On his follow-up to "Cruisin',"
Smokey Robinson goes right back to that lazy, romantic style with "Let Me Be the Clock" (#4 R&B, #31 Pop), which leads off the aptly named
Warm Thoughts.
Robinson seems to have taken the success of "Cruisin'" as his opportunity to distance himself from disco and return to his more familiar ballad style, even injecting a touch of his old wordplay in "Into Each Rain Some Life Must Fall." Side two begins with the more uptempo "Melody Man," which was arranged, co-written, and co-produced by
Stevie Wonder, but for the most part this is the bedroom
Smokey Robinson, and that got him to #14 on the LP chart, his highest solo peak yet. ~ William Ruhlmann