is an INCREDIBLE experience! Fantastic! I know of the song, but didn't know Claudette co-wrote it. Claudette is one person on my list of people I would love to meet. It was her voice on those Miracles recordings that seemed to get to me even more than Smokey's. Thank you very much for relating that experience! btw, I love that you play guitar; I love to play the bass myself.

[standingbeark]

i'm one of the world's biggest smokey robinson fans. i got a chance to meet the lovely claudette robinson once.

[tomovox]

@standingbeark Wow! I envy you for having met her! How did that come about? Would love to hear about it. I've got a video response here for "Father Dear" where Claudettte takes a rare lead. It's a fantastic song! Hope to hear from you all about your meeting with Claudette!

[standingbeark]

@tomovox; i work in the "radio industry", and i play guitar as one of my many hobbies. one day a friend from the sales dept came down, heard me playing and co-workers singing. she said, "ooh, i didn't know you played, and played like that". it just so happened she walked in on me playing a miracles medley. she said, "i use to date a guitarist and i bet you've heard of him". (it was the now late marvin tarplin, smokey's axe man holding the black les paul guitar in the pic.) (continuted)

[tomovox]

@jamar22100 My feelings too!

[jamar22100]

Staunton Walker&Jones are the master producers. Everything they produce is gold to me.

[tomovox]

@simon4186 Hey, when you're right, you're absolutely right!