SOUND PROJECTIONS
AN ONLINE QUARTERLY MUSIC MAGAZINE
EDITOR: KOFI NATAMBU
FALL, 2018
VOLUME SIX NUMBER TWO
ARETHA FRANKLIN
Featuring the Musics and Aesthetic Visions of:
SMOKEY ROBINSON
(October 6-12)
THE TEMPTATIONS
(October 13-19)
JOHN CARTER
(October 20-26)
MARTHA AND THE VANDELLAS
(October 27-November 2)
RANDY WESTON
(November 3-9)
THE MIRACLES
(November 10-16)
JERRY ROLL MORTON
(November 17-23)
BOBBY BRADFORD
(November 24-30)
THE SUPREMES
(December 1-7)
THE FOUR TOPS
(December 8-14)
THE SPINNERS
(December 15-21)
THE STYLISTICS
(December 15-21)
https://www.allmusic.com/artist/smokey-robinson-mn0000821571/biography
https://www.allmusic.com/artist/smokey-robinson-mn0000821571/biography
William "Smokey" Robinson
(b. February 19, 1940)
Artist Biography by Mark Deming
Berry Gordy founded Motown Records, but one could argue that Smokey Robinson was the man who first pushed America's most iconic soul music label toward greatness. As the leader of the Miracles, Robinson was one of the very first artists signed to the fledgling label in 1959, and while he racked up many hits for it with the Miracles and as a solo act, Robinson
was also an invaluable behind-the-scenes talent who wrote songs,
produced records, scouted and groomed talent, and served as a vice
president at Motown from 1961 to 1988. Robinson
is one of the most iconic figures in American R&B; his work helped
defined pop-oriented soul, his lush, romantic R&B ballads literally
gave quiet storm its name, and no less an authority than Bob Dylan has called Robinson "America's greatest living poet."
William Robinson, Jr.
was born in Detroit, Michigan on February 19, 1940. He grew up in
Detroit's Brewster housing project, and picked up the nickname "Smokey
Joe" from his Uncle Claude, which quickly stuck. Robinson first developed an interest in music by investigating his mother's record collection, which included classic sides by Sarah Vaughan, Billy Eckstine, Muddy Waters, and John Lee Hooker. Robinson's mother died when he was ten, and since his father was frequently on the road making his living as a truck driver, young Smokey was looked after by his older sister Geraldine, and in his early teens
he began singing, performing in informal doo wop groups with his
friends.
In 1955, Robinson assembled a vocal group called the Five Chimes, which featured his schoolmates Clarence Dawson, James Grice, Pete Moore, and Ronald White. In 1956, the group adopted a new name, the Matadors, after Dawson left and Emerson Rogers took his place, and a year later, Rogers and James Grice left the lineup, and Claudette Rogers and Bobby Rogers (respectively Emerson Rogers'
sister and cousin) stepped in. With their new co-ed lineup, the name
the Matadors was considered a poor fit, and they began calling
themselves the Miracles. A guitarist, Marv Tarplin, joined the act in 1958, and the Miracles began making a name for themselves on Detroit's R&B scene.
In 1958, Robinson met Berry Gordy, a Detroit-based songwriter who had penned several hits for Jackie Wilson and was looking to make a name for himself in the music business. Gordy was impressed with the Miracles and Robinson's talents as a songwriter; he helped the band land a deal with End Records, and the Miracles released their first single, "Got a Job" (an answer song to the Silhouettes'
hit "Get a Job") later that year. While the single sold well in
Detroit, it didn't make much noise nationally, and follow-ups on End and
Chess fared no better. Robinson believed he and Gordy could do better themselves, and he urged Gordy to follow through on his idea of forming his own label. The Miracles became the first act signed to Gordy's new record company, Motown, and in 1960, their song "Shop Around," written by Robinson, was the first Motown single to become a nationwide hit.
Through the '60s, the Miracles
were a frequent presence on the pop and R&B charts, scoring hits
with such songs as "Tracks of My Tears," "Mickey's Monkey," "You've
Really Got a Hold on Me," "Going to a Go-Go," "Ooo Baby Baby," and many
more. As Robinson became recognized as the creative force behind the group, their name was changed to Smokey Robinson & the Miracles in 1966. Robinson also shared his talents with many other Motown acts; he wrote "My Guy" and "The One Who Really Loves You" for Mary Wells, "My Girl," "Get Ready," and "The Way You Do the Things You Do" for the Temptations, "Ain't That Peculiar" and "I'll Be Doggone" for Marvin Gaye, and "The Hunter Gets Captured by the Game" for the Marvelettes, among many others. As a vice president at Motown, Robinson was also a key part of the label's management and production team, and
helped guide the company into being one of the most successful
independent American record labels of all time.
Robinson fell in love with Claudette Rogers not long after she joined the Miracles, and they were married in 1959. By 1969, Robinson was growing tired of dividing his time between his family, Motown, and the Miracles,
and he decided to retire from the group so he could spend more time at
home and less time on the road. He postponed his departure when "Tears
of a Clown" (recorded in 1966) unexpectedly became a major hit in 1970,
but a year later, he launched a "farewell tour" with the Miracles, though the group would continue without him (and Robinson would write one of their latter-day hits, "Floy Joy").
After a two-year layoff, Robinson returned to the recording studio with his first solo album, 1973's Smokey. The album found Robinson
focusing on midtempo romantic numbers as well as more mature and
personal themes, which would carry over to his second solo effort,
1974's Pure Smokey. Robinson scored a pair of major R&B hits with 1975's A Quiet Storm,
the title tune and "Baby, That's Backatcha," and the former tune would
give a name to the sort of polished, romantic R&B that was becoming Robinson's stock in trade. Robinson
was no longer as consistent a hitmaker as he once was, but he continued
to make his presence known on the charts with tunes such as "Cruisin'"
(from 1979's Where There's Smoke) and "Being with You" (from the 1981 album of the same name). The year 1987 was a memorable one for Robinson -- the album One Heartbeat
would score a massive hit for him with the song "Just to See Her,"
which also earned him a Grammy, and he was also inducted into the Rock
& Roll Hall of Fame (though the rest of the Miracles were not, much to his consternation). But this came near the end of an important era for Robinson -- in 1988, Motown was sold to MCA, and Robinson stepped down as vice president. In 1990, he recorded a final album for Motown, Love Smokey (Robinson received a Lifetime Achievement Grammy the same year), and he signed with SBK Records for 1992's Double Good Everything.
The end of Motown came during a turbulent period for Robinson -- in the mid-'80s, he developed a serious addiction to cocaine, and his marriage to Claudette ended in divorce in 1986. While Robinson would kick drugs shortly after the end of his marriage, following the commercial disappointment of Double Good Everything, he wouldn't record again until 1999, when he recorded Intimate for MCA's revived Motown label. In 2004, Robinson (who cited a spiritual reawakening as a key factor in giving up drugs) recorded a contemporary gospel album, Food for the Spirit, and a collection of standards, Timeless Love, followed in 2006. Robinson returned to the smooth soul sounds of his '70s and '80s solo work with 2009's Time Flies When You're Having Fun, released on his own label, Robso Records; several tracks from this album were matched with remakes of Robinson's Motown hits for the collection Now & Then. In 2014, he released a Verve album, Smokey & Friends, for which he remade 11 of his most popular compositions with a roster of duet partners that included Elton John, James Taylor, Mary J. Blige, and Jessie J.
https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-news/smokey-robinson-meet-the-reigning-genius-of-the-top-40-81354/
Smokey Robinson: Meet the Reigning Genius of the Top 40
Today’s “greatest living poet” crafts songs that transcend the limits of Motown and Top-40 and are infused with Smokey’s soul
Smokey Robinson
Gems/Redferns
Smokey Robinson is the reigning genius of Top-40. Since the Beatles and the Beach Boys
dropped out of the single-then-follow-up-album pattern aimed at the AM
teenage listener, William “Smokey” Robinson has had the field to
himself.
The lead singer of the Miracles, writer of almost all their material
and that of many Motown groups, a prolific producer, and a vice
president and charter member of the Motown Corporation, Smokey is what
DJ’s call with gushing enthusiasm, “an all around entertainer.” He is a
combination Sam Cooke, Paul McCartney,
Lieber and Stoller, and George Martin. But no one has done it all as
well and as long as Smokey, and none with quite his style and easy
grace.
Now 27, Smokey (known as “Smoke” to intimates) has been writing and
singing since he did a tune for a first grade skit in which he played
Uncle Remus. He wrote poetry as a kid too, but dropped it in junior high
when he started the Miracles as a street corner harmonizing group. He
and his group – Bobby Rogers, Ronnie White, Pete Moore, Claudette
Rogers, and Claudette’s brother who left not long after – were then 12
years old and they are still together.
