Luxe Life Blog
Human Nature release first U.S. album; Smokey reflects on 50 years
Smokey Robinson and Australian group Human Nature.
Photo: Ethan Miller/Getty Images
Australia’s popular and successful vocal group Human Nature, who now star nightly at the Imperial Palace Showroom on the Strip, celebrate the release of their first U.S. album today. Reach Out is being released sold at Barnes & Noble, but it’s also available via download. It will drop globally via retail in February.
The group originally signed with Sony in 1994 and has earned 23 platinum awards in their native Australia, with their largest audience at the Sydney Olympic Games in 2000, where they performed before 4 billion viewers worldwide. The four men have had 17 Top 40 hits and 5 Top 10 hits since 1996 and opened tours of Asia and Europe for Michael Jackson and Celine Dion. Their last four releases in Australia have reached No. 1 on the charts!
Now they’ve set their sites on America, launching an assault out of the headline Las Vegas show presented by friend and mentor Smokey Robinson. Their production The Ultimate Celebration of the Motown Sound is set to run through May of next year. They will take time out to perform select dates in U.S. cities as part of national media and promotional activities for the debut album here.
Imperial Palace headliners Human Nature.
Reach Out is a collection of handpicked remixed and remastered hit songs from their last three studio recordings in tribute to some of the best Motown songwriters and performers. Human Nature -- Toby Allen, Phil Burton and brothers Andrew and Michael Tierney -- say it’s a loving tribute to the sounds that influenced their global success.
The songs are “Reach Out (I’ll Be There),” “You Keep Me Hangin’ On,” “Baby I Need Your Lovin,’ ” “I Heard It Through the Grapevine,” “My Girl,” “Stop! In the Name of Love,” “ABC,” “You Are the Everything,” “Ain’t No Mountain High Enough,” “Uptight (Everything’s Alright),” “Twenty-Five Miles,” “Dancing in the Streets” and “Get Ready” recorded with Smokey, “The Way You Do the Things You Do” recorded with The Temptations and “River Deep, Mountain High” with Vegas’ own Mary Wilson of The Supremes.
Go to HumanNatureLasVegas.com to watch and listen to their videos, and posted on YouTube to mark today’s album release is a performance of “Baby I Need Your Lovin’ ”:
Human Nature, 'Baby I Need Your Lovin' ' - from YouTube.com
Meantime, Las Vegas resident Smokey, who brought Human Nature to the Strip, is looking back over his 50 years in show business, and to mark the occasion, he, too, has released a new album, Time Flies When You Are Having Fun, which he says sums up his music life appropriately. India.Arie, Carlos Santana and Joss Stone appear on the album featuring his unique falsetto voice that is stronger than ever. Smokey wrote more than 35 Top 40 hits when he was at Motown working with The Miracles, The Temptations and Marvin Gaye.
Smokey Robinson and Australian group Human Nature.
The Rock and Roll Hall of Famer told Spinner.com: “I hope that the ‘Love Bath’ track on the new album gets some attention. I love the way that song came out. I was in my car, and I thought how intimate it was to take a love bath with someone that you’re into and love. Even more intimate by candlelight. I just said I want to write a funky, groovy song about that.”
He says he’s known Joss since she was 15 and wrote “You’re the One for Me” specifically for her and their duet. “She’s as powerful as Aretha Franklin and Janis Joplin, so she’s known as Aretha Joplin. She really, really sings -- and never wears her shoes when she sings!”
Looking back over 50 years, he added: “I don’t drink or smoke, and I’m not a party person. I love writing, recording and producing. I still love concerts and touring because I get the chance to see people enjoying themselves. It’s incredible they’ve gone from babies in their parent’s arms to where they now have their own kids in their arms.
Imperial Palace headliners Human Nature during "Las Vegas Celebrates the Music of Michael Jackson" at The Pearl in the Palms.
“I’ve never taken show business for granted. I didn’t start it, and I’m not going to stop it. I’ve never thought the world can’t do without me. Every time I sit down to write a song, I want to write it as if I’d written it 50 years earlier so it meant something then, and 50 years from now it will mean something then.”
Robin Leach has been a journalist for more than 50 years and has spent the past decade giving readers the inside scoop on Las Vegas, the world’s premier platinum playground.
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