The early life of William Smokey Robinson
The Motown record label owes its success to many people. The first to come to my mind are founder Berry Gordy and singer, songwriter, record producer and executive William Smokey Robinson. Bob Dylan once called him “America’s greatest living poet”.
William Robinson was born into a poor family in Detroit on February 19, 1940. His nickname “Smokey” is not due to his tearful songs, but to his favorite uncle and godfather, Claude, who nicknamed him “Smokey Joe” because of his love of cowboy movies, which they watched together at the cinema. From the age of 3 until about 12, William Robinson called himself Smokey Joe. Then he dropped the Joe part.
Incidentally, at one point, Diana Ross lived just a few houses away. They know each other since she was about 8. It was Smokey Robinson who introduced Diana Ross to Berry Gordy.
After the death of his mother of a brain hemorrhage, Smokey Robinson was raised by his elder sister and her husband. He started composing while at elementary school. He wrote his first song when he was 6 years old for a play in the 1st grade. He formed his first, doo-wop group, the Five Chimes with Northern High School classmate Pete Moore and childhood friend Ronnie White. The group changed the name to the Matadors, including Smokey Robinson, Pete Moore (*1939), Ronnie White (1939-1995) and the cousins Bobby Rogers (1940-2013) and Emerson Rogers.
Smokey Robinson at the piano. Photo copyright © Universal Music Group. Smokey Robinson sheet music. More music by Smokey Robinson & The Miracles at Amazon.com, Amazon.co.uk and Amazon.de.
When Emerson Rogers was drafted into the U.S. Army, he was replaced by his sister Claudette (*1942). Claudette Rogers and Smokey Robinson got married in 1959 and divorced in 1986. They have two children.
Smokey Robinson first met Berry Gordy in 1957, when his group, The Matadors, auditioned for Jackie Wilson’s manager Nat Tarnapol. At the time, Gordy was Wilson’s main songwriter and immediately recognized Smokey’s potential.
In 1957, the Matadors changed their name to The Miracles, initially starring Smokey Robinson (lead singer and songwriter), Pete Moore (bass singer), Ronnie White (baritone singer), Bobby Rogers (tenor singer) and Claudette Rogers (background singer-songwriter). All original members of the Miracles attended Northern High School in Detroit.
Guitarist Marv Tarplin (1941-2011) joined the group in 1959. He continued to work with Smokey Robinson after the leader had left The Miracles. His guitar can for instance be heard on Smokey’s two greatest solo hits, “Cruisin’” and “Being With You”. He is even credited with co-writing “Cruisin’”.
From 1959 until 1972, The Miracles had 42 hits in the US pop charts. Subsequently, Smokey Robinson would embark on a solo career as a crooning balladeer, whereas The Miracles would score another 4 hits, including the “Love Machine”, a funky dancefloor song.
Smokey Robinson & The Miracles: Gold. Motown Records / Universal Music, 2005. This double-CD with 50 songs is a a must for any fan. Buy the album from Amazon.com,Amazon.co.uk, Amazon.de and Amazon.fr. This double-CD spans the entire career of Smokey Robinson & The Miracles, from their debut single “Got A Job” in 1958 until the group’s final LP together with Smokey, Flying High Together in 1972.
Smokey Robinson & The Miracles
The debut single by The Mircacles, “Got A Job”, penned and produced by Berry Gordy, was an answer record to “Get A Job” by the Silhouettes. It was released on Smokey Robinson’s birthday in 1958.
The first Miracles single, which made it into charts (US#93), was “Bad Girl” in October 1959, a ballad written by Smokey Robinson. In 1959, Berry Gordy created his own label, Tamla Motown was created with only $1000. He signed The Miracles and first released their fabulous single “Way Over There”.
“Shop Around” from 1960 was the first million-seller for both Motown and The Miracles. The popular dance beat was written by Smokey Robinson and produced by Berry Gordy.
They were a very prolific band. In 1961 alone, they released three LPs! Among the early ballads were “Depend on Me” and “Who’s Loving You.” Their first LP was called Hi We’re The Miracles. The second LP from 1961 was Cookin’ With The Miracles. It contained the upbeat “Ain’t It Baby”. The third LP from that year was called I’ll Try Something New and contained the sad, yet wonderful “What’s So Good About Goodbye” as well as “I’ve Been Good To You” and “Love That Can Never Be”. Also released in 1961 was the non-album single “Mighty Good Lovin’”, which would hit the US R&B Top 30.
