The Love I Saw in You Was Just a Mirage

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"The Love I Saw in You Was Just a Mirage"
Single by Smokey Robinson & the Miracles
from the album Make It Happen [1]
B-side "Come Spy with Me"
ReleasedJanuary 27, 1967
Recorded Hitsville USA (Studio A): November 11, 1966
Genre Soul, pop, psychedelic soul
Length2:59
Label Tamla
T 54145
Songwriter(s) Smokey Robinson
Marvin Tarplin
Producer(s) Smokey Robinson
Warren "Pete" Moore
Smokey Robinson & the Miracles singles chronology
"(Come 'Round Here) I'm the One You Need"
(1966)
"The Love I Saw in You Was Just a Mirage"
(1967)
"More Love"
(1967)

"The Love I Saw in You Was Just a Mirage" is a 1967 song recorded by the American R&B group The Miracles on Motown Records' Tamla label. Written by Miracles members Smokey Robinson and Marv Tarplin and produced by Robinson, it is noted for being the first single to bill the group as "Smokey Robinson" & the Miracles, [2] a billing already present on the group's albums by this time. Miracles members Smokey Robinson and Pete Moore were the song's producers. [3]

Contents

Personnel

The Miracles

Other personnel

Lyric content and chart history

The single was a Top 20 hit on the Billboard Hot 100, and a Top 10 hit on Billboard 's R&B singles chart. [4] As with several of the Miracles' hits, "Mirage" begins with Tarplin's guitar and he plays the riff on a 12-string acoustic guitar. The song's lyrics feature Robinson's character as a man deceived by the beauty of a woman who showed "the promise of love", but then sadly discovered that her love was "just a mirage".

Cash Box called the single a "driving R&B workout that should get a lot of play." [5]

Chart (1967)Peak
position
US Billboard Hot 100 [6] 20
US Billboard Top Selling R&B Singles [7] 10

Films and cover versions

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"Come Spy With Me" (T54145) was a 1967 song recorded by Motown Records R&B group The Miracles, released on its Tamla Records subsidiary label. The B-side of the group's Top 20 hit single "The Love I Saw in You Was Just a Mirage", It was written by Miracles lead singer Smokey Robinson, and was the original titular theme song from the 1967 20th Century Fox feature film of the same name, starring Troy Donahue and Andrea Dromm.

References

  1. "www.allmusic.com". allmusic.com. Retrieved March 31, 2023.
  2. Asanovic, Bosko; Rimmer, Dave & Goldberg, Marv. "Miracles discography". Soulful Kinda Music. Retrieved 2008-03-30
  3. "The Love I Saw in You Was Just a Mirage / Come Spy with Me by Smokey Robinson and the Miracles - RYM/Sonemic".
  4. Hackel, Stu (1997). Smokey Robinson & the Miracles: The Ultimate Collection [liner notes]. New York: Motown Records/Polygram.
  5. "CashBox Record Reviews" (PDF). Cash Box. February 11, 1967. p. 18. Retrieved 2022-01-12.
  6. Whitburn, Joel (2013). Joel Whitburn's Top Pop Singles, 14th Edition: 1955-2012. Record Research. p. 579.
  7. Whitburn, Joel (2004). Top R&B/Hip-Hop Singles: 1942-2004. Record Research. p. 404.
  8. "アメリカン・ジゴロ (American Gigolo - The love I saw in You was just a Mirage)". YouTube. 2011-12-09. Retrieved 2016-10-01.