Swing and Sway the Tamla Way!

The Miracles - Happy Landing

One of the things I like about a lot of the early Motown tunes is how they often had a bluesy swagger to them. There was an earthy looseness in the recordings that would eventually be replaced by the tightly-packaged "Motown sound." Today's selection, a 1962 Tamla single, is indicative of this. Although the flip, the excellent "You Really Got a Hold on Me," is pretty darn bluesy in its own right, "Happy Landing" finds Smokey Robinson & The Miracles rushing along in telling Smokey's little revenge story - Smokey effectively puts over the songs feeling as he slings the lyrics along - over a swinging groove with lots of organ and sax accents.