Aretha Franklin
was a neighborhood friend too and they grew up hearing the blues and
gospel, but successful black music then was the multi-voiced sweet sound
of groups like the Penguins, the Platters, the Drifters, and Frankie
Lyman and the Teenagers. That’s the sound Smokey wanted. In 1957 the
Miracles got their first audition.
“We auditioned for this guy, but he didn’t like us,” Smokey said
recently, “with me and Claudette (she’s my wife now), he wanted us to be
like Mickey and Sylvia. But Berry Gordy, Jr., was there – he was doing
pretty good then writing songs for people like Jackie Wilson and Etta James
– and afterwards he called us over and asked to see our songs. We had a
book of about 100 I had written, and he liked only one, but he didn’t
just say the rest were garbage. I must of went through 68 of those songs
with this cat and on every one I’d say, ‘What’s wrong with this one?’
and he’d say, ‘Well, you left off this or you didn’t complete your idea
on that,’ which really started me to think about songs and what they
were. Gordy, man, that cat more than anyone else helped me get my thing
together.”
A debt is also owed the other way. Gordy signed with the Miracles as
their producer and with the money made from a series of solid hits like
“Get a Job” and “Bad Girl,” leased to big companies for distribution,
started Motown in 1959. The company’s first hit was a Smokey-Miracles
song, “Way Over There,” and it was “Shop Around,” a 1961 millionseller
that put the company on its feet financially.
Working together, Smokey and Gordy created the Motown Sound. In the
early days they collaborated on both writing and producing, and Smokey’s
executive job was “artist development.” But it was primitive Motown:
instead of having strings, big bands, and complex tracking, they were
lucky to have a sax or piano with the rhythm section. As the business
grew, Gordy stopped writing and Smokey either wrote the songs himself or
built lyrics and a full melody out of riffs suggested by the Miracles’
guitarist Marvin Tarplin or out of ideas sparked by members or the whole
group.
By now Smokey doesn’t know how many songs he’s written. Some never
made it, but there have been dozens of hits, each in its own way
perfect. There’s no formula, but all have a certain liquidity, a subtle
and simple elegance. Smokey makes it look easy. There is a strong beat, a
sure bass, and then a seductively harmonized melody whose turns are
exactly matched by the lyric’s mood.
Bob Dylan (press releases say) has said that Smokey is “today’s greatest living American poet.” It may be. Take “I Second That Emotion”:
Maybe you wanna give me kisses sweet,
But only for one night and no repeat.
And maybe you’ll go away and never call.
But a taste of honey is worse none at all., (Oh little girl)
In that case I don’t want no part (I do believe)
That that would only break my heart
But if you feel like loving me, if you’ve got the notion,
I second that emotion.
But only for one night and no repeat.
And maybe you’ll go away and never call.
But a taste of honey is worse none at all., (Oh little girl)
In that case I don’t want no part (I do believe)
That that would only break my heart
But if you feel like loving me, if you’ve got the notion,
I second that emotion.
John Lennon thought enough of the “I’m Crying” refrain in the sweet
“Ooh, Baby,” to cop it for “I Am the Walrus.” Smokey can be baroque in
playing with words and their repetition (“Beggars can’t be choosey, I
know that’s what people say/But though my heart is begging for love,
I’ve thrown some love away/I’m a choosey beggar, and you’re my choice”)
or he can get right down home and basic as in “You’re My Remedy” that he
did for the Marvelettes:
Don’t call a doctor
A nurse is worse
Cause a pill won’t heal my pain
When I’m feeling blue
You know what to do
To make me feel right again.
Sometimes I get to tremblin’ and a shakin’
Like a leaf shakin’ on a tree
The doctor wants to s’pect
I’ll be a nervous wreck
But you’re my remedy.
A nurse is worse
Cause a pill won’t heal my pain
When I’m feeling blue
You know what to do
To make me feel right again.
Sometimes I get to tremblin’ and a shakin’
Like a leaf shakin’ on a tree
The doctor wants to s’pect
I’ll be a nervous wreck
But you’re my remedy.
While his new songs have a smooth sophistication (as “If you can
want, you can need; if you can need, you can care; if can care, you can
love; whenever you want me, I’ll be there”) his early songs were right
in the fifties’ – early sixties’ teen groove. “Shop Around” defines the
form:
When I became of age my mother called me to her side
She said, ‘Son you’re growing up now, pretty soon you’ll take a bride,’
And then she said, ‘just because you’ve become a young man now
Still some things that you don’t understand now,
Before you let her hold your hand now
Keep your reason for as long as you can now,’
My mamma told me, ‘You better shop around.’
She said, ‘Son you’re growing up now, pretty soon you’ll take a bride,’
And then she said, ‘just because you’ve become a young man now
Still some things that you don’t understand now,
Before you let her hold your hand now
Keep your reason for as long as you can now,’
My mamma told me, ‘You better shop around.’
“Tracks of My Tears,” perhaps his best song, starts with a simple
guitar riff, picked up by the bass and accented first by the drum and
then a few lovely “too doo oh’s” by the group, and then Smokey sings
alone “People say I’m the life of the party/Cause I tell a joke or
two/Although I might be laughin’ even though downhearted/Deep inside I’m
blue,” and then with everything building, out comes the chorus, “Take a
good” (drum smash) “look at my face oh-oh-oh/You’ll see my smile”
(another smash) “looks out of place/If you look closer it’s easy to
trace/The tracks of my tears.” By the end Smokey’s voice is riding high
over an incredible sweep of music, throwing in “ooh’s” and “yeah’s”
until there’s nothing more to say.
“That song,” said Smokey, “started with a riff Marvin Gaye
came up with. We worked it over for two months trying to get it in the
pocket. When we did, we took it into the studio and did it, doing three
other tunes that session too.”
Smokey does four tunes an afternoon because he is a Top-40 hitmaker, a
professional. He is Mr. Motown; small, agile, and very lightskinned,
his physical presence is the opposite of the late Otis Redding‘s.
In his dressing room after a show at a plush, white middle class club
in San Francisco, he whipped off the orange handkerchief he had put over
his closely razored process when he noticed pictures were being taken;
the do-rag, apparently, is not the Motown image.
Interviewed, he was like a bright salesman for a progressive company.
Yet his politeness, good nature, and respect for all performers, while
the cliched public attributes of a showman, seemed also the virtues of a
man beyond vanity. He and his group, he said, “just dig music, jazz,
pop, rock and roll, folk, blues, or whatever.”
On Bob Dylan:
“Here’s a cat who’s really trying to express what he sees the world as
being. He’s writing the real of what he sees, not trying to cover it up
or paint it up.” Some Beatle lyrics escape him, like “I am the Walrus,”
“but on that one, the feel of it and the things they had going made it a
great record, man. I think Lennon and McCartney are two of the greatest songwriters ever.”
With Smokey, Stax-Volt is also “great” and he’s very happy that his
old friend Aretha is doing well with material that suits her (“She’s
Aretha all the way down now”). He also thinks that all the cover
versions of his songs are “great.”
Up at the top of his great list (also on it are Henry Mancini,
Bacharach and David, Otis Redding, baseball, basketball, swimming, and
Motown – “one big happy, spiritual family, man”) are the Miracles.
“We’ve stayed together because we legitimately love each other. Some
groups, everything becomes more important to the group than the members.
You see groups of cats, and they’re falling out about a different girl
or this and that. It’s a drag.
“Staying together has a lot to do with the way you treat people and
the simple aspect of being lucky that people dig you for that long –
because people don’t have to dig you. This is one thing that recording
artists get off into where after they’ve had a few hit records they
think it’s them. They think, ‘well, if I was the milkman, when I was
coming down the street all the girls would come out of the house and say
“oh, he’s coming with the milk,” and tear their clothes off.’
“That’s not true, man, it just comes along with the business. When
you can no longer accept the fact that you’re a human being and singing
is just your job and along with the glamour part of entertainment comes
the screams and the yells, then you’re in trouble. But we want everybody
to know we thank them because they’ve been so wonderful down through
the years.”
If he talks like Mr. Nice Guy, there is nothing effete about Smokey.
On stage he leads his group with a sure hand, and starting with jokes,
then moving from call and response (“Everybody in the audience who wants
love to come to ’em tonight, say ‘yeah,’ like this, ‘yeeaaahh’!
Everybody!”), to some leaping with “Mickey’s Monkey” and finally to
romance with “Ooh, Baby,” he wrings everything out of his crowds, now
mostly at colleges or nightclubs. If his music isn’t strictly speaking a
very funky soul music, it has all of Smokey’s soul in it. Done within
the limits of Top-40 hit machine, and even within those of the more
precise Motown machine, his music transcends them.
“My theory of writing is to write a song that has a complete idea and
tells a story in the time allotted for a record. It has to be something
that really means something, not just a bunch of words on music.
