Cruisin'

Album: Where There's Smoke… (1979)
Charted: 4
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Songfacts®:

  • Smokey Robinson told The Guardian's 1000 Songs Everyone Must Hear supplement that when he wrote this song, his guitarist Marv Tarplin had already written the music. Smokey added: "He put it on cassette and gave it to me to write the lyric. As it turned out, it took me five years to write. I had the music, and that music is so intimate and sensual, but I couldn't get the words. Then one day I got: 'You're gonna fly away and I'm glad you're coming my way.' And then I was driving my car down Sunset Boulevard and I heard that song by the Rascals, 'Groovin' and I thought, 'That's it! Grooving.' But then, no, it wasn't intimate enough, it wasn't sensual enough for the music, and that's when I thought of 'cruisin.' You'd be surprised by how many people speculate on what Cruisin' means, 'Cruisin'' is a word that I leave up to the listener. When you're with the person you're with, and you feel you're cruisin', it's whatever you want it to be."
  • Notable covers include a 1995 one by soul singer D'Angelo, which peaked at #53 in the US and a version by Gwyneth Paltrow and Huey Lewis for the 2000 movie Duets, which topped the charts in Australia.

Comments: 4

  • Tink from Concord CaWhat can I say Smokey is unbelievable I love his music and crusin is one of my favorites. I grew up in the 70”s and remember several other songs he did all are Awesome
  • Barry from Sauquoit, NyOn October 6th 1979, Smokey Robinson performed "Cruisin'"* on the ABC-TV program 'American Bandstand'...
    At the time the song was at #89 on Billboard's Hot Top 100 chart and it was also its first week on the chart...
    {See the next two posts below}.
  • Barry from Sauquoit, NyI forgot to add the following to my below post:
    This was Smokey's 2nd most sensual song, check out his "Love Bath" on You Tube!!!
  • Barry from Sauquoit, NyOn January 27th 1980, "Cruisin'" by Smokey Robinson peaked at #4 (for 4 weeks) on Billboard's Hot Top 100 chart; it had entered the chart on September 30th, 1979 and spent almost a half-year on the Top 100 (25 weeks)...
    It also reached #4 on Billboard's R&B Singles chart...
    The week it peaked at #4 on the Top 100 was its 18th week on the chart; and the record spent 7 weeks on the Top 10...
    William 'Smokey' Robinson, Jr. will celebrated his 74th birthday next month on February 19th (2014).
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