b. Williarn Robinson, 19th February 1940, Detroit, Michigan, U.S.A.
Smokey Robinson was the founding member of the Miracles at Northern High School, Detroit.
In 1955, Robinson became one of the major figures in the local music scene by the end of the Fifties.
That year he met Berry Gordy, who was writing songs for R & B star Jackie Wilson, and looking for local acts to produce.
Berry Gordy took the teenager under his wing.
He produced a series of Miracles singles in 1958 and 1959, all of which featured Robinson as composer and lead singer, and leased them to prominent R & B labels.
In 1960, he signed the Miracles to his Motown Records stable, and began to promote Robinson as a substantial colleague.
In Motown's early days, Smokey was involved in every part of the company's operations, writing, producing and making his own records, helping in the business of promotion and auditioning many of the young hopefuls who were attracted by Berry Gordy's growing reputation as an businessman.
Smokey had begun his career as a producer by overseeing the recording of the Miracles' 'Way Over There', and soon afterwards he was involved with developing the talents of Mary Wells and The Supremes.
Mary Wells soon became Robinson's most successful protogee.
Smokey wrote and produced a series of hit singles for her between 1962 and 1964.
These records, such as 'You Beat Me To The Punch', 'Two Lovers' and 'My Guy', demonstrated his growing confidence as a songwriter.
Although Smokey was unable to turn the Supremes into a hit-making act, he experienced no such failure in his relationship with Motown's leading male group of the mid-60's, The Temptations.
Between 1964 and 1965, Smokey was responsible for the records that established their reputation.
'The Way You Do The Things You Do' set the hit sequence in motion, followed by the ballad 'My Girl' (later equally popular in the hands of Otis Redding), the dance number 'Get Ready', 'Since I Lost My Baby' and 'It's Growing'.
During the same period, Robinson helped to create two of Marvin Gaye's most memorable early hits, Ain't That Peculiar' and 'I'll Be Doggone'.
Throughout the 60's, Smokey combined this production and A & R work with his own career as leader of The Miracles.
He married fellow group member Claudette Rogers in 1959, and she provided the inspiration for Miracles hits such as 'You've Really Got A Hold On Me' and 'Ooh Baby Baby'.
During the mid-60's, Robinson worked with fellow Miracle Ronnie White, and Motown guitarist Marv Tarplin.
As the decade progressed, Bob Dylan referred to Robinson apparently without irony, as 'America's greatest living poet'.
Smokey's lyric-writing scaled new heights on ballads such as 'The Love I Saw In You Was Just A Mirage' and 'I Second That Emotion'.
From 1967 onwards, Robinson was given individual credit on the Miracles' releases.
For the next two years, their commercial fortunes went into a slide, which was corrected when their 1965 recording of 'The Tracks Of My Tears' became a major hit in Britain in 1969, and the four-year old 'The Tears Of A Clown' achieved similar success on both sides of the Atlantic in 1970.
At the end of the decade, Smokey resumed his career as a producer and writer for other acts, collaborating with The Marvelettes on 'The Hunter Gets Captured By The Game', and The Four Tops on 'Still Water'.
Business concerns were occupying an increasing proportion of his time, however, and in 1971 he announced that he would be leaving the Miracles the following year, to concentrate on his role as Vice-President of the Motown corporation.
A year after the split, Smokey launched his solo career, enjoying a hit single with 'Sweet Harmony', an affectionate tribute to his former group, and issuing the excellent 'Smokey'.
The album included the song 'Just My Soul Responding', a piece of social comment about the USA's treatment of blacks and American Indians.
Smokey maintained a regular release schedule through the mid-70's, with one new album arriving every year.
He continued to break new songwriting ground and describing a new genre to a new style of soft soul on 1975's 'A Quiet Storm'.
Singles such as 'Baby That's Backatcha' and 'The Agony And The Ecstasy' sold well on the black market.
His first film soundtrack project, 'Big Time', in 1977, was played extensively on the U.K., Soul Shows.
Smokey returned in 1979 with 'Cruisin', his biggest chart success since 'The Tears Of A Clown' nine years earlier.
Two years later, he gained his first UK number 1 with 'Being With You', a love song that came close to equalling that achievement in the U.S.A.
'Tell Me Tomorrow' enjoyed more Stateside success in 1982, and Robinson settled into another relaxed release schedule that saw him through the 80's on a series of regular small hits and consistent album sales.
Smokey was contributing significantly less new material, however, and his 1988 autobiography, 'Smokey', revealed that he had been battling against cocaine addiction for much of the decade.
Although his marriage to Claudette failed, he returned to full health and creativity, and enjoyed two big hits in 1987, 'Just To See Her' and 'One Heartbeat'.
He returned to recording in 1999 releasing 'Intimacy'.
This album contains, probably, one of his finest moments with 'Easy To Love'.
Voted into the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame in 1988, Smokey Robinson is now one of the senior figures in popular music, a writer and producer still best remembered for his outstanding work in the 60's, but who has seldom betrayed the responsibility of that legacy since then.
Albums:
Smokey (Tamla 1973)
Pure Smokey (Tamla 1974)
A Quiet Storm (Tamla 1975)
Smokey's Family Robinson (Tamla 1976)
Deep In My Soul (Tamla 1977)
Big Time (Tamla 1977)
Love Breeze (Tamla 1978)
Smokin' (Tamla 1978)
Where There's Smoke (Tamla 1979)
Warm Thoughts (Tamla 1980)
Being With You (Tamla 1981)
Yes It's You Lady (Tamla 1982)
Touch The Sky (Tamla 1983)
Blame It On Love (Tamla 1983)
Essar (Tamla 1984)
Smoke Signals (Tamla 1985)
One Heartbeat (Motown 1987)
Love, Smokey (Motown 1990)
Double Good Everything (SBK 1991)
Intimate (Motown 1999)
Food for the Spirit (CNR Records 2004)
Timeless Love (New Doors 2006)