“A lot of the things you hear by us, we had to splice down for radio
time. Like ‘Second that Emotion.’ It was 3:15 when it was done and Berry
– who has an ingenious sense of knowing hit records, it’s uncanny – he
heard it, he told us, ‘It’s a great tune, but it’s too long, so I want
you to cut that other verse down and come right out of the solo and go
back into the chorus and on out.’ So we did and the record was a smash.
He’s done that on quite a few records and he’s usually right, man.
“I’ve just geared mysef to radio time. The shorter a record is
nowadays, the more it’s gonna be played. This is a key thing in radio
time, you dig? If you have a record that’s 2:15 long it’s definitely
gonna get more play than one that’s 3:15, at first, which is very
important,” he said, sounding – incongruously for he was lying casually
on a motel bed in his bathrobe – like the junior exec, again.
“But it’s no hang up because I’m going to work in it and say whatever
I’m going to say in this time limit. It would be a hang up if I wrote
five minutes of a song and then had to cut it up. But cutting 30 seconds
or a minute doesn’t make that much difference.”
He was not aware that for many people in rock and roll, the Top-40
has become an irrelevant concern. “I think that anybody who records
somebody approaches it with the thought in mind that these people can be
a smash. I don’t think anybody thinks, ‘Oh, they’ll never be a Top-40
act, but here, let’s record them and not be in the Top-40.’ Everybody
who approaches this, approaches it with the idea of being in the Top Ten
because it’s the only way to stay in business, and let’s face it, this
is the record industry, one of the biggest industries going nowadays.
“So we’re just going to try to stay abreast of what’s on the market.
This what hangs a lot of jazz musicians up. I’ve seen cats in little
clubs who are jazz musicians through and through. They would not play a
note of rock and roll ever. Nothing. And they’re starving to death.
“Now this gets to the point of ridiculousness to me. I don’t think
that they love jazz anymore than I love what I’m doing, but it just so
happens that right now what I’m doing is more in demand than jazz. But
you can believe if it came to a point whereas jazz was what was
happening and nobody was buying this type of music and I was starving to
death, I’m sure I’d write some jazz songs.
“The market, man, the market is people.
It is the kids who are buying the records. This is the people you’re
trying to reach. I think that satisfying people on the whole if you’re
in business is more important than self-satisfaction.”
He thought for a minute if he has a side of himself that demands
satisfaction free from industry and market limits. “Well,” he said,
“thinking hard and talking slowly, “I could go into the studio and
record a tune that’s thirty minutes long if I want to satisfy my
personal thing. I could record a tune that’s longer than a LP, just
record it, have a disc made, take it home, sit back, and dig it. But,
you know, I don’t think I would. If somebody did, man, great. But I
don’t think I’d do something like that.”
This story is from the September 28th, 1968 issue of Rolling Stone.
Songwriters on Songwriting:
SMOKEY ROBINSON INTERVIEW #1
[This transcript is excerpted from an Art of the Song interview as broadcast nationally on Public Radio. Click here to listen to the complete show with music.]
Viv: It’s our great honor and privilege and just thrilled to be talking with Smokey Robinson today for Art of the Song. Smokey, thank you so much for joining us.
Smokey: Thank you Vivian, it’s a pleasure. You too John.
Viv: Smokey, would you tell us how you
got started? We’ve all heard stories, but we’d love to hear them from
you. How did you get started in music?
Smokey: If you’re going to go back to
when I really got started, it was probably from the first time I knew I
could hear as a baby because I can’t remember anything else that would
have been my priority as to what I wanted to do with my life since I was
exposed to music. There was music in my home. I had two older
sisters, in between them and my mom we had music all day long of every
day of all kinds that you could think of: the blues, gospel, jazz,
classical, all of that was there. So that was probably when I got
started with my idea of wanting to be in music. Now, professionally, I
got started quite by chance.
I was in the right place at the right time
because Berry Gordy, who is the founder of Motown, and who is my best
friend, was writing a lot of hit songs for Jackie Wilson, who was my #1
singing idol as a kid growing up. I had all of Jackie Wilson’s records.
Whenever I buy records, even today, I look to see who wrote the songs. I
always want to know that. Berry Gordy had written all the hit songs for
Jackie Wilson up to that point. The group that I was with, we were
called The Matadors at the time, we went to audition for Jackie Wilson’s
managers and Berry just happened to be there that day. Now, he didn’t
have to be there that day but he was. We didn’t have to go the day that
he was going to be there, because he was turning in some new songs to
Jackie, but we were. Like I said, I was in the right place at the right
time. It was a God plan.
Viv: It’s funny how those intersections get, I think, divinely guided.
Smokey: Absolutely. So we sang a few
songs that I had written which impressed Berry. It didn’t impress Jackie
Wilson’s managers because they didn’t like us at all. Anyway, Berry
stopped me afterwards and asked me where’d I get the songs. I told him I
wrote them. We struck up a conversation and we became really good
friends. About a year or so, year and a half after that, he started
Motown.
Viv: And brought you on board.
Smokey: Yes.
Viv: Do you think that writing your own material so early on gave you a leg up or was it a disadvantage?
Smokey: No, I think it was a leg up. Berry actually started to give me songwriting help when I met him because, like I said, I had at least a hundred songs in a
loose leaf notebook from my school years that I had been writing songs,
and probably three of them made sense all the way through. I usually
had four or five songs in one song because they weren’t talking about
the same thing throughout the song. But he started to mentor me and make
me know that a song is a short book or a short movie or a short story
that has a beginning and a middle and an ending that tie in together.
When I met him he started to teach me and I started to learn how to
write songs professionally at that point.
John: What was it like songwriting back in the ’60’s? What were your inspirations and did you write by yourself or did you co-write with other people?
Smokey: Well, John, I co-wrote with other
people but I write by myself also. And my inspiration back in the ’60’s
was the same thing that it is in 2014. It hasn’t changed for me. My
inspiration is life. And I write about life. And I’m not a moody
songwriter where I’ve got to be sad and I can write some sad songs. Or
today I’m going to be happy and going to write some happy songs. I can
write a happy song when I’m sad. Or a sad song when I’m happy. Whatever
inspires me at the moment, whatever I see or whatever touches me at the
moment and I want to write a song about it, I’ll pursue that.
John: Do you still write songs today?
Smokey: Oh, all the time man. All the time.
John: Once you’re a songwriter it never goes away, right?
Smokey: Well, I hope not. I’ve gone
through spells where it wasn’t happening as rapidly as it happens
sometimes but, right now, it’s kind of flowing and I’m doing a lot of writing.
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/music/rockandjazzmusic/6400006/Smokey-Robinson-interview.html
Smokey Robinson interview
Soul legend Smokey Robinson - the star of this weekend’s BBC Electric Proms - talks about his 50 years in music, his new album and why he’s happier than ever.
'I'm having a ball': Smokey Robinson
The first thing you notice about Smokey
Robinson is his eyes. They’re impossibly green, flecked with gold, and
passed down by his French great-grandmother. They’re stunning. “Oh,
gosh.” he says, bashfully. “Thank you very, very much.”
That’s the second thing you notice: he’s genuinely sweet. He greets you
with a hug, insists you call him “Smokey,” and calls you “honey” in a
gentle falsetto voice that’s lulled fans for more than 50 years in such
Motown hits as You’ve Really Got a Hold On Me and The Tracks of My
Tears.
Amazingly, at 69, Robinson’s
voice is still gentle and smooth as demonstrated on a new album, Time
Flies When You’re Having Fun. Featuring guest artists Carlos Santana,
India Arie and Joss Stone, the title of the album is a headline for his
life.
“I’m having a ball. I feel better than I did at 25,” he says. “My
favourite part is doing the concerts because I get to see the fans.” It
is apt then that the Motown legend is headlining the BBC’s Electric
Proms series on Saturday at the Roundhouse in London. “I never ever do a
concert for people; I do a concert with people. They’re singing the
songs and having a great time, too.”
Which is
very easy to imagine because just spending 90 minutes with Robinson is a
great time. He’s got some kind of happiness mojo, the secret of which
is hidden in his music. Spend a few days listening to such classics as
Shop Around and More Love or ones he wrote for others – My Guy for Mary
Wells and The Way You Do the Things You Do for the Temptations. You
can’t help but be in a good mood.
With
the lyricism of so much pop music today revolving around bravado,
knowingness and irony, there’s little room for the kind of romantic
vulnerability or daydreaming about a first kiss that Robinson
specialises in. “There are no childhoods any more,” says Robinson wistfully. And then, for the first time, there is anger in his voice. “Our kids are indoctrinated from the time they’re two years old with the news, the computer, advertising, every single, solitary thing. Our kids are brilliant – they’re not stupid. This stuff is touching them. It’s taking their childhood. They got too much information too fast. So…”
His voice trails off and he nods as if to say: “Enough about that.” But that – the preservation of innocence – may explain what makes Robinson tick.
