1981 · Behind the Songs
Two weeks at number one.
The recording in context
“Being with You” was Smokey Robinson’s 1981 pop breakthrough as a solo artist — a self-penned ballad that spent two weeks at number one on the Hot 100 and became his biggest solo hit. After a decade of quiet storm success, it proved his feather-light tenor could conquer pop radio, too.
Listen closely
Notice the simplicity — a gentle keyboard figure, a soft backbeat, and Robinson’s voice front and center, barely above a whisper. The melody is pure Smokey: it rises and falls like breathing, each phrase landing exactly where your heart expects it. There’s no trick here, just craft — a songwriter who knows that the shortest distance to a listener is honesty.
Listen to the bridge: the strings swell, the key lifts, and Robinson’s voice opens up for a moment before settling back into that intimate croon. It’s the sound of a man who’s spent twenty years learning how to sing a love song, and finally gets to sing it to the whole world at once.
“Being with You” is the pop summit of a quiet storm career — Smokey Robinson, finally, unmistakably, at number one.