Smokey told Jazz.fm why he chose to cover the Flamingos' 1960 single “Beside You”.

When I was 11 or 12 years old, there was a corner where all the kids used to hang out that had a jukebox. One year, this young lady whose aunt lived right down the street from me came from Chicago for summer vacation. The Flamingos are from Chicago, and their record was on the jukebox. She said, “Let me let y’all hear something.” I have one regret about it: Aretha [Franklin] was there that day, and she loved that song, too, and I didn’t get a chance to let her hear my version of it before she passed.