There’s a hidden track on his new album, a jazzy version of I Want You Back, which was the first Jackson Five single to be released on Motown in 1969.
“I’d got the CD all pressed up, and then Mike died,” he says, his voice softening when he talks about the man he calls “my little brother”. “I didn’t want people to say he’s exploiting the fact that Michael died, so I didn’t even list it on the CD.”
Jackson never got a chance to listen to it. The two hadn’t spoken in a decade, and Jackson had increasingly isolated himself with a menagerie of “yes people”. Still, his death, Robinson says, was “sudden impact and totally unexpected”.
Both men, arguably, are the pied pipers of their generations, casting spells on fans with songs that embody a childlike sense of wonder and raw emotion. Women at concerts crumple into tears when Robinson sings Tracks of My Tears.
“Thank God for women!” he says earnestly. “You guys make the world go round.”
To understand what makes Robinson’s vulnerable, you’ve got to go back to and Detroit, Michigan, in 1946 when six-year-old William “Smokey” Robinson wrote and sang his first song, Goodnight, Little Children, in a school play.
“At that point, I became Cole Porter to my mom. She was in the audience nudging people, 'That’s my son!’ She had me singing on the phone to our relatives.”
When Smokey was 10 and on his way to school, his mother called him to her bedside and told him: “I want you to always be a good boy.” She died that afternoon from a cerebral haemorrhage and set in motion the recurring themes in Robinson’s music: women, devotional love, tragic loss.
On his new album, he sings a haunting cover of Don’t Know Why, the Jesse Harris track that Norah Jones made famous. “It’s a song about somebody who loves somebody,” he says. “It frightened them. They didn’t know what they’d have to give up of themselves to go and be with this person.” He heard it in the car one day and couldn’t get it out of his head.
When Robinson’s mother died, his older sister moved her family into the house, making it 11 children under one roof, three kids to a bed. At 15, Robinson formed the Matadors, a five-member harmony group later renamed the Miracles when singer Claudette Rogers joined.
By 19, Robinson had married Rogers (a union that lasted 27 years) and convinced his friend, songwriter Berry Gordy Jr, to start the Motown label. Robinson earned $5 a week writing songs. In 1960, at the age of 20, he penned Motown’s first million-selling record, Shop Around.
With the Miracles, Robinson scored 27 hits for Motown between 1960 and 1971, including Tears of a Clown, which went to No 1 in the UK first. He split from the band in 1972 to focus on his role as vice president of Motown and a solo career that garnered chart-topping hit singles Cruisin’, One Heartbeat, Being With You, and a Grammy Award in 1987 for Just to See Her. (Even a pop homage to the singer, ABC’s When Smokey Sings, topped the charts in the US and UK in 1987)
Since penning his first song at six, Robinson has been credited on more than 4,000 songs, covered by everyone from the Beatles to En Vogue, and was once described by Bob Dylan as “America’s greatest living poet”. In 1987, he was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
But darkness found him even under the spotlight. In the mid-Eighties, Robinson developed a serious cocaine addiction. “I was dead. It was over. I was a walking corpse. A skeleton,” he recalls.
He found God again (“I’m not a religious man, but I’m very spiritual”) and has been drug-and alcohol-free since May 1986.
Happily married for the past eight years to longtime friend Frances Glandney, Robinson’s ambitions are clearly still not at an end. “I hope one day soon to have a great role in a great movie. I’m not talking about the starring role or anything like that, just a great role in a great movie.”
Whether he gets his wish or not, Robinson’s unashamed love of romance will be his legacy to the world.
“When your lady’s coming over or your guy’s coming over,” he says with a puckish smile, “You can just put my record on and, um, go for it! You know what I mean?”
- Smokey Robinson and his band perform with the BBC Orchestra at the Roundhouse, London NW1, on Saturday. Time Flies When You’re Having Fun is out on Monday.
http://www.bluesandsoul.com/feature/379/smokey_robinson__motown_classic_interview_-_dec_1992/
Feature
SMOKEY ROBINSON: Motown Classic Interview -
December 1992
SMOKEY ROBINSON
Pete Lewis remembers meeting Smokey Robinson back
in late 1992, when the Motown mega-legend gave âB&Sâ arguably
one of his most revealing in-depth interviews ever
Back in the Sixties, Bob Dylan referred to him as "the world's
greatest living poet"; today, an entire US radio format - 'The Quiet
Storm' - owes its name to the title of one of his Seventies albums. As
an artist he is immediately recognisable by his unique high-pitched,
tremulous vocal style while visually his equally distinctive blue eyes
are striking in their intensity. The awards that have been bestowed upon
him are innumerable: The Grammy; places in both the Rock'n'Roll Hall Of
Fame and the Songwriters Hall Of Fame; the Soul Train Heritage Award;
the NARAS Living Legend Award, to name but a few.In addition to his sensitive performances on numerous million-selling records both in his own right and earlier as frontman of The Miracles, he has penned some of the most timeless and significant compostitions of the last three decades. From 'My Guy'' to 'My Girl'; from the pathos of 'The Tracks Of My Tears' to the romance or 'Being With You', Smokey Robinson will go down in history as one of the most gifted singer/songwriter/producers of our time.
Recently in the UK for his first live performance in nine years, Smokey impressed his fans with a first class performance and left them the ideal early Christmas present in the form of a new 22 track compilation of 'Greatest Hits', released on Polygram TV.
Born in Detroit, Smokey Robinson was raised by his mother and two sisters and grew up surrounded by the music of jazz greats like Sarah Vaughn, Billy Eckstine, Count Basie and Duke Ellington. In 1954 he joined with high school friends Bobby Rogers, Pete Moore and Ronnie White to form a vocal group which became The Metadors; whose sister group, The Metadorettes, included Bobby's sister Claudette in their line-up.
Smokey takes up the story: "Shortly after we graduated from High School we had the chance to audition for Jackie Wilson's manager", he remembers: "Claudette would always come to our rehearsals and so, since she knew some of our material, we took her down to the audition with us. But Jackie Wilson's managers weren't impressed at all, they rejected us because we looked too much like The Platters, who were already out and also comprised four guys and a girl with a guy lead who sang high. However, Berry Gordy - who at that time was the songwriter for Jackie Wilson - was there, and he was very impressed 'cause he hadn't heard any of the songs that we sang. He came outside afterwards and introduced himself, and then I knew immediately who he was because I had ALL Jackie Wilson's records and I always looked on records and songs to see who'd written them! He critiqued them - he was very patient with me, and he actually was the first one who showed me how to write songs. From that moment on he and I were friends and, after I'd known him for about a year or so, he started Motown."
Before forming the label, Gordy produced some records for Smokey's group who by now were called The Miracles: "Berry had already produced a record for us called 'Get A Job' which was our very first record and released out of New York on this record company called End Records. Then we made another record for them called 'I Need Some Money' backed with a song called 'I Cried'. So we had two records on the End label in New York. And they didn't pay us! So Berry just said he was going to start his OWN record company, and the first Motown record ever was on the Tamla label - a record called 'Come To Me' by an artist named Marv Johnson, but the company was only set up for local distribution. Then we, The Miracles, released a record called 'Bad Girl' on Motown locally, and it was just like a big smash hit in Detroit and the surrounding areas. So Berry sold our national distribution rights, for two records only, to Chess Records in Chicago - and THEY didn't pay us! So then our next record was 'Way Over There' and Berry and I were talking one day, and I said 'Hey man, why don't you just go national with this record because, you know, nobody's paying us anywhere. So what have you got to lose?'... So he did - and 'Way Over There' by The Miracles was the very first Motown record that was a national release, and that was the birth of what started to happen!"
Meanwhile, Claudette Rogers had married Smokey and become Claudette Robinson in time for The Miracles' next release 'Shop Around', which became both the group's and Motown's first national US Number One. However, she was soon to leave the group, as far as touring was concerned: "Pete Moore went into national service in 1963 and didn't come back till the end of l964, and at that time Claudette left so that we could try to have some babies", explains Smokey: "We'd actually found out she was pregnant and had lost a lot of weight and got very ill being on the road. So I made her come off the road. In fact, the last date that she did with us live was here in England. Because we'd never been here before, she came over with us and we all performed here. After that she just retired from the road altogether and we kept trying to have children. We had several miscarriages after that, but finally our son Berry was born... But Claudette always recorded with The Miracles the whole time I was in the group, even though she did stop doing the road work."
