For Smokey Robinson, the Fox Theatre plus classic Motown equals a special Detroit night

Smokey Robinson’s Fox Theatre showstopper came less than half an hour into his Saturday set.

He'd just delivered an ageless, softly pleading “Ooo Baby Baby,” a song he performed myriad times long ago with the Miracles on this very stage.

Now the iconic Motown singer-songwriter stood humbled, dabbing his eyes and mouthing, "Wow," as his Detroit audience rewarded him with two standing ovations that seemed to go on for minutes.

“I’m home. There are a lot of you out there tonight who know me personally,” he said when the crowd finally quieted down. “And if you know me personally, you know it’s really, really, really hard to make me speechless. But you have done that. You have Detroit-ed me, man.”

Saturday wasn’t just any old homecoming performance: It was Robinson’s long-awaited return to the Fox, a special locale in Motown history and later the scene of a 1988 performance by the Detroit-born singer for the theater’s grand reopening night.

Indeed, Robinson’s Saturday show was his first at the downtown theater since that appearance 35 years ago, when he led a lineup celebrating the Ilitch family’s $12 million restoration of the venue.

Backstage before Saturday’s show, he met with Motown Museum supporters in front of the Fox’s iconic autograph wall, where his decades-old “Smokey Robinson” signature sits handsomely scrawled inches from those of Frank Sinatra, Paul Simon and others.

Onstage a bit later came a concert of much-loved hits, sensuous quiet-storm fare and fun vibes — presented by an accomplished elder statesman who, at this stage in his career, clearly seems driven by a pure love of performing.

At 83, Robinson isn’t the singer he was at 23. But he was still darned impressive Saturday, landing his falsettos, massaging his lines with elegant expressiveness and guiding his famous high tenor like a feather on a breeze.

Backed by a 12-piece ensemble that included a string quartet and pair of female vocalists, Robinson, sparkling in silver, led off with a cooing “Being with You.” It launched a night that included Miracles chestnuts (“I Second That Emotion,” “You’ve Really Got a Hold on Me,” “The Tears of a Clown”), solo hits (“Just to See Her,” “Cruisin’”) and a sequence of songs he made famous with the Temptations (“The Way You Do the Things You Do,” “Get Ready,” “My Girl”).

“The Tracks of My Tears” was a reliable late-show highlight, blossoming from poignant intimacy into full-blown musical splendor.

While the old-school stuff made for the easy highlights, Robinson showed he’s not content to coast on nostalgia: He performed a pair of tunes from his new album “Gasms” — including the throwback-toned “Beside You” that slowly grew into a surprise crowd-pleaser — and served up the little-known “La Mirada” from a Spanish-language album he said is on the way.

The Fox Theatre is a fixture in Motown lore, scene of the label’s fabled Motortown Revues in the '60s. Those were the shows, as Robinson recounted Saturday, where for a buck and a half you might get “the Temptations, the Four Tops, Marvin Gaye, Mary Wells, Martha & the Vandellas, the Marvelettes, Diana Ross & the Supremes, Stevie Wonder, Gladys Knight & the Pips, Junior Walker … and the Miracles.”

For an hour and 45 minutes Saturday, the magic was rekindled by a native son who remains a picture of suave cool amid towering musical achievement. And the historical connection certainly wasn’t lost on an adoring hometown audience that let loose with cries of “We love you, Smokey!” throughout the night.

Contact Detroit Free Press music writer Brian McCollum: 313-223-4450 or bmccollum@freepress.com.

This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Smokey Robinson and his Detroit audience wow one another in Fox return