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ABC are a difficult act to react to, given their fondness for teetering on the borderline between the smart and the knowingly tacky, and the overall archness around a lot of their material. Of course, all of this was going over my head at the time, of course, when this was the first ABC song I could recall hearing since 'The Look Of Love' (it was indeed their biggest hit since 1982). I did know who Smokey was, of course, although I don't think it had yet occurred to me that there was something a bit odd about singing a song about how good somebody else is at singing.
Looking at the video now (I'm pretty sure I didn't see it then) it's clear that Martin Fry wasn't taking all this entirely seriously - he can barely keep a straight face - though I'm sure his appreciation of Motown is genuine. I'd also never noticed before how clunky some of the lyrics are: that "sings/violins" rhyme, "the back door it rings" and so on. The saxophone solo is naff in the extreme, and possibly not on purpose. Even so, though, it's a hard record to dislike entirely, even if it seems a bit of a calculated move, even going so far as to quote the 'Tears Of A Clown' melody in places. Perhaps that's just because I agree with them.
Available on: The Look of Love: The Very Best of ABC
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