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The song that would eventually take Smokey Robinson and The Miracles (pictured) to the top of the Billboard Hot 100 was the now-timeless hit "The Tears of a Clown." As described by Stereogum, the music for the song was written by the prodigious Stevie Wonder with his producer Hank Crosby, who also helped him record a demo.
Stuck for ideas for lyrics, the two brought the recording to Robinson, whose first impression from the track's opening bars was that it reminded him of the circus, which made Robinson think of a story he had previously alluded to in the song "My Smile Is Just A Frown (Turned Upside Down)," he wrote for Motown label mate Carolyn Crawford: that of the clown Pagliacci, the title character of an opera libretto by Ruggero Leoncavallo.
In "The Tears of a Clown," Robinson evokes the story of Pagliacci to describe a character who is hiding their sadness behind a smile "to fool the public," but who can't hide their heartbreak from a lover from whom they have parted. Robinson and The Miracles recorded their vocals in 1967, and the song was included as an album track on their LP "Make It Happen" later that year, but was not selected as a single.
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