More Smokey Reissues Cruisin’ Your Way (UPDATED)

(UPDATE 1/26: This set is now available to order direct from Hip-o Select.)

Usually, the first place to hear about Hip-o Select titles is through Hip-o Select themselves. They keep a semi-frequent newsletter and an active Twitter feed which usually gets the links out to their new reissues and box sets.

It’s strange, then, that there hasn’t yet been a peep about their forthcoming installment in the long-running The Solo Albums two-fers from Smokey Robinson. Meanwhile, Amazon has put up a full track list, something which rarely happens before Hip-o gets theirs up.

The fourth volume in the successful series collates Smokey’s last two studio LPs of the 1970s: Love Breeze (1978) and Where There’s Smoke… (1979). The latter of the two was Robinson’s first Top 40 album since 1975’s A Quiet Storm, thanks largely to the delightful “Cruisin’,” which would be the singer’s highest-charting solo single at the time, peaking at No. 4. (It earned the adoration of a new generation in 2000, when it was covered by Huey Lewis and Gwyneth Paltrow for the largely forgettable film Duets.)

A bonus track will also be included in the form of an instrumental version of “Get Ready,” a tune Smokey wrote for The Temptations in 1966. It appeared on the 12″ single of the song in 1979. There’s also no word yet on any Hip-o Select release of Smokin’, the 1978 double live album released in between these studio efforts. (UPDATE: We just got off the phone with Motown reissue guru Harry Weinger, who confirmed that The Solo Albums Volume 5 is going to be Smokin’.)

The Solo Albums Volume 4 is out February 15, per Amazon. View the track list after the jump.

Smokey Robinson, The Solo Albums Volume 4: Love Breeze/Where There’s Smoke… (Motown/Hip-o Select, 2011)

1. Why You Wanna See My Bad Side
2. Love So Fine
3. Feeling You, Feeling Me
4. Madam X
5. Shoe Soul
6. Trying It Again
7. Daylight & Darkness
8. I’m Loving You Softly
9. It’s a Good Night
10. I Love the Nearness of You
11. The Hurt’s on You
12. Ever Had a Dream
13. Get Ready
14. Share It
15. Cruisin’
16. Get Ready (12″ Instrumental Mix)

Tracks 1-8 released as Love Breeze – Tamla T7-359R1, 1978
Tracks 9-15 released as Where There’s Smoke… – Tamla T7-366R1, 1979
Track 16 was a 12″ B-side – Motown M-00027 D1, 1979