"Cruisin'" is a song co-written, produced, and performed by the American singer-songwriter

Smokey Robinson William "Smokey" Robinson Jr. (born February 19, 1940) is an American R&B and soul singer, songwriter, record producer, and former record executive. He was the founder and frontman of the pioneering Motown vocal group the Miracles, for which he ...

for

Motown Records Motown is an American record label owned by the Universal Music Group. Founded by Berry Gordy, Berry Gordy Jr. as Tamla Records on January 12, 1959, it was incorporated as Motown Record Corporation on April 14, 1960. Its name, a portmanteau ...

' Tamla label. It was released in August 1978 as a single from his eighth album, '' Where There's Smoke...'' (1978). One of Robinson's most successful singles outside of his work with

the Miracles The Miracles (later known as Smokey Robinson and the Miracles from 1965 to 1972) were an American vocal group formed in Detroit, Michigan in 1955. They were the first successful recording act for Motown Records and are considered one of the most ...

, "Cruisin'" hit number one on the US ''Cash Box'' Top 100 and was also a US ''

Billboard A billboard (also called a hoarding in the UK and many other parts of the world) is a large outdoor advertising structure (a billing board), typically found in high-traffic areas such as alongside busy roads. Billboards present large advertis ...

Hot 100 The ''Billboard'' Hot 100, also known as simply the Hot 100, is the music industry standard record chart in the United States for songs, published weekly by ''Billboard'' magazine. Chart rankings are based on sales (physical and digital), o ...

hit, peaking at number four the week of February 2, 1980. It was a top-five hit on the Soul chart as well.

Background

The song was co-written by fellow Miracle

Marv Tarplin Marvin Tarplin (June 13, 1941 – September 30, 2011) was an American musician, best known as the guitarist for the Miracles from the 1950s through the early 1970s. He was one of the group's original members and co-wrote several of their bigges ...

. "Cruisin'" was an even bigger hit in New Zealand, hitting number one on that country's chart. It is included on Robinson's ninth studio album, '' Where There's Smoke...''. Reportedly, Robinson had a cold when he recorded the song. It was originally intended as a

B-side The A-side and B-side are the two sides of phonograph record, vinyl records and Compact cassette, cassettes, and the terms have often been printed on the labels of two-sided music recordings. The A-side of a Single (music), single usually ...

for a remake of " Get Ready".

Charts

Weekly charts

Year-end charts

Certifications

D'Angelo version

American

neo soul Neo soul (sometimes called progressive soul) is a genre of popular music. As a term, it was coined by music industry entrepreneur Kedar Massenburg during the late 1990s to market and describe a style of music that emerged from Soul music, soul ...

musician

D'Angelo Michael Eugene Archer (born February 11, 1974), better known by his stage name D'Angelo (), is an American singer, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, and record producer. He first garnered attention after co-producing the single "U Will Know" ...

recorded a cover of the song for his debut album, ''

Brown Sugar Brown sugar is a sucrose sugar product with a distinctive brown color due to the presence of molasses. It is either an unrefined or partially refined soft sugar consisting of sugar crystals with some residual molasses content or produced by t ...

'' (1995). The cover was released as the album's second single on October 12, 1995, and was commercially successful charting within the top ten of the US R&B charts. Billboard Singles: ''Brown Sugar''

AllMusic AllMusic (previously known as All-Music Guide and AMG) is an American online database, online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on Musical artist, musicians and Mus ...

. Retrieved on May 9, 2010. the album reached sales of 500,000 copies in the United States by October 1995.Ayers, Anne.
D'Angelo Cruisin' Through His First Tour
''

USA Today ''USA Today'' (often stylized in all caps) is an American daily middle-market newspaper and news broadcasting company. Founded by Al Neuharth in 1980 and launched on September 14, 1982, the newspaper operates from Gannett's corporate headq ...

'': 14.D. November 1, 1995. This version appeared in the third episode of the

UPN The United Paramount Network (UPN) was an American broadcast television network that operated from 1995 to 2006. It was originally a joint venture between Chris-Craft Industries (later sold to News Corporation)'s subsidiary, United Television, ...

sitcom,

Moesha ''Moesha'' (, ) is an American television sitcom that aired on UPN from January 23, 1996, to May 14, 2001. The series stars Contemporary R&B, R&B singer Brandy Norwood, Brandy as Moesha Denise Mitchell, an African-American teenager living with ...

in 1996.

