| A Pocket Full of Miracles | ||||
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| Studio album by | ||||
| Released | September 30, 1970 | |||
| Recorded | 1970 | |||
| Genre | Soul | |||
| Length | 42:28 | |||
| Label | Tamla TS-306 | |||
| Producer | Smokey Robinson Ashford & Simpson | |||
| Smokey Robinson & The Miracles chronology | ||||
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| Singles fromA Pocket Full Of Miracles | ||||
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| Review scores | |
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| Source | Rating |
| AllMusic |    [1] |
A Pocket Full of Miracles (TS306) is a 1970 album byMotown Records R&B groupThe Miracles, (AKA"Smokey Robinson & The Miracles") issued on its Tamla subsidiary label, one of three albums the group released that year. This album charted at #56 on theBillboard pop albums chart, and reached the top ten of the magazine's R&B albums chart, peaking at #10 (one of eleven Miracles albums that reached the top ten of that chart). It was released on September 30 of that year. Hit singles on the album included "Point It Out" and the topicalAshford & Simpson written-and-produced song "Who's Gonna Take the Blame", a sad, dark song about a girl that is turned out as a prostitute (unusually serious lyric content for The Miracles). Also included is the charting flip side "Darling Dear", B-side of "Point It Out", which reached #100 on theBillboard pop chart, and spawned a cover version byThe Jackson Five.
The album's name takes its title from the 1961Frank Capra comedy filmPocketful of Miracles. However, that is where the similarities end. Its cover depicts four of The Miracles,Smokey Robinson,Bobby Rogers,Pete Moore, andRonnie White, sitting inside a huge cartoon "pocket", (thus the name 'Pocket Full of Miracles'). Other original songs in the collection included "Flower Girl", the powerful potential hit "Backfire" (that was not released as a single), and the melancholy "The Reel of Time". Miracles membersMarv Tarplin andClaudette Robinson are featured on the songs "You've Got the Love I Need" (a ballad with rock overtones) and "Don't Take It So Hard", respectively. However, they are not featured on the album's cover (apparently because the "pocket" would then havetoo many Miracles). Covers include versions ofSimon and Garfunkel's "Bridge over Troubled Water",Chuck Jackson andMaxine Brown's "Something You Got", included in a medley with The Beatles' "Something", and Smokey's composition forThe Temptations, "Get Ready", which features an arrangement borrowed from theCream hit "Sunshine of Your Love". Motown staff songwriters contributing to this project includedAshford & Simpson,William "Mickey" Stevenson, Horgay Gordy,Robert Gordy, Robert Jones, and Miracles members Smokey Robinson, Pete Moore, and Marv Tarplin.
This album, like several of The Miracles' post-1969 albums, has never been released in the CD format. It was re-released in edited form a few years later, by the defunct independent labelPickwick International, under license from Motown, with a different cover, and the modified namePocketful.
