"More Love" | ||||
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Single by Smokey Robinson and the Miracles | ||||
from the album Make It Happen | ||||
B-side | "Swept for You Baby" | |||
Released | May 26, 1967 | |||
Format | 7" single | |||
Recorded |
Los Angeles, California (instrumentation) Hitsville USA (Studio A) (vocals); April 26, 1967 |
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Genre | Soul | |||
Length | 2:49 | |||
Label |
Tamla T 54152 |
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Songwriter(s) | Smokey Robinson | |||
Producer(s) | Smokey Robinson | |||
Smokey Robinson and the Miracles singles chronology | ||||
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"More Love" | ||||
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Single by Kim Carnes | ||||
from the album Romance Dance | ||||
B-side | "Changin'" | |||
Released | June 4, 1980 | |||
Format | 7" single | |||
Recorded | 1980 | |||
Genre | Pop, soul | |||
Length | 3:35 | |||
Label | EMI America | |||
Songwriter(s) | Smokey Robinson | |||
Producer(s) | George Tobin, Mike Piccirillo | |||
Kim Carnes singles chronology | ||||
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"More Love" is a 1967 hit single recorded by the American soul group The Miracles for Motown Records' Tamla label. The single, included on the group's 1967 album Make It Happen, later reissued in 1970 as The Tears of a Clown. Kim Carnes' husky 1980 cover of the song hit the Top 10 of Billboard's Adult Contemporary and Hot 100 charts.
This song's origins are born from real-life heartbreak and personal tragedy. Miracles lead singer Smokey Robinson wrote, produced, and sings lead on "More Love", which he considers one of his most personal compositions. Robinson wrote the song for his wife, Miracles member Claudette Rogers Robinson. Claudette had been a member of the Miracles since 1957, but retired from touring in 1964 after a series of miscarriages. She had a total of 8 miscarriages, which forced her off the road, never to tour with The Miracles again, though she continued to record with them. On one occasion, the Robinsons had a set of twins that were stillborn. According to Smokey Robinson:
"After she had a miscarriage [Claudette] would always tell me she was sorry she had let me down. I would explain that she had not let me down because she was there, she was alive; I wanted the babies, but I didn't know them. I wrote 'More Love' to let her know how I felt about her."
Unlike most other Miracles songs, the track for "More Love" was recorded by Los Angeles session musicians, instead of in Detroit, Michigan by Motown session band The Funk Brothers and Miracles guitarist Marv Tarplin.
Smokey and Claudette Robinson would eventually have two healthy babies, both named after aspects of the Motown corporation: a boy named Berry (after Motown founder Berry Gordy, Jr.) and a girl, Tamla, after the Miracles' record label, Tamla (the Motown Records' subsidiary label for which The Miracles recorded).