Being With You – Smokey Robinson | Top 40 Chart Performance, Story and Song Meaning

Chart Performance: Pop (#2 for 3 weeks) and R&B (#1 for 5 weeks); 1981

Story Behind The Song By Ed Osborne

After Kim Carnes reached #10 in 1980 with More Love, a tune originally recorded by Smokey Robinson & The Miracles 13 years earlier, the song’s composer thought he had another perfect song for Kim.

So Smokey rang up Love‘s producer, George Tobin, and arranged a meeting. Unfortunately, Tobin and Carnes had had a falling out over her latest single, Bette Davis Eyes, so when Smokey played Being With You for George he urged the former Miracle to cut it himself. Within a day You was down on tape.

Synthesizer riffs featured prominently in the mix on Bette Davis Eyes and Being With You, played on both by Bill Cuomo. Being With You beat Bette into the Top 10, however, Just The Two Of Us by Grover Washington, Jr. blocked it at #3 for three weeks.

Then for three more weeks, Bette Davis Eyes at #1 stonewalled Being With You at #2 before Smokey’s song slipped down the list. Both singles were each singers’ biggest solo hit, an elegant end to the interlocking stories behind them.

This content and all Song Meaning articles were created and written by Top 40 Contributing Editor Ed Osborne. © 2024 Ed Osborne. All Rights Reserved. In addition to these song meaning articles, Ed has written our “Year in Music 1960s-1990s” articles.

Produced by:

  • George Tobin
  • Mike Piccirillo

Lyrics Written by:

  • Smokey Robinson

Check Out all the Song Meanings of the 80s
Top 100 Songs Of The 1980s

Ed Osborne

Hi. I got my first record at age two and never looked back, spending a decades-long career in radio and the music business. Even after years of reading about and listening to all types of music, I am still fascinated by it. Apart from that, I’m endlessly intrigued by art, nature, and the inner lives of people (and dogs).