This did not however affect the group's success. From the slow-rolling teenage infatuation of 'You've Really Got A Hold On Me' to the dancefloor thump of 'Going To A Go-Go', The Miracles were enjoying hit after hit on the US charts whilst at the same time Smokey was also earning an awesome reputation in the songwriting/production stakes from his work with various other Motown acts. Interestingly, throughout the Sixties, he seemingly was the only big-name Motown act to be allowed to cross the line by Berry Gordy, who otherwise appeared to keep a very definite separation between his artists and his writer/producers. Was this due to Gordy being impressed by Robinson's writing capabilities at their first meeting? "Yes, I think that had a great deal to do with it, and also he had the confidence that I could do it", agrees Smokey: But I should also point out that in those days we had committees where we listened and critiqued everybody's stuff. So actually it wasn't like the other artists weren't writing songs for themselves, it was just that their stuff wasn't up to par to come out."
And how does he remember most of the artists he worked with during this period? "Well, of course Mary Wells was the first artist that I started to work with on a regular basis - the first hit I had with her was called 'I'm The One Who Really Loves You'. I had about five Top Ten records with her, then I did 'My Guy' which was Number One. Then shortly after that she left - she'd fallen in love with her road manager who convinced her to leave because he said he could get her more of everything. I tried to talk her out of it because I knew the guy didn't know what he was doing... But he convinced her, and she became oblivious. It really was a big shame, because I think had she stayed at Motown she could have been around always."
"Then of course came The Temptations", he remembers: "We signed them, I started to work with them, and it took me about three records to get them a big hit - the first one was 'The Way You Do The Things You Do'. Then I started to work with The Marvelettes, and the first really big hit I ever had with them was a thing called 'Don't Mess With Bill'. So, I had several people that I was basically working with exclusively. Then of course Marvin Gaye was there - Marvin had always wanted to sing like Nat King Cole, he didn't want to sing rock type stuff. So he recorded songs like 'Mr. Sandman' and ballads and stuff, but he could never get a hit. Then Mickey Stevenson, who was at the time our A&R director, recorded 'Stubborn Kinda Fellow' on him and put him into another realm, and he started to do 'Hitch Hikeâ and songs like that - and eventually I started working with him and had a few hits. But I worked closely with basically everybody. Some of the people I had hits with, some I didn't - I never had a hit with The Four Tops, though I recorded them many times. So some people I just had the right combination with, and some I didn't."
By the late Sixties, The Miracles - by then known as Smokey Robinson & The Miracles - had become an American institution, thanks to Smokey's distinctive lead vocals and the quality of his hit songs - like the punchy 'I Second That Emotion' and the poignant classic 'Tracks Of My Tears', which contained some of Smokey's finest lyrics ever. Yet the group's first international Number One actually emanated from the UK, when in 1970 the London office of Motown resurrected a forgotten three-year-old album track entitled 'Tears Of A Clown': "The music was written by Stevie Wonder", recalls Robinson: "ln those days we used to do a lot of collaborating - you know, some people did great music but didn't necessarily do lyrics, and at that time Stevie wasn't doing lyrics. So he came to me and said 'Hey man, I've got this great music. I just can't think of a song to go with it!'. So I took it home and listened to it... The first thing that came to me was that it kind of reminded me of circus music. So when I realised that I said 'Oh, this has go to be something about the circus!'... And a few days later I thought of Pagliacci, which is a very touching story because he was a real person - a real Italian clown, one of the greatest clowns to ever live. He made everybody happy, the kids loved him. But, when he went off to his dressing room he was one of the saddest people in the world. He was just lonely. So I decided to write about him."
"Anyway, we recorded that song in 1967 and nothing happened with it in The States - just an obscure cut on an album. Then in 1970 this girl who worked for our Motown office over here in London said 'Hey, this would be a great hit over here!'. So they released it over here, and it was Number One! So Berry said 'Hey, if it's Number One over there, then we're definitely gonna release it over HERE!'... And it was like Number One all over the world! That was really something, to have a song that just laid around for that time period and then came back like that!"
The hit records may have kept on coming - like 1971's catchy 'I Don't Blame You At All' - but by 1972 the constant years of travelling on the road had taken their personal toll, and Smokey finally decided to split from the group: "When I left The Miracles, the only thing that I really enjoyed about show business was when we actually got out on stage, when we performed to the people - I LOVED that. But everything that led up to that, I HATED it! I hated recording, I hated the travelling, the buses, the planes, trains, limos, the hotels, the restaurants... You know, I'd had it! By that time my two eldest children had been born, and I just really didn't like being away from them too much. You know, when I was with The Miracles, probably 80 to 90 per cent of my life was spent on the road. It took my wife and I a long time to have children, so I wanted to know them in their formative years, and it became harder and harder for me to leave. But then going solo was a scary thing too - something that took a lot of getting used to. But, like I said, performing has always been one of my favourite things in life. So that helped me overcome that."
Smokey's style of songwriting for his first solo album, 1973's 'Smokey', continued his long tradition of writing primarily love lyrics, which he describes as an everlasting subject: "If you write about a dance, about cars or political situations, sooner or later your material sounds passe, dated. But love always has its significance, it never goes out of style and ANYTHING might inspire me. I might see something on television, or be driving down the street and see a road sign, or you might say something to me, and I'd say 'Wow, that'll be a great song'... You know, and if it's a hit I'll give you a credit!", he adds jokingly.
"I look upon it as a gift, because I'm not one of those songwriters who's moody and has to go off to the mountains or the desert and take two months off where I do nothing but write! I'm not like that, I write all the time - probably most days of my lfie I write at least a part of a song, and it just comes, just there. It's just in the air. Everybody has a gift, it's just that some people never discover theirs because they don't pursue it."
SMOKEY ROBINSON: THE M.I.Q. MASTER INTERVIEW (by. A. Scott Galloway)
October 12, 2017
Music Industry Quarterly
In the interview that follows, Music Journalist A. Scott Galloway catches up with a living legend so ubiquitous that the mere mention of four little words from a long lost late-night TV commercial explains all you really need to know when it comes to why the man is so beloved, respected and exalted: “But, Dad…it’s Smokey!”
MIQ: What did winning the recent Library of Congress Gershwin Prize for Popular Song mean to one who has been honored as often as you?
Smokey: All of the honors I have received are special…but with that one we’re talking about George & Ira Gershwin, man – two of the greatest songwriters in the history of music. As a writer, I always try to write a good song but I never dared to dream that I would be receiving the Gershwin Award.
MIQ: In September 2016, you entered into a lucrative partnership with Primary Wave which acquired many of your early Motown songs. It’s been a year since that deal was minted. What has this association accomplished for you?
Smokey: I signed with them because they are a great company. They have so many things going to promote me and my brand. I’m very pleased and excited about being with Primary Wave but I can’t speak on what the catalog has done for as long as they’ve had it. I have meetings with them but we don’t discuss things like which songs are bringing in the most money. We discuss the possibilities of things we may be venturing off into and things that they are doing on my behalf.
MIQ: Anything in development you’re at liberty to share?
Smokey: October 8 has been proclaimed as “Father-Daughter Day.” We’ve created a special greeting card. It’s all about fathers and daughters that don’t have day-to-day communication getting better connection with each other. We’re creating a card with American Greetings using two of my songs, “Get Ready” and “My Girl.”
MIQ: Weren’t “Get Ready” and “My Girl” – both made classics in the `60s by the Temptations – also recently used for yours and your wife Frances’ Skinphonic pigmented skin moisturizing line?
Smokey: That’s right! Those songs work with so many things. A guy can always use “My Girl” for his girl or daughter. And “Get Ready” fits any situation where a man is getting ready to “do this!” (laughter)
MIQ: Earlier this year, you donated a million dollars and musical instruments to Pico Pio Middle School in Arlington Heights, Calif. What inspired you to give such a sizable donation on behalf of music education in that school at this time?
Smokey: For the last 10 years, I have been a real advocate for getting arts back in the school… especially inner-city schools. I’ve spoken before congress about this three times now. Back in the day, most schools had arts programs but to participate, you had to be doing pretty well with your academic studies. Music is such a mainstay of our lives. Even when I perform in countries where English isn’t the primary language, everybody sings the songs – verbatim almost! So, for those programs to be taken away from our kids is an atrocity. Music, dance, acting and all that gives us recreational enjoyment and entertainment needs a future. And the United States – of all the countries with any affluence – is the only one where arts programs are being cut out like this! When I go to Japan or Germany and see kids still taking violin, viola and cello lessons, I want our kids to be up to par and able to get some of those jobs in the future, too.
MIQ: Are you still interested in Pop music of today?
Smokey: I listen to it all the time. I’m still in the music business, so I need to know, hear and feel what they are doing. My radio stays on, especially in my car. You might catch me listening to Bach or Bruno Mars, Nelly or some of Dave Brubeck’s old music. It’s a shame when I hear people say that young artists aren’t making any good music. That’s a lie! I just got off the phone with Alicia Keys a half hour ago and she is one of the greatest songwriters ever!
