William “Smokey” Robinson, Jr. has earned the title of “King of Motown” for making countless hits and consistent contributions to the label he helped start.
Robinson was born on February 19, 1940 in Detroit, Michigan, and raised in the North End of the same place. His nickname was originally “Smokey Joe”, given by his uncle due to Robinson’s love of cowboy movies, and was later shortened to “Smokey” when he was a teenager.
Smokey Robinson established himself and made a name for himself as an American R&B and soul singer, songwriter, record producer, and record executive. He was one of the men behind Motown Records who made the company successful in collaboration with the company’s founder, Berry Gordy.
The Miracles as a group formed in late 1958, but its members were experienced artists who worked for many years under different names. In 1955, Robinson founded Five Chimes along with Ronald White, his best friend, Peter Moore, Clarence Dawson and James Grice, his former high school classmates. The group’s name was changed to the Matadors in 1957 with Emerson and Bobby Rogers (his cousins) replacing Dawson and Grice. Finally, in 1958, Emerson was replaced by his sister Claudette Rogers, and Marv Tarplin joined the group on guitar.
The newly founded Matadors began a tour in Detroit with Robinson as lead singer. In 1958, his work with Berry Gordy began when the two wrote the song “Got a Job.” Later they decided to change the name of the group to Miracles and under this name they recorded for End Records and Chess Records. Not long after, Robinson suggested to Gordy that the latter should start his own label.
Thus began Tamla Records in 1959 founded by Gordy and later reincorporated as Motown. With Robinson and Gordy working together, The Miracles got off to a good start when they signed up. The two complemented their talents, and Robinson’s hitting power made Gordy a more effective mentor.
On the business side, Gordy chose Robinson as vice president of Motown Records. The two continued to serve in their posts until Gordy left Motown. The Miracles had their first big hit in 1960 with the song titled “Shop Around.” It was also Motown’s first number one hit on the R&B chart and their first million-selling single. A milestone for the label and for Smokey Robinson himself.
Robinson also wrote and produced music for other artists, most of them under Motown. He wrote “My Guy” for Mary Wells in 1964, which was a huge worldwide hit that year. For The Temptations, he not only wrote but also produced such hits as “The Way You Do The Things You Do”, “My Girl”, “Twice I Lost My Baby” and “Get Ready” between 1962 and 1966. He also composed “Still Water (Love)” for Four Tops, “Don’t Miss with Bill” and “My Baby Must Be A Magician” for The Marvelettes, “When I’m Gone” for Brenda Holloway, “Ain’t That Peculiar” and ” I’ll Be Doggone” for Marvin Gaye, and “First I Look at the Purse” for The Contours.
Smokey Robinson was greatly admired by other singers such as John Lennon of The Beatles, who admitted that Smokey’s music influenced theirs as well. In fact, The Beatles recorded Robinson and The Miracles’ “You Really Got a Hold on Me.” Bob Dylan gave him the title of “America’s greatest living poet.” With more than 4,000 hit songs due to his talent, he was honored as “America’s Love Poet Laureate.”
Motown had also had such an impact on Smokey’s personal life that he named his son Berry, the company’s founder, and his daughter Tamla, after the label they previously recorded for as a group. His wife was Claudette Rogers, his fellow Matador member who replaced his brother Emerson Rogers.
By 1969, Robinson had made his family such a priority that he considered leaving the Miracles. It was also during this time that the band’s popularity went downhill, and when the band stopped recording, Robinson thought it was finally time to go. However, the turn of events gave them some hope when their 1969 recording “Baby Baby Don’t Cry” was well received, landing it in the National Billboard Pop Top 10. The future became even brighter when they released ” The Tears” in 1970. Of A Clown” was a hit on the US and UK charts.
This caused Robinson to change his mind about leaving the band at short notice, but in 1972 he finally made the decision to move on from The Miracles and go solo. His solo career did not get off to a good start and his job as vice president of Motown took up most of his time. However, his first solo LP release in 1973 titled “Smokey” achieved partial success and contained the song “Sweet Harmony” which he dedicated to The Miracles.
That was the start of a solo career that continued with his 1975 “Baby That’s Backatcha” in the R&B genre. His other solo hits include “Cruisin'” (1979), “Being With You” (1981), “Tell Me Tomorrow” (1982) and “Ebony Eyes” (1983), a duet with Rick James. What almost never came to be was finally a resounding success.
In the mid-1980s, Robinson became addicted to cocaine and divorced Claudette in 1986. His work suffered, and it was his friend Leon Kennedy who helped him out of his miserable situation. He finally recovered from his “bankruptcy”, giving his career another fine tune.
He won a Grammy Award for “Just to See Her” in 1988 and published his autobiography “Smokey” in 1988, and was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame that same year.
Robinson’s days at Motown as vice president ended with the label’s sale to MCA in 1988, for which he left the company in 1990. He won a “Soul Train Music Award for Career Achievement” in 1991 and received the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award in 1999. .
Since 2000, Robinson had some regular performances and other activities. He served as a guest judge on American Idol in 2003 and in 2004, his SFGL Foods Company marketed “Smokey Robinson’s ‘The Soul Is in the Bowl’ Gumbo.” He also spends time as a spokesperson for the “Great American Smokeout.”
Some of her more recent performances include her appearance at the Apollo Theater to record a television special. In March 2009, he was seen again on season 8 of American Idol as a mentor and coach to the top 10 contestants, and on May 9, 2009, he was awarded an honorary doctorate from Berkley College of Music.
Truly an R&B great, Smokey Robinson has seen it all, and his career is a story most guys would consider nothing short of heroic, even though it was based on the 1960s and 1970s phenomenon that was Tamla Motown, who with time became just Motown.