Smokey Robinson never uses the word "yes." It's always "yeah." A breathy, velvety, low-key "yeah." As in, "Yeah, baby, I'm as smooth as I ever was."

He never actually said that; he's much too gracious. But if he had said it, who could argue? It's the truth.

Robinson is one smooth fellow, the embodiment of every mental image the term "Motown" conjures up in the collective American imagination. Even now, at two years shy of 70, the entertainer with a voice like the most soothing chimes floating in on the gentlest breeze is pure soul, even when he speaks.

"Oh, gosh, honey, I don't know." It was just a few decibels shy of a whisper, this admission that he can't recall when he was last in the Islands.

"It must have been 1990-something." We never did nail down an exact date, but he quickly came to the conclusion that he's overdue for a visit.

Robinson will be performing tonight at the Waikiki Shell as part of the second annual Hawaii Romance Festival (formerly the Return to Romance Music Festival).

With Robinson, almost every statement is anchored by a honey or two. It's honey this ("honey, you ask hard questions!") and honey that ("oh, honey, thank you") — but there are no complaints here, because all it takes is one honey-smooth "honey" to erase any question as to why he's called Mr. Romance.

THE MIRACLES YEARS

It makes sense, knowing Robinson the way we do, that he goes by Smokey, not William, the name that appears on his Detroit birth certificate. But William was Smokey long before he was Smokey Robinson, godfather of Motown.

The nickname came courtesy of an uncle who called the young Robinson Smokey Joe because of his love of Western films. The name stuck and has since become a household name for generations of music fans, even serving as inspiration for other musicians who idolize the satiny tenor and his contribution to music. From George Harrison's ode "Pure Smokey" to 1980s British new wavers ABC's tribute "When Smokey Sings" to Bob Dylan's declaration that Robinson is "America's greatest living poet," it's not just starry-eyed romantics with an ear for flawless harmonies that second those emotions.

If the opinion of the majority can be considered empirical data, then it's an undeniable fact that Robinson is the No. 1 man about Motown.

His wildly successful music career started in the 1950s with the Matadors, a five-piece ensemble that would, after a chance meeting with record producer and Motown label founder Berry Gordy, become the worldfamous Miracles.

By 1960, the group was passing on its first piece of sage advice: You better shop around. "Shop Around" became the group's first hit single and catapulted Robinson and company to the top of the R&B charts, where they stayed for the better part of a decade with hits like "You've Really Got a Hold on Me," "Ooh Baby Baby," "The Tracks of My Tears" and "The Tears of a Clown."

The Miracles scored 27 hits under Gordy's Motown label between 1960 and 1971.

Robinson, while headlining the group, also started doing production work for other Motown artists such as Mary Wells and the Temptations. He wrote and produced "My Guy" for Wells and "The Way You Do the Things You do" and "My Girl," among other songs, for the Temptations.

It was a decade crammed with activity, and Robinson was ready to slow down a bit, hang up his performance hat and focus on being a record producer for Motown, where he had become Gordy's second in command.

"When I left the Miracles, I called myself retired. I said to myself that I would never, ever record or perform again, and if I was going to do anything in music, it was going to be behind the scenes — writing or producing for other people," Robinson said on the phone from his home in Los Angeles. "But after three years of doing that, I was climbing the walls. I can't ever see myself retiring again."

SOLO SMOKEY

In 1972, Robinson went solo, and it was then that he became Mr. Romance:

My life began when happy smiled / Sweet like candy to a child / Stay here and love me just a while / Let sadness see what happy does / Let Happy be where sadness was.

Robinson sees no shame in being hopelessly romantic. He is to romantic soul music what The Rolling Stones is to rock 'n' roll.

"Am I as romantic as my songs suggest? Oh, honey, I hope so! I really, really hope so," he said. He laughed when he answered, and his laugh is nothing like his voice, but it's just as mesmerizing. It's hearty — almost loud and not quite a bellow.

He laughed again when he talked about regrets. He certainly has them, he said, but his quickness to divulge them indicates that he's come to terms with them.

"Yeah. I have regrets," he said. "I think I gave my two oldest kids too much, and I kind of stymied their ambitions. They're doing fine now, but I regret the way I raised them."

It was quiet for a couple of beats. Like maybe he thought he had gone too far. "I have two boys and a girl," he said, perhaps to fill the silence.

Then he laughed.

"I call them kids, but they're actually adults now. I should say I have two men and a woman."

More laughter.

Until he talks about his past addiction to cocaine. It's no laughing matter, but it didn't make it on to his list of regrets. Why not? He never said — not in so many words. But one gets the sense that the fulfillment he gets from being an example of someone who can beat an addiction cancels out any regret he might have had.

"I'm very much into supporting young people and our kids," Robinson said, adding that he's a regular speaker at youth seminars and forums that are dedicated to teaching youths about making the right choices in life.

He's using his past to inform the future, so he's right on the mark: That's not regrettable at all.

STILL SMOKEY

After failing to retire more than three decades ago, Robinson has been on the fast track to what seems like eternal success.

With the Miracles, he released 15 albums on the Motown label and 21 solo albums; the most recent, "Timeless Love," in 2006.

Robinson has been releasing al-bums consistently since leaving the Miracles in 1972, save for a short slow-down during the cocaine years of the 1980s.

Robinson was back on top in 1987 with his hit single "Just to See Her," for which he won a Grammy Award for best male R&B singer. He was also inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame that same year. In 1999 he received the Lifetime Achievement Grammy Award.

Tonight he performs alongside the Matt Catingub Orchestra of Hawai'i for a concert titled "Back to Romance." Also on the bill are Cecilio & Kapono, Robert Cazimero, Eric Gilliom, Hapa and Kaukahi.

2008 HAWAII ROMANCE FESTIVAL