In 1963, The Miracles even released a Christmas LP called Christmas With The Miracles, including just one Smokey Robinson penned song, “Christmas Every Day”, as well as “Frosty The Snowman”, “Little Drummer Boy” and standards such as “Winter Wonderland” and “White Christmas”.
That same year, Motown’s leading songwriter trio Holland-Dozier-Holland produced and wrote the hit singles “Mickey’s Monkey” (Billboard Pop US#8) and “I Gotta Dance to Keep From Crying” (US Top 40) for the Miracles. Later they would also write “(Come ‘Round Here) I’m The One You Need” (US Top 20) for the group.
“Mickey’s Monkey” was the third million-seller by The Miracles, after “Shop Around” in 1961 and “You’ve Really Got A Hold On Me” in 1962 (US#8). In addition to members of The Miracles, Mary Wilson of The Supremes, Martha & The Vandellas, members of The Temptations and The Marvelettes as well as the famous Detroit Dee Jay “Jockey Jack” Gibson sing the background vocals on this single.
Smokey Robinson: My World. The Definitive Collection. Motown Records / Universal, 2005. This CD contains 21 of his greatest songs. Buy it from Amazon.com, Amazon.co.uk and Amazon.de.
Their seventh LP was released in November 1965 and reached gold-status: Going To A Go-Go (US#14). It included the hit ballades “The Tracks of My Tears” (US#16, UK#11) and “Ooo Baby Baby” (US#16), “My Girl Has Gone” as well as the dance hit “Going To A Go-Go”, which all made it into the Top 20. “Choosey Beggar” was a US R&B#35.
The follow-up album from 1967, Away We A Go Go, includes the Burt Bacharach cover “Walk On Bay” and the above-mentioned “I’m The One You Need” written by Holland-Dozier-Holland. In 1967, Smokey Robinson and Al Cleveland wrote “I Second That Emotion”, which peaked at US#4 on the Billboard pop singles chart in December 1967 in its original version by The Miracles. It was the group’s highest charting single since “Shop Around” and its sixth million-seller. It later became a hit single for Diana Ross & The Supremes.
The sole US#1 and a UK#1 single hit by The Miracles, “Tears Of A Clown”, nearly wasn’t released. It was the closing track on the group’s ninth LP from 1968, Make It Happen. Its solo potential was only recognized by a UK Motown secretary in 1970 and then re-released as a single, which became a multi-million seller, selling over three million copies in the United States alone. Other great songs on the album Make It Happeninclude “The Love I Saw In You Was Just A Mirage” and “More Love”.
The album Time Out from 1970 includes a reworked version of “My Girl”, which had helped launch the career of The Temptations in 1965. As for The Temptations themselves, they had even recorded an entire album in tribute to Smokey Robinson in 1965: The Temptations Sing Smokey. Smokey Robinson was the group’s chief songwriter and producer until late 1966, when Norman Whitfield took over production.
In addition, Time Out includes the Top 10 R&B hits “Baby Don’t Cry” (US#8 Billboard pop charts; a million-seller) and “Here I Go Again” as well as the spiritual meditation “Abraham, Martin And John”. That year, The Miracles also releases Four In Blue, an album including cover songs such as “Hey Jude” by The Beatles and “You’ve Lost That Lovin’ Feelin’” by the Righteous Brothers. However, songs from the back catalogue were the highlights: “The Tears Of A Clown” and “I’m The One You Need”, a UK#13 in 1971. It was the year in which The Miracles had their last hit in the UK with the silky “I Don’t Blame You At All”.
Smokey Robinson and The Miracles: Definitive Performances 1963-1987. Order the DVD from Amazon.com and Amazon.de.
Flying High Together was the last album of the Miracles including Smokey. It feartured songs such as “We’ve Come Too Far To End It Now” and “I Can’t Stand To See You Cry”. It was a major change to come because, from 1967 to 1972, the group had been known as Smokey Robinson & The Miracles, a name change pushed through by the lead singer. The farewell tour with Smokey and his group took six months and ended in Washington, D.C. on July 16, 1972.
William Griffin become the successor of Smokey Robinson. The group had its first big hit without their initial leader two years later, in August 1974, with the single “Do It Baby” (US#9). Their last great success came in 1975 with “Love Machine”, which peaked in early 1976 at US#1 (UK#3), selling over 4.5 million copies.
When Motown was not too keen on signing them for a new contract and told them to wait for negotiations, they took up an offer from Columbia Records in 1977. They had no immediate success, problems with a song that had to be pulled from the airwaves, Pete Moore decided to retire from touring and Billy Griffin wanted to return to his solo career. Therefore, the group disbanded in 1978.
