Last season, The Office** had an episode with a cold open in which the gag was Ryan mistakenly thinking Smokey Robinson had died. Everyone was sad about his (not real) death, but no one could remember what he sang. I chuckled at it, because Smokey Robinson does fit that bill of being well-known without standing out. And yet, I can still list an album’s worth of songs by him that I love because I am that nerd.

I was reminded of this today when Modern Gal Councilmember Mindy Kaling tweeted the following:

So I’m guessing it was Mindy behind that gag, although a quick search of the Google tells me she didn’t write that episode.

While I wouldn’t necessarily agree with Mindy on this one, it’s not totally out of line to want to praise Smokey Robinson for his catalogue of talents. And that is why I have put together an entire Spotify playlist of songs I love from Smokey Robinson. He had more hits as frontman for the Miracles, but I especially love “Just to See Her” and “One Heartbeat” from his ’80s solo days.

Random fact I just learned from looking up “One Heartbeat” on Wikipedia: it was co-written by the keyboardist for Tommy Tutone, the band responsible for us knowing we can reach Jenny at 867-5309. Weird facts like that make my day.

Anyway, enjoy some sweet, Smokey, velvety tunes:

**I gave up on The Office for this season. The Modern Love Machine has been updating me weekly on the latest in the Jim/Pam drama, which is all I care about anymore.