"When Smokey sings - I hear violins
When Smokey sings - I forget everything
The front door might slam - But the back door it rings
And Smokey sings" ("When Smokey Sings" - ABC)
There is a new digitaly remastered 52-track Smokey Robinson and the Miracles collection out called Ooo Baby Baby: The Anthology. This double-CD set supercedes all collections that have gone before. All the hits from '58-'72 are here in remixed stereo versions, as well as B-sides, album tracks, and liner notes by Robinson biographer David Ritz.
Smokey Robinson is second only in importance to Berry Gordy in the development of Motown Records, the most important and successful American
musical force of the '60s and early '70s. As a singer with the Miracles (42 pop chart hits) and then as a solo act (24 pop chart hits), Smokey has been the best interpreter of his own classic songs of love and loss. As a songwriter/producer he has been instrumental in the careers of Mary Wells, The Temptations, Marvin Gaye, The Marvelettes, and The Supremes, helping to create a sound undeniably black in origin, but transcendently human in execution.
William "Smokey" Robinson was born in Detroit February 19, 1940, and by age 6 he had written and performed his first song in a school play, Uncle Remus. He sang in the obligatory church choir and listened to all kinds of music, but he especially favored smooth jazz stylist Sarah Vaughan and vocal groups like Detroit's Nolan Strong and the Diablos. At Northern High School, Robinson and his friends (Pete Moore, Ronnie White, Bobby Rogers, and later, Claudette Rogers, who would become his wife) formed their own vocal group, called the Matadors, in 1954.
The Matadors auditioned for Jackie Wilson's manager in the summer of 1957, just after Robinson’s graduation from high school. They failed the audition, "miserably," as Smokey told author Gerri Hershey in her excellent survey of soul music, Nowhere To Run: "We were slinking out of there like dogs when this guy ... introduced himself as Berry Gordy, and he wanted to know where we got this little song we did, 'My Mamma Done Told Me.'"
Robinson had written it, and he had about a hundred others in a notebook. Gordy helped Robinson cultivate his honeyed falsetto and his songwriting. Robinson had a knack for rhyming, but Gordy emphasized continuity: think of songs as stories. He also suggested a name change to the Miracles. The Miracles' first single was Gordy's response to the Silhouettes' "Get a Job," presciently titled "Got a Job." Licensed to George Goldner's End Records, it was released on February 19, 1958, the 18th birthday of both Robinson and Bobby Rogers.
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Article comments
1 - vickie riehle
i just wanted to let smokey robensin know this. my mother roselyn cohen who is or was 78, got to meet him a few months ago in atlantic city, he was aloways her fave, she loved him to death, and meeting him was the biggest thrill at 78 in her life, she also saw him at the count basie thearter a few months ago, and enjoyed that to, my mom was just about blind, and what kept her going was a cd player that i got her with smokey cd, she would listen to these cds, with headphones, she was almost deaf also, for hrs and hrs, i beleive its what act. kepyt her alive so long,she had, multa maloma bone cancer, kidney failer, so at dialisis she listed to his recordings, and a few more illisness, anyway, my mom passed last week, and i just wanted smokey to know that on her dying day she listend to him, she loved him so, and he brought great happyness into her life for sure,shes not even buried yet this sunday is her funeral, but i just had to tell him the joy and the fun that he brought into my moms life, and they she cherisid the time she got to meet him and take a photo with him. just wanted to let you know this. vickie riehle
2 - Evan Skversky
Ihave loved motown for a while now and i love the Tempts. Well, I have a friend who is real good friends with them so I got to meet and bow with them on stage.
3 - Mac Diva
I've been rediscovering some vintage soul, too, Eric. Smokey smoked. And, when you consider his songwriting and production of other acts, it is clear he is an entertainment genius.
It embarrasses me as someone who lived in Philly for years to admit that I had pretty much lost track of Teddy Pendergrass. Someone sent me his "Life Is A Song Worth Singing," CD and I'm blown away. Downloaded a bunch of MP3s by tenacious Teddy and have been enthralled by him for the last several days. Will be buying three of his CDs tomorrow. Have his autobiography on hold at Powell's, too. Stay tuned for the blog entry.
4 - Eric Olsen
Thanks MD, Teddy has been amazingly tenacious and is just plain classic soul - I probably like the blend of uptempo and ballads better with the Blue Notes than solo, but the voice is always there as well as the spirit.
5 - Evan Skversky
Hi my name is Evan and I am a really big fan. I really love Motown. The christmas of 2003 I went to see the Temptations in Oakland. This Christmas I got 2 of The Temptations books and a soul trivia. And also Mr.Robinson, it would be an honir if you could email me a picture . Thankyou for your time. Evan Skversky
6 - Bill Gordon
the MIRACLES are my favorite group of all time. I love the entire group and I think it's a travesty that the ROCK AND ROLL HALL OF FAME didnt induct the entire group . after all , the MIRACLES were the first Motown group.if it wasn't for their sucess ,there would have been no MOTOWN and none of those other groups would have been nearly as sucessful.Yet they have all been inducted , AS GROUPS ,into the HALL OF FAME. BOBBY,RONNIE,PETE,CLAUDETTE,and MARV be inducted too, not just SMOKEY.
7 - Ricky Joe Parkinson
I'm going to see Smokey tomorrow night at Carnegie Hall and I am very excited. I've been a big fan since I was a little kid.
8 - DTYwe1
In the early 1970s, while stationed on Shemaya AB, Aluetain Islands, Alaska, I had one of your APs, I beleive it was entyitled: Crusing. There was one particular song entitled: "If you're ever in the Neighborhood..." However, in my efforts to find that album, or CD and specifically with the above referenced song included thereon, I have had not such luck. Where can I acquire this CD and specifically, the referenced song in?
9 - Bill
The Miracles song you're looking for is on their first lp without Smokey, "Renaissance" from 1973. It has never been issued on CD...You'll have to find a clean copy of the album on EBay or elsewhere and convert it to CD , like I did.