54 The Tracks of My Tears

SMOKEY ROBINSON AND THE MIRACLES 1965

Legend had it that audiences would actually break into tears when Robinson and the Miracles sang “The Tracks of My Tears.” “It tapped into their emotions,” said co-writer Warren “Pete” Moore of the Miracles. Pete Townshend was obsessed with the way Robinson put across the word “substitute.” So obsessed, he said, “that I decided to celebrate the word with a song all its own” — which is how he came to write the Who’s “Substitute.” When Robinson cut “Tears,” it was such a clear winner that hard-to-please Motown founder Berry Gordy proclaimed it a masterpiece.