| Make It Happen/The Tears of a Clown | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
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| Studio album by | ||||
| Released | August 29, 1967 | |||
| Recorded | 1966–1967 | |||
| Studio | Hitsville USA, Detroit and in Los Angeles | |||
| Genre | Soul, R&B | |||
| Length | 33:13 | |||
| Label |
Tamla TS-276 | |||
| Producer | Smokey Robinson, Henry Cosby, Brian Holland, Lamont Dozier | |||
| Smokey Robinson & the Miracles chronology | ||||
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| Cover for 1970 reissue | ||||
 1970 reissue cover for Make It Happen, retitled as The Tears of a Clown after the success of the hit single of the same name. | ||||
| Singles from Make It Happen/The Tears of a Clown | ||||
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| Review scores | |
|---|---|
| Source | Rating |
| AllMusic |  
link |
Make It Happen is a 1967 album by Smokey Robinson & the Miracles. It featured ballads such as the hit singles " The Love I Saw in You Was Just a Mirage" and " More Love", as well as the up-tempo " The Tears of a Clown" co-written by Stevie Wonder and his producer Hank Cosby.
Three years after the album's release, "The Tears of a Clown" was issued as a single, and charted at #1 on both the Billboard Hot 100 and UK Singles Chart. As a result, Make It Happen was reissued as The Tears of a Clown in 1970.
Stevie Wonder was a contributing writer on three of the album's songs, the aforementioned "The Tears of a Clown", "After You Put Back the Pieces (I'll Still Have a Broken Heart)", and "My Love Is Your Love (Forever)". Holland-Dozier-Holland contributed the good-times dance song "It's a Good Feeling". Smokey's fellow Miracles Warren "Pete" Moore and Marv Tarplin collaborated with him on the songs "You Must Be Love" (a popular regional hit tune), and " The Love I Saw in You Was Just a Mirage" (a Top 20 Hit) respectively, and all of The Miracles (except Claudette) co-wrote the up-tempo rocker "Dancing's Alright". The album also features a rendition of Little Anthony & The Imperials' 1964 Top 20 smash, " I'm on the Outside (Looking In)" "The Tears of a Clown" on the monaural version of the album has an alternate lead vocal.
Critics at Allmusic praised the album, giving it 4-1/2 out of five stars, calling it "The most underrated Miracles LP of the '60s", and stating that, in addition to the album's three hits, it also had "featured a spate of [other] great songs, including three or four that really should've been hits". [1]
Track listing
Side one
- "The Soulful Shack" ( Smokey Robinson)
- " The Love I Saw in You Was Just a Mirage" (Robinson, Marvin Tarplin)
- "My Love for You" ( Clarence Paul, Morris Broadnax)
- " I'm on the Outside (Looking In)" ( Bobby Weinstein, Teddy Randazzo)
- "Don't Think It's Me" (Robinson)
- "My Love Is Your Love (Forever)" ( Ivy Jo Hunter, Stevie Wonder)
Side two
- " More Love" (Robinson)
- "After You Put Back the Pieces (I'll Still Have a Broken Heart)" (Paul, Broadnax, Wonder)
- "It's a Good Feeling" ( Holland-Dozier-Holland)
- "You Must Be Love" (Robinson, Warren Moore)
- "Dancing's Alright" (Robinson, Tarplin, Moore, Robert Rogers, Ronald White)
- " The Tears of a Clown" (Robinson, Wonder, Henry Cosby)
Personnel
The Miracles
- Smokey Robinson – lead vocals, producer, album executive producer
- Ronnie White – backing vocals
- Bobby Rogers – backing vocals
- Warren "Pete" Moore – backing vocals
- Claudette Robinson – backing vocals
- Marv Tarplin – producer, guitar
Other instruments
- The Funk Brothers and various Los Angeles session musicians: instrumentation
- The Andantes – additional backing vocals on "It's a Good Feeling"
Producers
- Brian Holland – producer
- Lamont Dozier – producer
- Henry Cosby – producer