In 1980, Ronnie White and Billy Griffin, together with the new members Dave Finley and Carl Cotton, revived the group under the name The New Miracles for another three years.
In 1993, Ronnie White and Bobby Rogers revived The Miracles again, together with Dave Finley and Sydney. Two years later, Ronnie White died from leukemia. Tee Turner joined the remaining trio in 2001. The others continued with various members until Bobby Rogers was forced to retire due the health problems in 2011; he died in 2013. Carl Cotton died in 2003, Marv Tarplin in 2011.
Smokey Robinson: My World. The Definitive Collection. Motown Records / Universal, 2005. This CD contains 21 of his greatest songs. Buy it from Amazon.com, Amazon.co.uk and Amazon.de.
The solo career of Smokey Robinson
After he had left The Temptations, for one year, Smokey Robinson focused on his job as vice president of Motown, which he had become in 1964, before embarking on a career as a recording solo artist in 1973. His first solo albums were Smokey in 1973 Pure Smokey in 1974 and A Quiet Storm in 1975 which is credited with the creation of the late night radio format characterized by adult oriented R&B (according to Lois Wilson).
After “Baby Come Close” (US#29) and a few minor hits, his first great success as a solo artists came in 1979 with “Cruisin’” (US#4). The single was written, produced and recorded by Smokey Robinson for Motown’s Tamla label.
In 1981, Smokey Robinson had his only UK#1 single with “Being With You”, a romantic ballad, which made it up to US#2. The album Warm Thoughts made it to US#26, the gold-album Being With You to US#9 and UK#14.
In 1986, Smokey Robinson’s duo single “Blame It On Love” with Barbara Mitchell reached US#48, the duo single “Ebony Eyes” with Rick James made it to US#43. His solo song “Tell Me Tomorrow, Part 1” made it to US#33. The 1987-album One Heartbeatwas a million-seller and peaked at US#1 on Billboards R&B album charts. The song from that album, “Just To See Her”, made it to US#8 on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1987. Another notable single is the 1989 collaboration with Kenny G for “We’ve Saved the Best For Last”.
Smokey Robinson left Motown in 1990, two years after it had been bought by MCA. He returned to Motown in 1999 and issued the album Intimate, just to leave again in 2003, releasing the album Food For The Soul on Liquid 8 Records the following year. Smokey Robinson has remained active for several labels throughout the years, without being able to have another major success.
His latest album is brand new (Verve, 2014): Smokey & Friends. It features new interpretations of his great songs with stars such as Elton John, Steven Tyler, Jessie J, John Legend, Sheryl Crow, Mary J. Blige, James Taylor and others (order the CD from Amazon.com, Amazon.co.uk, Amazon.fr and Amazon.de. Buy the MP3 album from Amazon.com, Amazon.co.uk, Amazon.fr and Amazon.de).
Smokey Robinson is a prolific songwriter for many artists and groups
Smokey Robinson composed songs not only for himself and his own group, The Miracles. Here a short selection of songs written for other artists and groups: for Mary Wells he wrote “The One Who Really Loves You”, “You Beat Me To The Punch”, “Two Lovers” and “My Guy”, for Marvin Gaye “I’ll Be Doggone” and “Ain’t That Peculiar”, for The Marvelettes “Don’t Mess With Bill” and “The Hunter Gets Captured By The Game”, for The Four Tops “Still Water (Love)”, for Brenda Holloway “When I’m Gone”, for The Tempations “My Girl”, for The Supremes “Floy Joy”, etc.
In short, Smokey Robinson was, is and will remain a truly great singer-songwriters, an essential reference for anyone interested in soul and soulful music. Smokey Robinson sheet music. More music by Smokey Robinson & The Miracles at Amazon.com, Amazon.co.uk and Amazon.de.
Smokey Robinson: Smokey & Friends, Verve / Universal, 2014. Buy the audio CD fromAmazon.com, Amazon.co.uk, Amazon.fr and Amazon.de. Buy the MP3 album fromAmazon.com, Amazon.co.uk, Amazon.fr and Amazon.de. The album includes fresh interpretations of his hit songs, recorded together with stars such as Elton John, Steven Tyler, Jessie J, John Legend, Sheryl Crow, Mary J. Blige, James Taylor and others. Good songs remains good songs, although I prefer the original versions on the CD below.
Article added on September 15, 2014 at 20:52 CEST