Composition and arrangement

"Cruisin", a cover of

's 1979 hit of the same name, here features a predominant string section.Shapiro (2006), p. 104. The longest track on the album, it employs

violin The violin, sometimes referred to as a fiddle, is a wooden chordophone, and is the smallest, and thus highest-pitched instrument (soprano) in regular use in the violin family. Smaller violin-type instruments exist, including the violino picc ...

viola The viola ( , () ) is a string instrument of the violin family, and is usually bowed when played. Violas are slightly larger than violins, and have a lower and deeper sound. Since the 18th century, it has been the middle or alto voice of the ...

and

cello The violoncello ( , ), commonly abbreviated as cello ( ), is a middle pitched bowed (sometimes pizzicato, plucked and occasionally col legno, hit) string instrument of the violin family. Its four strings are usually intonation (music), tuned i ...

, as well as shakers and light percussion, while

sleigh bell A jingle bell or sleigh bell is a type of bell which produces a distinctive 'jingle' sound, especially in large numbers. They find use in many areas as a percussion instrument, including the classic sleigh bell sound and morris dancing. T ...

s are featured in the chorus.Metal Lungies: Remix Tuesdays - D’Angelo Part 4
Metal Lungies. Retrieved on February 1, 2009. Flautist Lauryn Vivino contributes with

piccolo The piccolo ( ; ) is a smaller version of the western concert flute and a member of the woodwind family of musical instruments. Sometimes referred to as a "baby flute" or piccolo flute, the modern piccolo has the same type of fingerings as the ...

. The track also features steady piano-playing by D'Angelo,W & A's Record Reviews: D'Angelo
Warr.org. Retrieved on February 1, 2009. with

Brooklyn Funk Essentials Brooklyn Funk Essentials is a music collective who mix jazz, funk, and hip hop, featuring musicians and poets from different cultures. The band was conceived in 1993 by producer Arthur Baker and bassist and musical director Lati Kronlund. In ...

-member Bob "Bassy" Brockmann playing the trumpet.Discogs: Bob "Bassy" Brockmann Discography
Discogs. Retrieved on February 1, 2009.

Track listing

# "Cruisin'" # "Brown Sugar"

Weekly charts

Gwyneth Paltrow and Huey Lewis version

American actors and singers

Gwyneth Paltrow Gwyneth Kate Paltrow ( ; born September 27, 1972) is an American actress and businesswoman. The daughter of filmmaker Bruce Paltrow and actress Blythe Danner, she established herself as a leading lady appearing in mainly mid-budget and perio ...

and

Huey Lewis Hugh Anthony Cregg III (born July 5, 1950), known professionally as Huey Lewis, is an American actor and former singer-songwriter. Lewis sang lead and played harmonica for his band, Huey Lewis and the News, until being forced into retirement due ...

performed a cover of the song in the 2000 film '' Duets''. The song is included on the soundtrack of the film and released as a single on September 11, 2000. The duet spent one week at number one on the US

Adult Contemporary Adult contemporary music (AC) is a form of radio-played popular music, ranging from 1960s vocal and 1970s soft rock music to predominantly ballad-heavy music of the 1980s to the present day, with varying degrees of easy listening, pop, soul ...

chart. It was an even bigger hit in Australia and New Zealand, reaching number one on both country's singles charts, and in Iceland, where it climbed to number four in November 2000.

Track listing

* Australian and German CD single # "Cruisin'" (by Paltrow and Lewis) – 4:51 # "Feeling Alright" (by Lewis) – 4:02 # "Beginnings / Endings" (by David Newman) – 1:59

Charts

Weekly charts

Year-end charts

Certifications

Release history

Other covers

* In 1988,

crossover thrash Crossover thrash (often abbreviated to crossover) is a fusion genre of thrash metal and hardcore punk. The genre emerged in the mid-1980s, when hardcore punk bands, such as Suicidal Tendencies, Cryptic Slaughter, Corrosion of Conformity and Dir ...

band

Beowülf Beowülf is an American crossover thrash metal band formed in Venice Beach, California, in 1981 by Michael Alvarado, Dale Henderson, Mike Jensen and Paul Yamada. The group never gained a large mainstream success, but is considered one of the ...

covered the song on their album '' Lost My Head... But I'm Back on the Right Track''. *

Holly Cole Holly Cole (born November 25, 1963) is a Canadian jazz singer and actress. For many years she performed with her group The Holly Cole Trio. Background Cole was born in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Halifax, Nova Scotia. Her father, Leon Cole, was a note ...