MIQ: Is there a song you’ve heard in the last year that impressed you in its craft?
Smokey: There’s a lot of those. I love Ed Sheeran’s “The Shape of You.”
MIQ: Regarding the two Christmas albums you recorded with The Miracles, I note that you have re-recorded several of those songs on your new album. “The Christmas Song” (also known as “Chestnuts Roasting On an Open Fire” penned in 1945 by Bob Wells with Jazz singer Mel Torme’ but made famous via three peerless re-recordings by the incomparable Nat “King” Cole) is on all three! What do you hold so special about songs like “Oh Holy Night,” “Santa Claus Is Coming to Town” and “White Christmas?”
Smokey: They’re simply some of my favorites. What we’ve done this time is treated them differently. You’ll be surprised by some of the arrangements.
MIQ: I hear you took “Santa Claus Is Coming to Town” to New Orleans with my man Trombone Shorty!
Smokey: We Rag-timed it, baby! When we started recording this project, I was in my car listening to the radio, I got excited when this Ragtime song came on. I love that New Orleans Funk. While the song was on, I started humming “Santa Claus is Coming to Town” along with it. I thought, “Oh, sh*t! That’s what I want to do!!” I called the producer right away and told him look up this guy’s record so we could pick up that rhythmic pattern.
MIQ: Two songs you recorded for the first time are associated with R&B artists. The first is “Please Come Home For Christmas” written (with producer Gene Redd in 1960) and first recorded on King Records by the late, great singer/pianist Charles Brown.
Smokey: My Mama had that record, man…one of the first Christmas songs I really loved. Some people today only know The Eagles’ version. I say, “No-NoNo, Charles Brown – absolutely!” It’s gutbucket Soul and I stuck close to that Blues ballad feel.
MIQ: The second is a more recent R&B Christmas song that has endured for decades to become a classic: singer/songwriter/arranger Donny Hathaway’s Atco Records 45 “This Christmas” (copenned with Nadine McKinnor in 1970).
Smokey: Donny Hathaway was one of the greatest singers ever. I always loved that song – one of those great Christmas songs that just feels so good. And I knew Donny. Donny and I were cool.
MIQ: You have three original songs beginning with “Christmas Everyday,” possibly the first Motown Christmas song which you recorded on the Christmas with The Miracles LP (Tamla/Motown – 1963). Now you’ve re-recorded it with Folk-Pop’s Us the Duo (husband-and-wife Michael and Carissa Alvarado).
Smokey: That wasn’t even the first Christmas song I ever wrote. I may have written my first one back in high school! Even back then I wrote all the time. But “Christmas Everyday” was the first one I ever recorded. The new version is a little more driving and updated in sound but with the same feeling.
MIQ: “The Night That Baby Was Born” is a true meaning-of-Christmas song that you wrote while “You’re My Present” is more of a romantic, sexy Christmas song for ‘your girl.’
Smokey: The first is a celebration of Christmas Eve. The second is a love song that reminds people that everyone doesn’t always have the funds to buy the biggest gifts but I don’t care about all that because my lady is my present. I’m always writing, man. If I am working on a project for a specific artist, I will write something for them. But I am always writing…a natural occurrence for me.
MIQ: What thoughts float through your mind cruising Pacific Coast Highway, top down, listening to Smokey Robinson & The Miracles’ “The Tracks of My Tears?”
Smokey: It’s a 2-word phrase every time: “Thank God.” Were it not for God’s favor blessing me or His presence in my life, none of this would be possible.
https://www.rockhall.com/inductees/smokey-robinson
Courtesy of the Rock Hall Library and Archive
Smokey Robinson
1987
America’s greatest poet, according to Bob Dylan.
When it comes to Motown titans, Smokey Robinson is second only to Berry Gordy Jr. Not only did he put the company on the map with his gorgeous, passionate ballads, but he also acted as producer, songwriter, talent scout and vice-president.
When it comes to Motown titans, Smokey Robinson is second only to Berry Gordy Jr. Not only did he put the company on the map with his gorgeous, passionate ballads, but he also acted as producer, songwriter, talent scout and vice-president.
Biography
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smokey_Robinson
Smokey Robinson
William "Smokey" Robinson Jr. (born February 19, 1940) is an American singer, songwriter, record producer, and former record executive. Robinson was the founder and front man of the Motown vocal group the Miracles, for which he was also chief songwriter and producer. Robinson led the group from its 1955 origins as the Five Chimes until 1972 when he announced a retirement from the group to focus on his role as Motown's vice president.
However, Robinson returned to the music industry as a solo artist the following year. Following the sale of Motown Records in 1988, Robinson left the company in 1990. He was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1987. Robinson was awarded the 2016 Library of Congress Gershwin Prize for his lifetime contributions to popular music.[1][2]
Early life and early career
Smokey Robinson was born to an African-American father and a mother of African-American and French ancestry into a poor family in the North End area of Detroit. His uncle Claude gave him the nickname "Smokey Joe" when he was a child.[3] He attended Northern High School, where he was above average academically and a keen athlete, though his main interest was music and he formed a doo-wop group named the Five Chimes. At one point, he and Aretha Franklin lived several houses from each other on Belmont; he once said he has known Franklin since she was about five.[4]
Robinson said his interest in music started after hearing the groups Nolan Strong & the Diablos and Billy Ward and his Dominoes on the radio as a child. Robinson later listed Barrett Strong, a Detroit native, as a strong vocal influence. In 1955, he formed the first lineup of the Five Chimes with childhood friend Ronald White and classmate Pete Moore. Two years later, in 1957, they were renamed the Matadors and included Bobby Rogers. Another member, Emerson Rogers, was replaced by Bobby's cousin Claudette Rogers. The group's guitarist, Marv Tarplin, joined them sometime in 1958. The Matadors began touring Detroit venues around this time. They later changed their name to the Miracles.
Career
The Miracles and Motown
In August 1957, Robinson and the Miracles met songwriter Berry Gordy after a failed audition for Brunswick Records. At that time during the audition, Robinson had brought along with him a "Big 10" notebook with 100 songs he wrote while in high school. Gordy was impressed with Robinson's vocals and even more impressed with Robinson's ambitious songwriting. With his help, the Miracles released their first single, "Got a Job", an answer song to the Silhouettes' hit single "Get a Job"[5] on End Records. It was the beginning of a long and successful collaboration. During this time, Robinson attended college and started classes in January 1959, studying electrical engineering.[6] Robinson dropped out after only two months following the Miracles' release of their first record.[6]Gordy formed Tamla Records which was later reincorporated as Motown. The Miracles became one of the first acts signed to the label. In point of fact, they had actually been with Gordy since before the formation of Motown Records.[7] In late 1960, the group recorded their first hit single, "Shop Around", which became Motown's first million-selling hit record.[5] Between 1960 and 1970, Robinson would produce 26 top forty hits with the Miracles as lead singer, chief songwriter and producer, including several top ten hits such as "You've Really Got a Hold on Me",[5] "Mickey's Monkey", "I Second That Emotion", "Baby Baby Don't Cry" and the group's only number-one hit during their Robinson years, "The Tears of a Clown". Other notable hits such as "Ooo Baby Baby", "Going to a Go-Go", "The Tracks of My Tears", "(Come Round Here) I'm The One You Need", "The Love I Saw in You Was Just a Mirage" and "More Love" peaked in the top twenty. In 1965, the Miracles were the first Motown group to change their name when they released their 1965 album Going to a Go-Go as Smokey Robinson & the Miracles.
Between 1962 and 1966, Robinson was also one of the major songwriters and producers for Motown, penning many hit singles such as "Two Lovers",[5] "The One Who Really Loves You", "You Beat Me to the Punch" and "My Guy" for Mary Wells; "The Way You Do The Things You Do", "My Girl",[5] "Since I Lost My Baby" and "Get Ready" for the Temptations; "When I'm Gone" and "Operator" for Brenda Holloway; "Don't Mess With Bill", "The Hunter Gets Captured by the Game" and "My Baby Must Be a Magician" for the Marvelettes; and "I'll Be Doggone" and "Ain't That Peculiar" for Marvin Gaye. After the arrival of Holland–Dozier–Holland and the team of Norman Whitfield and Barrett Strong, he was eclipsed as a top writer and producer for the label, and other Motown artists such as Gaye and Stevie Wonder began to compose more original material. Later in his career, Robinson wrote lyrics and music for the Contours such as "First I Look at the Purse", as well as the Four Tops' "Still Water" and The Supremes' "Floy Joy".The other Miracles, Bobby Rogers,Pete Moore, Ronnie White, and Marv Tarplin collaborated with him as writers on many of these hits, and Pete Moore also doubled as co-producer with Robinson on several of them.
