Motown Soul Music
Marv Tarplin (guitar). The story is that it was Marv Tarplin working and working the guitar riffs that eventually evolved into the song. And those riffs are some of the most famous in pop music history. The Miracles released the song as a single on Motown’s Tamla label in 1965, backed with “A Ford in the Road.” “The Tracks of My Tears” went to #16 on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 and #2 on the R&B Chart in 1965. In the U.K., it took a while to catch on, but it went to #9 in 1969. The song was also on their 1965 album Going to a Go-Go. It’s some of the best of Sixties soul music.
The song has been recognized by many organizations. This includes Rolling Stone magazine’s list of The 500 Greatest Songs of All Time; the RIAA and The National Endowment for the Arts of Songs of the 365 Greatest Songs of the 20th Center; the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame’s list of 500 Songs that Shaped Rock and Roll. The song is also preserved in the National Recording Registry by the U.S. Library of Congress as culturally, historically, and aesthetically significant.
Of course, over the years, there have been many covers, with versions by Linda Ronstadt, Johnny Rivers, Aretha Franklin, Go West, and Colin Blunstone, to mention a few.
For the track, there were Smokey Robinson (lead vocals) and Marv Tarplin (guitar) with background vocals from Claudette Rogers Robinson, Pete Moore, Ronnie White, and Bobby Rogers. Instrumentation was provided by the Motown session musicians The Funk Brothers and the Detroit Symphony Orchestra.
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