The Miracles Doin' Mickey's Monkey
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The Miracles Doin' Mickey's Monkey is a 1963 album by The Miracles for the Tamla (Motown) label. It includes the group's Top 10 smash single "Mickey's Monkey", written and produced by Holland-Dozier-Holland. "Mickey's Monkey" popularized "The Monkey" as a novelty dance, and has been covered by several artists, including The Hollies, The Young Rascals and John Mellencamp. Also included is another H-D-H dance-oriented single, "I Gotta Dance to Keep From Crying", a Billboard Top 40 hit, which inspired a cover version by The Who.
Much of the rest of the album is made up of cover versions of other popular dance songs, including "The Twist", "Twist and Shout" and The Contours' Motown hit "Do You Love Me". Miracles member Bobby Rogers co-wrote a song "Dancin' Holiday" for the album.Miracle Claudette Robinson takes the lead mike on a cover of The Orlons'hit, "The Wah-Watusi"
The Miracles Doin' Mickey's Monkey was released on CD by Motown Records in 1986, in a two-for-one set with their Away We A Go-Go album,[1] and again by itself in a 1992 release,[2] but both releases have since gone out of print.
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Track listing
Side one
- "Mickey's Monkey" (Holland-Dozier-Holland) – 2:46
- "Dance What You Wanna" (James Alexander, Sam Cooke, Clifton White) – 2:45
- "The Wah-Watusi" (Dave Appell, Kal Mann) – 2:38
- "The Twist" (Hank Ballard) – 2:29
- "Dancin' Holiday" (Diane Rogers, Fred Smith, Zelda Samuels) – 2:14
- "Land of a Thousand Dances" (Chris Kenner) – 2:26
Side two
- "I Gotta Dance to Keep From Crying" (Holland-Dozier-Holland) – 2:39
- "The Monkey Time" (Curtis Mayfield) – 2:51
- "The Groovey Thing" (Smokey Robinson) – 2:43
- "Twist and Shout" (Phil Medley, Bert Russell) – 2:03
- "Do You Love Me" (Berry Gordy, Jr.) – 2:39
Personnel
- Smokey Robinson - lead vocals
- Claudette Rogers Robinson - lead vocals (on "The Wah-Watusi"), background vocals
- Bobby Rogers - background vocals
- Ronnie White - background vocals
- Pete Moore - background vocals
- Marv Tarplin - guitar
Production
- The Funk Brothers - instrumentation
- Smokey Robinson - producer
- Brian Holland - producer
- Lamont Dozier - producer
References
- ^ "Miracles Doin' Mickey's Monkey / Away We A Go Go". Retrieved 25 November 2016.
- ^ "Doin Mickey's Monkey". Motown. Retrieved 25 November 2016.