By 1969, Robinson wanted to retire from touring to focus on raising his two children with his wife Claudette and on his duties as Motown's vice president, a job he had taken on by the mid-1960s after Esther Gordy Edwards had left the position. However, the success of the group's "Tears of a Clown" made Robinson stay with the group until 1972. Robinson's last performance with the group was in July 1972 in Washington, D.C.
Solo career
Robinson in concert at the Chumash Casino Resort in SantaYnez, California, 2006
Robinson answered his critics the following year with A Quiet Storm, released in 1975. The album launched three singles – the number-one R&B hit "Baby That's Backatcha", "The Agony & The Ecstasy" and "Quiet Storm". However, Robinson's solo career suffered from his work as Motown's vice president, and his own music took the backseat. As a result, several albums including Smokey's Family Robinson, Deep in My Soul, Love Breeze and Smokin, saw poor promotion and received bad reviews. At this point Robinson relied on other writers and producers to help him with his albums.
Following these albums, Robinson got out of a writer's block after his close collaborator Marv Tarplin, who joined him on the road in 1973 after Robinson left the Miracles, presented him a tune he had composed on his guitar. Robinson later wrote the lyrics that became his first solo top ten Pop single, "Cruisin'". The song hit number one in Cash Box and peaked at number four on the Billboard Hot 100. It also became his first solo number one in New Zealand. Robinson would follow a similar approach with his next album, Warm Thoughts, which produced another top 40 hit, "Let Me Be the Clock", though it didn't repeat the success of "Cruisin'".
In 1981, Robinson topped the charts again with another sensual ballad, "Being with You", which was another number one hit in Cash Box and peaked at number two on the Billboard Hot 100. It also hit number one in the United Kingdom, becoming his most successful single to date. The Gold-plus parent album sparked a partnership with George Tobin and with Tobin, Robinson released his next several Motown albums, Yes It's You Lady, which produced the hits, "Tell Me Tomorrow", "Touch the Sky" and "Essar". In 1983, Robinson teamed up with fellow Motown label mate Rick James recording the R&B ballad, "Ebony Eyes".
In 1987, following a period of personal and professional issues, Robinson made a comeback with the album, One Heartbeat and the singles, "Just to See Her" and "One Heartbeat", which were Top 10 hits on Billboard's Pop, Soul, and Adult Contemporary charts. They were aided by hugely popular music videos. "Just to See Her" won Robinson his first Grammy Award in 1988. The album became one of his most successful ever, selling over 900,000 copies in the United States alone. In the same year, Robinson released One Heartbeat, the UK group ABC released a tribute song, "When Smokey Sings" and he was inducted as a solo artist to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, later igniting controversy as the committee had inducted only Robinson and not members of his group, the Miracles, which Robinson was personally offended by.[8][9] In 2012, however, the committee rectified the mistake announcing that the group would be inducted on their own merit. Though Robinson was not listed as an inductee, he was due to induct his former group at the ceremony in April 2012.
After Motown was sold off to MCA in 1988, Robinson relinquished his position as vice president. Following the release of the album, Love Smokey, in 1990, Robinson left Motown for a deal with SBK Records in 1991. However, the album, Double Good Everything failed to chart. Robinson remained virtually quiet during the nineties (though he would make a notable cameo appearance in The Temptations 1998 miniseries), making a brief comeback in 1999 when he re-signed with Motown and issued the album, Intimate, which included the song "Easy to Love". In 2003, he once again split ties with Motown, releasing the gospel album, Food for the Soul on Liquid 8 Records in 2004. In 2004 Robinson sang the main title theme song "Colorful World" to the American children's animated series ToddWorld for Discovery Kids, TLC and Mike Young Productions. Two years later, Robinson released the standards album, Timeless Love, in 2006 on Universal Records. In 2009, he issued the album, Time Flies When You're Having Fun on his own label, Robso Records. It reached number 59 on the Billboard album chart, his highest showing since One Heartbeat. He subsequently released "Now And Then" in 2010, which peaked at number 131.
Smokey & Friends was released in mid-August 2014. It was an album of duets, including ones with Elton John, Linda Ronstadt and James Taylor. It reached number 12 on the Billboard album chart.
Christmas Everyday (an Amazon Original) is Robinson's 1st Post-Miracles Christmas album, and was released on Nov 10th 2017. In 2018, he appeared on an episode of CMT Crossroads alongside country singer Cam.
Robinson is currently managed by Geffen Management Group, a talent management company founded by Jeremy Geffen, and whose artists under management include Jacob Latimore and the estate of the late singer/songwriter Marvin Gaye.
On July 31, 2018, Robinson appeared as a special guest on the Fox network's show, Shazam as a special guest. [10]
Personal life
Smokey is currently married to Frances Robinson, née Gladney. They were married in May 2002. Robinson married his fellow Miracles member Claudette Rogers in 1959. The couple had two children, son Berry Robinson (b. 1968), named after Motown's first label founder Berry Gordy, and daughter Tamla Robinson (b. 1969), named after the original "Tamla" label set up by Gordy that would eventually become Motown. Robinson has another son, Trey (b. 1984), with another woman, during his marriage to Claudette. After Robinson admitted this, he filed for legal separation and, later, divorce, which was granted in 1986. The Robinsons had separated once before, in 1974, and Robinson conducted an extramarital affair that became the concept of the song, "The Agony & The Ecstasy", later featured on A Quiet Storm.[11]
Robinson has not eaten red meat since 1972.[12] He practices Transcendental Meditation.[12][13] Robinson is notable for having golden green eyes, which he attributes to having been passed down from his French great-grandmother.[14]
"Smokey" nickname
In 2012, Robinson explained:My Uncle Claude was my favorite uncle, he was also my godfather. He and I were really, really close. He used to take me to see cowboy movies all the time when I was a little boy because I loved cowboy movies. He got a cowboy name for me, which was Smokey Joe. So from the time I was three years old if people asked me what my name was I didn't tell them my name was William, I told them my name was Smokey Joe. That's what everyone called me until I was about 12 and then I dropped the Joe part. I've heard that story about him giving it to me because I'm a light skinned Black man but that's not true.[15]
Discography
Awards and accolades
Conductor Zubin Mehta laughs with singers Dolly Parton and Robinson during a reception for the Kennedy Center honorees in the East Room of the White House on Sunday, December 3, 2006.
In 1987, Robinson was inducted to the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame. That same year, he was awarded an individual star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.[16] Smokey Robinson's single "Just to See Her"" from the One Heartbeat album was awarded the 1988 Grammy Award for Best Male R&B Vocal Performance. This was Robinson's first Grammy Award. One year later, in 1989, he was inducted to the Songwriter's Hall of Fame. In 1993, Robinson was awarded a medal at the National Medal of Arts. Two years before, he won the Heritage Award at the Soul Train Music Awards. In 2005, Smokey Robinson was voted into the Michigan Rock and Roll Legends Hall of Fame.[17] At its 138th Commencement Convocation in May 2006, Howard University conferred on Robinson the degree of Doctor of Music, honoris causa. In December 2006 Robinson was one of five Kennedy Center honorees, along with Dolly Parton, Zubin Mehta, Steven Spielberg and Andrew Lloyd Webber.
On March 20, 2009, the Miracles were finally honored as a group with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. Smokey was present with original Miracles members Bobby Rogers, Pete Moore, (Bobby's cousin) Claudette Rogers, and Gloria White, accepting for her husband, the late Ronnie White, whose daughter Pamela and granddaughter Maya were there representing him as well. Smokey's replacement, 1970s Miracles lead singer Billy Griffin, was also honored.[18]
Controversially, original Miracle Marv Tarplin was not honored, against the wishes of his fellow Miracles and the group's fans, who felt that he should have also been there to share the honor. Later, Tarplin did receive his star. He was also inducted with the rest of the original Miracles, Bobby Rogers, Pete Moore, Ronnie White, and Claudette Robinson, into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2012, 25 years after Robinson's controversial solo induction in 1987. He was also awarded Society of Singers Lifetime Achievement Award in 2011.[19]
In 2009, Smokey Robinson received an honorary doctorate degree – along with Linda Ronstadt – and gave a commencement speech at Berklee College of Music's commencement ceremony. In 2015, he was given a BET Lifetime Achievement Award.
In 2016, Robinson received the Library of Congress' Gershwin Prize for Popular Song; and, on August 21, 2016, Smokey Robinson was inducted into the Rhythm & Blues Hall of Fame in his hometown of Detroit, Michigan.
References
- Smokey Robinson named 2016 Gershwin Prize for Popular Song honoree The Los Angeles Times, July 5, 2016
- Smokey Robinson Is The Greatest American Songwriter Deadspin, February 10, 2017
- Stephen Hubbard and Scott Ross, "Smokey Robinson and the Miracle of Salvation", CBN Music. Retrieved October 11, 2014.