, a Canadian jazz singer, covered "Cruisin'" on her 1990 album '' Girl Talk''. * In 2001, saxophonist Jaared covered this song on his album ''Foreword''. Three years later, the late bassist

Wayman Tisdale Wayman Lawrence Tisdale (June 9, 1964 – May 15, 2009) was an American professional basketball player in the National Basketball Association (NBA) and a smooth jazz bass guitarist. A three-time All American at the University of Oklahoma,

included a cover of the song on his album ''Hangtime''. * Filipino acoustic band MYMP released their version on the album ''The Unreleased Acoustic Collection'' and again on ''Back to Acoustic'' in 2013. * Japanese singer

Maki Ohguro is a Japanese pop singer and songwriter from Sapporo, Hokkaido under B-Gram Records label. Biography In 1989, she passed Being Inc.'s singers audition, the "3rd BAD". In 1992, she debuted with the single "Stop Motion" released under B-Gr ...

(大黒摩季 Ōguro Maki) released her version on the 2007 compilation album ''Best of Best 1000''. *

Coolio Artis Leon Ivey Jr. (August 1, 1963 – September 28, 2022), known by his stage name Coolio, was an American rapper. He was best known for his single "Gangsta's Paradise" (1995), which won a Grammy Award, and was credited for changing the cours ...

has also sampled this song on his album ''

Gangsta's Paradise "Gangsta's Paradise" is a single by American rapper Coolio, released on August 1, 1995, by Tommy Boy, Warner Bros. and MCA. Interpolating Stevie Wonder's song " Pastime Paradise" (1976), "Gangsta's Paradise" features vocals from American sin ...

''. Although the verse lyrics are changed in his song, the chorus is the same.

Popular culture

*In 2009, ''Essence'' magazine included the song in their list of the "25 Best Slow Jams of All Time". *Robinson's version appears in a

2021 Like the year 2020, 2021 was also heavily defined by the COVID-19 pandemic, due to the emergence of multiple Variants of SARS-CoV-2, COVID-19 variants. The major global rollout of COVID-19 vaccines, which began at the end of 2020, continued ...

TV commercial A television advertisement (also called a commercial, spot, break, advert, or ad) is a span of television programming produced and paid for by an organization. It conveys a message promoting, and aiming to market, a product, service or idea. ...

for

Allstate The Allstate Corporation is an American insurance company, headquartered in Glenview, Illinois (with a Northbrook, Illinois address) since 2022. Founded in 1931 as part of Sears, Roebuck and Co., it was spun off in 1993, but was still pa ...

. *Robinson's version appears in a

2025 So far, the year has seen the continuation of major armed conflicts, including the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the Sudanese civil war (2023–present), Sudanese civil war, and the Gaza war. Internal crises in Bangladesh post-resignation v ...

for

Häagen-Dazs Häagen-Dazs ( , ) is an American ice cream brand, established by Reuben and Rose Mattus in the Bronx, New York, in 1960, owned by Froneri, a joint venture between Nestlé and PAI Partners. Starting with only three flavors: vanilla, chocolat ...

with

vin Diesel Mark Sinclair (born July 18, 1967), known professionally as Vin Diesel, is an American actor and film producer. One of the world's highest-grossing actors, he is best known for portraying Dominic "Dom" Toretto in the '' Fast & Furious'' fra ...

and

Michelle Rodriguez Mayte Michelle Rodríguez (born July 12, 1978) is an American actress. She began her career in 2000, playing a troubled boxer in the independent sports drama film ''Girlfight'' (2000), where she won the Independent Spirit Awards, Independent S ...

that originally appeared during

Super Bowl LIX Super Bowl LIX was an American football championship game played to determine the champion of the National Football League (NFL) for the 2024 NFL season, 2024 season. In a rematch of Super Bowl LVII two years prior, the National Football Conf ...

References

External links

Lyrics of this song
* {{Authority control 1979 singles 1995 singles 2000 debut singles Smokey Robinson songs D'Angelo songs Gwyneth Paltrow songs Cashbox number-one singles Number-one singles in Australia Songs written by Smokey Robinson Songs written by Marv Tarplin Number-one singles in New Zealand Song recordings produced by Smokey Robinson 1979 songs Motown singles Hollywood Records singles Tamla Records singles Cooltempo Records singles Rhythm and blues ballads Soul ballads 1970s ballads

Background

Charts

Weekly charts

Year-end charts

Certifications

D'Angelo version

Composition and arrangement

Track listing

Weekly charts

Gwyneth Paltrow and Huey Lewis version

Track listing

Charts

Weekly charts

Year-end charts

Certifications

Release history

Other covers

Popular culture

See also

References

External links