# Kinda easy name that song inside the Motown song question.

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kinda-easy-name-that-song-inside-the-motown-song-question/420995>\
**Category:** Cafe Society\
**Created:** [September 30, 2007, 1:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kinda-easy-name-that-song-inside-the-motown-song-question/420995 "2007-09-30T01:34:08Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Biggirl](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/biggirl/32/3294_2.png) [@Biggirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Biggirl)\
**Post date:** [September 30, 2007, 1:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kinda-easy-name-that-song-inside-the-motown-song-question/420995/1 "2007-09-30T01:34:08Z")

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What’s the clown music that plays in Smokey Robinson’s Tears of a Clown?

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**Author:** ![woodstockbirdybird](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/woodstockbirdybird/32/7905_2.png) [@woodstockbirdybird](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/woodstockbirdybird)\
**Post date:** [September 30, 2007, 2:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kinda-easy-name-that-song-inside-the-motown-song-question/420995/2 "2007-09-30T02:06:24Z")

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Well, according to [Wikipedia](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Tears_of_a_Clown), the music was written by Stevie Wonder and Hank Crosby, and when Smokey heard its “distinctive calliope motif” he said it reminded him of a circus, and he wrote lyrics with that in mind. No mention in that entry of that little riff being from another work, so maybe it’s just one of those things that sounds like it was appropriated but was actually the composers’ original concept.