Smokey Robinson, the GRAMMY-winning Motown superstar whose smooth sounds and chart-topping tunes helped shape Motor City’s vibrant music scene, sits down with Paul Shaffer in an all-new episode of the AXS TV original series Paul Shaffer Plus One—airing Sunday, November 3 at 8pE/5pP.
In this exclusive first look, Robinson takes viewers through the creative process behind one of his most enduring hits, “The Tracks Of My Tears,” which had originally started as a riff birthed by his guitarist Marv Tarplin. “I took that and I listened to it over and over and over again,” Robinson says. “Finally, I came up with the first three lines of the chorus: ‘Take a good look at my face, you’ll see my smile looks out of place, if you look close it’s easy to trace that you’re gone and I’m not’… I worked with 30 of those.” Inspiration finally struck one morning, while Robinson was shaving. He continues, “I’m looking at my face and I’m saying to myself, ‘What if a person had cried so much until their tears left tracks in their face?’ And I said, ‘That’s it!’ And that became ‘Tracks Of My Tears.’” Watch it here.
Paul Shaffer Plus One airs every Sunday at 8pE/5pP, only on AXS TV. The original series brings Shaffer’s popular radio show to TV as he sits down with an all-star roster of music icons to discuss their legendary legacies and jam on their most enduring hits.
Next week, multi-talented comedy icon Martin Short joins Shaffer in studio on November 10.