- CBS, Steven and Ross, Scott. "Interview with Smokey Robinson." The 700 Club. Retrieved April 12, 2007.
- Gilliland, John (1969). "Show 25 - The Soul Reformation: Phase two, the Motown story. [Part 4]" (audio). Pop Chronicles. University of North Texas Libraries.
- Interview. (2009) An Evening with Smokey Robinson, PBS
- "The Miracles: In the '60s, we loved and lost to this Motown legend's smooth songs (Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Class of 2012)". cleveland.com. Retrieved August 18, 2014.
- "Smokey Robinson". www.rockhall.com. Retrieved October 20, 2009.
- "Rock & Roll Hall of Fame still missing 3 Motown stalwarts | Goldmine Magazine". goldminemag.com. Retrieved November 9, 2011.
- "Smokey Robinson is Special Guest on 'Beat Shazam' Hosted by Jamie Foxx Tonight on FOX | Feeling the Vibe Magazine". blog.feelingthevibe.com. Retrieved 2018-07-31.
- Smokey Robinson Reveals How Infidelity And Drugs Destroyed His Marriage. Ebony. Johnson Publishing Company. May 1989. pp. 150–. ISSN 0012-9011.
- McLean, Craig. "Smokey Robinson interview: 'God saved me from cocaine'". Daily Telegraph. Retrieved September 14, 2014.
- Gluck, Bob. You'll Know When You Get There: Herbie Hancock and the Mwandishi Band. Google Books. p. 229. Retrieved September 14, 2014.
- Sweetingham, By Lisa. "Smokey Robinson interview".
- "Smokey Robinson—A Poet That You Knoweth". Los Angeles Sentinel. Retrieved 14 September 2014.
- "Smokey Robinson". Los Angeles Times.
- https://www.michiganrockandrolllegends.com/mrrl-hall-of-fame/79-smokey-robinson
- "Ella Award Special Events". February 12, 2011. Archived from the original on May 14, 2015. Retrieved May 10, 2015.
- "Ella Award Special Events". February 12, 2011. Archived from the original on May 14, 2015. Retrieved May 10, 2015.
- Christgau, Robert (June 1972). "Smokey Robinson". Newsday.
- Smokey Robinson and the Miracles at Encyclopædia Britannica
- Smokey Robinson interview by Pete Lewis, 'Blues & Soul' December 1992
- Fresh Air interview
- "Smokey Robinson". Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
- Smokey Robinson's page at soulwalking.co.uk
- Smokey Robinson Biography and Update at SoulTracks
- Smokey Robinson at cosmopolis.ch
- Smokey Robinson on IMDb
- Smokey Robinson interviewed on the Pop Chronicles (1969)
Further reading
External links
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A Most Enduring Miracle
by Marc Myers
March 25, 2013
Los Angeles
Asked to sing the very first song he wrote—for his sixth-grade play—Smokey Robinson leaned back on the brown leather sectional sofa in his home's wood-paneled den. "The last verse went, 'Good night little children, good night little children, it's time to go to bed.'" Laughing, he continued: "My mother thought I was George Gershwin. She called people she didn't even know to tell them I had written a song."
With just weeks until the Broadway premiere of "Motown: The Musical"—which traces Berry Gordy's founding of the label in 1959 and his role in the music that followed—Mr. Robinson, 73, was in a reflective mood. Back in the 1960s, Mr. Robinson was a key architect of Motown's crossover sound as a performer, songwriter, producer and company vice president.
ZINA SAUNDERS
As a composer, Mr. Robinson wrote 145 Billboard hits—including 18 No. 1 singles for Motown, such as "My Guy," "My Girl," "Tears of a Clown" and "Get Ready"—ranking him in 10th place (after Carole King) on Record Research's list of post-1955 hit songwriters. As the first Motown act to have a No. 1 single and a million-seller, with "Shop Around" in 1961, Mr. Robinson's Miracles combined cool confidence and energetic optimism to establish the label's winning formula.
Dressed in a thin putty-colored sweater, jeans and trendy black slip-on sneakers with white bottoms, Mr. Robinson had just returned from the Venetian Las Vegas, where he is presenting Human Nature, an Australian vocal group that performs Motown hits. "Berry and I are competitive, but this show has nothing to do with that—the group is just doing Motown songs," he said. "The Motown musical on Broadway is about Berry's life."
Mr. Robinson's Motown career and Mr. Gordy's life have long been intertwined. The pair first met in Detroit in 1957, when Mr. Robinson and his group—known then as the Matadors—auditioned at Brunswick Records, Jackie Wilson's label. "Berry wrote songs for Jackie, so he was there that day," Mr. Robinson said. "The other guys in the room didn't like us much, but Berry followed us out into the hallway and became our manager."
The following year Mr. Gordy insisted on a change. "Berry thought our name was silly, so we all wrote down new ones and put them in a hat. I wrote down 'Miracles.' We were four guys and Claudette [Rogers], so I wanted a name that was light and encompassing—without gender. Miracles was picked."
When Mr. Gordy started Tamla Records in 1959 with an $800 family loan (the label merged with Motown a year later), Mr. Robinson became his right-hand music man. "There were just five of us on the first day," Mr. Robinson said. "Berry sat us down and said we were going to make quality music with great beats and great stories—for black kids, white kids, for everyone. From the start, Motown was a place of fierce competition and collaboration. We all just wanted to make killer music."
Each week, Mr. Robinson had to run the same gantlet as Motown's other writers. Demos of new songs were played at Friday morning meetings, with the best ones assigned to different groups. "Only Berry and the creative people were allowed in. Everyone would listen and offer suggestions to make songs better. To this day, I still bring my new songs to Berry for honest feedback. He'll say, 'Smoke, I dig this' or 'Man, that's garbage.'"
Growing up in Detroit, Mr. Robinson learned about music by listening to the records his mother and two older sisters played from dawn until lights out. "I sang along to everything—from Sarah Vaughan and Ella Fitzgerald to gut-bucket blues, gospel and jazz. In my teens, my vocal idols changed to Jackie Wilson, Sam Cooke, Clyde McPhatter, Frankie Lymon and Nolan Strong—in that order. I'm a high tenor, so they were perfect role models."
Though he sang in his high-school glee club, Mr. Robinson said he did not study music formally—referring to his talents as "intuitive" and "a blessing." "Berry's first wife taught me about notes and chords, so I can read music today. But I'm not fluent to the point where you can show me sheet music and I can sit down and play it. I can't do that."
Mr. Robinson credits his mother with teaching him how to turn a phrase. "My mama often used colorful sayings and rhymes to make a point so we'd think about them and remember what she had said."
The song that put Mr. Robinson and Motown on the map was "Shop Around." "I originally wrote it for Barrett Strong—another Motown artist. His first hit was 'Money (That's What I Want).' What do you do with money? You shop around. I wrote the song in 20 minutes—in a midtempo bluesy style."
But when Mr. Gordy heard the demo, he wanted Mr. Robinson to record it instead. "So I did, but when we released the single, it sort of sat there," Mr. Robinson said. "Two weeks later, Berry called me at 3 a.m. and told me to come to the studio with the Miracles. He wanted us to rerecord it faster—with more punch and urgency. When I arrived, everyone was there except the piano player, so Berry played it. When the new single came out, the record became a smash hit."
Today, Mr. Robinson continues to find inspiration for lyrics in "everyday life"—overheard conversations, radio banter and even billboard ad copy. "I have a method now where I call my voicemail and leave ideas there until I can put them down on paper. You might say something to me during this interview and I'll say, 'Wow, that's a great title.' It happens for me that way."
With Latin America now experiencing a digital-music boom, Mr. Robinson appears to be diversifying. "I've started writing new songs in Spanish, because I want to do a Spanish album. I've been working on my Spanish for the past four years."
In the YouTube age, Mr. Robinson's legacy has already been preserved in digital amber—allowing millions of viewers world-wide to access video clips of his early television appearances. Asked to show this writer a Miracles dance step from a 1961 "American Bandstand" clip of "Shop Around," Mr. Robinson leapt up but was hesitant.
"I think we were just cross-stepping—with a kick and turn like this," he said, demonstrating. "Honestly, though, I'm not the greatest dancer. [Motown choreographer] Cholly Atkins used to say, 'I'm glad you're the lead singer so I don't have to teach you these steps.'"
Mr. Myers writes daily about music at JazzWax.com and is author of "Why Jazz Happened" (University of California Press).
THE MUSIC OF SMOKEY ROBINSON: AN EXTENSIVE VIDEO OVERVIEW, A CROSS SECTION OF RECORDINGS, MUSICAL ANALYSIS AND COMMENTARY, PLUS VARIOUS INTERVIEWS WITH SMOKEY ROBINSON:
