It would be a cliché to call Smokey Robinson and Gladys Knight “national treasures,” but both most certainly are. Both have been music royalty longer than many of the fans at their Hollywood Bowl concert on Friday (July 24) have been alive. Robinson and his band, The Miracles, first cracked the top 10 on the Billboard Hot 100 in January 1961 with “Shop Around.” Knight and her group, The Pips, first cracked the top 10 on that chart five months later with the doo-wop-shaded “Every Beat of My Heart.”
Robinson, 86, and Knight, 82, both have musical legacies that are strong and secure. (Both of their groups ranked in the top 20 on Billboard‘s list “The 50 Best R&B Groups of All Time: Staff Picks,” which was published last month.) The only question now is: How are they in concert in 2026?
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Robinson hasn’t lost a step. He sang well, moved well and was a master showman. He is duly recognized as one of our greatest songwriters, but he may be under-recognized as a live performer. He was spry and agile throughout his headlining set. He was also personable, speaking warmly about Knight, who he said he’s known since they were teenagers (“one of the greatest voices of our time”) and doing a spot-on and very funny impression of Stevie Wonder’s head-turning mannerisms (by way of introducing “The Tears of a Clown,” which the two music legends cowrote with Henry Cosby). That song, Robinson’s only No. 1 Hot 100 hit as a performer, may be the most ebullient-sounding song ever written about a heartbroken man.
My only criticism of Robinson’s set: An audience participation bit on “Cruisin’” (which side of the house can sing louder?) that was tedious and endless. For this tired exercise, he left out such gems as “Shop Around,” “Mickey’s Monkey” and “More Love”?
Knight still has moments where she can summon the fire and passion that have made her such a beloved singer for so many years. But many of her songs were truncated and re-arranged to better suit her current capabilities. She relied heavily on her three back-up singers, who even took lead parts on occasion. She didn’t introduce them, or any of her six musicians, or speak to the audience in any meaningful way beyond banalities like “you’re so beautiful.” She never mentioned Robinson. Knight has been one of my favorite singers since I first got into music. She is truly a one-of-a-kind singer, capable of both thrilling firepower and conversational ease, often in the same song. But she barely got through this show, and only by leaning heavily on her backup singers. Artists need to know when it’s time to bow out gracefully.
Here are seven highlights from Robinson and Knight’s opening night performance at the Hollywood Bowl on Friday (July 24). It was the first of two nights of their show, dubbed “Just the Two of Us.” And no, they didn’t perform together or include that 1981 Grover Washington Jr./Bill Withers collab in either of their individual sets. (A missed opportunity.)
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