The Tracks of My Tears

"The Tracks of My Tears" is a 1965 hit single by The Miracles for the Tamla (Motown) label. It is considered among their best recordings, and is listed on the The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame's 500 Songs that Shaped Rock and Roll. An all- time classic, this million- selling song is also a 2007 Grammy Hall Of Fame Inductee.

Like a number of Miracles songs, "The Tracks of My Tears" finds Miracles lead singer Smokey Robinson as a man hiding the sadness of a bad breakup behind a false smile and laugh. "Outside I'm masquerading/Inside, my hope is fading", he sings. "If you look closer, it's easy to trace/The tracks of my tears."

Written by Robinson, Pete Moore, and Miracles guitarist Marv Tarplin, "The Tracks of My Tears" was a #2 hit on the Billboard magazine R&B singles chart, and reached #16 on the Billboard Hot 100. The single also was a Top 10 hit in England, reaching #9 on the UK singles chart.

On the Motown five-LP release The Motown Story, Robinson explains the origin of the song: :"Tracks of My Tears" was actually started by Marv Tarplin, who is a young cat who plays guitar for our act. So he had this musical thing - [singing melody] – you know, and we worked around with it, and worked around, and it became "Tracks of My Tears."

This song was #50 on the list of The 500 Greatest Songs of All Time^[1]. In a 2006 poll for a Channel 5 program Britain's Favourite Break-up Songs, "The Tracks of My Tears" was voted sixteenth. In early 2007, The Miracles' original version of the song was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame.

Singer Linda Ronstadt did a successful cover version of the song in 1976, eventually hitting #11 on the Billboard country singles chart. "The Tracks of My Tears" also became a hit for Johnny Rivers and Aretha Franklin. The Flying Pickets released an a cappella version of this song on The Original Flying Pickets: Volume 1 (1994) It has also been covered by numerous other artists. Go West also covered it for their "Best Of" album in 1993 and released it as a single, reaching #16 on the UK Singles Chart.

It was featured in a memorable scene in the 1986 Vietnam war film Platoon. In 2002, folk singer Billy Bragg released the song "Tears of My Tracks" on the album England, Half English. In the song, a man laments selling his vinyl record collection. Bragg had previously recorded a version of "The Tracks of My Tears" that was issued, along with other demos, b-sides, and rarities, on the second disk of the rereleased "Talking With the Taxman About Poetry." The Miracles' "The Tracks Of My Tears" is on Rolling Stone Magazine's list of "The 500 Greatest Songs Of All Time" .

On May 14, 2008, the song was preserved by the Library of Congress as an "culturally, historically and aesthetically significance" to the National Recording Registry. The Miracles can be seen performing "The Tracks Of My Tears" on the Motown DVD release: "Smokey Robinson and The Miracles: The Definitive Performances".

[edit] Credits

Lead vocals by Smokey Robinson
Background vocals by Claudette Rogers Robinson, Pete Moore, Ronnie White, and Bobby Rogers.
Written by William "Smokey" Robinson, Pete Moore, and Marv Tarplin
Produced by William "Smokey" Robinson
Instrumentation by The Funk Brothers and Marv Tarplin of The Miracles