Smokey Robinson

Smokey Robinson
Robinson in concert at the Chumash Casino Resort in Santa Ynez, California, 2006.
Background information
Birth name	William Robinson, Jr.
Born	(1940-02-19) February 19, 1940 Detroit, Michigan, U.S.
Genres	R&B, soul, pop, adult contemporary
Occupation(s)	Singer, songwriter, record producer, record executive
Instrument(s)	Vocals, piano
Years active	1955–present
Labels	Motown, Universal, SBK, Liquid 8, Robso
Website	Official website

William "Smokey" Robinson, Jr. (born February 19, 1940) is an American R&B/Pop 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 also served as the group's 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 stage to focus on his role as Motown's vice president.

However, Robinson returned to the music industry as a solo artist the following year, later scoring Top 10 solo hits such as "Cruisin'" (1979), "Being With You" (1981) and "Just to See Her" (1987). 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.

Early life and early career

Smokey Robinson was born into a poor family in the North End area of Detroit. He was raised by his elder sister and her husband, after his mother died of a brain hemorrhage. His uncle Claude gave him the nickname "Smokey Joe" when he was a child. 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 Diana Ross lived several houses from each other on Belmont; he once said he has known Ross since she was about eight.

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 during an interview with Goldmine as he and Strong shared similar vocals. In 1955, he formed the first lineup of what became the Miracles 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, taking inspiration from the name, "Miracletones".

Career

The Miracles and Motown

Main article: The Miracles

In August 1957, Robinson and the Miracles met songwriter Berry Gordy after a failed audition for Brunswick Records. 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" on End Records. During this time, Robinson attended college and started classes in January 1959, studying electrical engineering. Robinson dropped out after only two months following the Miracles' release of their first record.

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. In late 1960, the group recorded their first hit single, "Shop Around", which became Motown's first million-selling hit record. 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", "Mickey's Monkey", "I Second That Emotion", "Baby Baby Don't Cry" and the group's only number-one hit during their Robinson years, "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 adapt a name change when they were listed as Smokey Robinson & the Miracles on the cover of their 1965 album Going to a Go-Go. Their name change would be confirmed on singles after 1966.

Between 1962 and 1966, Robinson was also one of the in-demand songwriters and producers for Motown, penning several hit singles such as "Two Lovers", "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", "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. His top rank as songwriter and producer dropped after the arrivals of Holland–Dozier–Holland and the team of Norman Whitfield and Barrett Strong, and other Motown artists such as Gaye and Stevie Wonder. He later contributed lyrics and musical composition for the works of the Contours' "First I Look at the Purse", the Four Tops' "Still Water" and The Supremes' "Floy Joy".

By 1969, Robinson had voiced his opinion on wanting to retire from the road to concentrate on raising his two children with his wife Claudette, and also focus on his duties as Motown's vice president. He earned the job by the mid-1960s after Esther Gordy Edwards had left the position and began mentoring Motown acts on Motown's Motortown Revues. However, the late success of the group's track, "Tears of a Clown", caused Robinson to stay with the group until 1972. Robinson's last performance with the group was in July 1972 in Washington, D.C.

Solo career

After a year of retirement, Robinson announced his comeback with the release of the eponymous Smokey album, in 1973. The album included the Miracles tribute song, "Sweet Harmony" and the hit ballad "Baby Come Close". On his 1976 album Thirty Three & 1/3, former Beatle George Harrison featured the track "Pure Smokey" as a tribute to his idol. (Harrison's fellow Beatles John Lennon and Paul McCartney were also fans of Robinson's songwriting.) In 1974, Robinson's second album, Pure Smokey was released but failed to produce hits. Robinson struggled to compete with his former collaborators Marvin Gaye, Stevie Wonder and former Temptations member Eddie Kendricks as all three had multiple hit singles during this period.

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 continued to struggle as Robinson mainly focused as Motown's vice president, rather than work on his own career. As a result, several albums including Smokey's Family Robinson, Deep in My Soul, Love Breeze and Smokin, suffered from dismal promotion and even more dismal reviews from critics. Robinson had by then relied on other writers and producers to help 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 musical composition he had composed on his guitar. Robinson later wrote the lyrics that became his first 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 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, 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. 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. The same year he was inducted, the UK group ABC released a tribute song, "When Smokey Sings".

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 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. 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.

Personal life

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), respectively. 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.

Until the late sixties, Robinson was teetotal, drug-free, a vegetarian and a self-described "health nut". However, by the time he was in his late twenties, Robinson began using marijuana. By the seventies, he was also dabbling in cocaine; however, Robinson said he only used it for recreation. By the early eighties, however, he developed a cocaine addiction. Following the deaths of his father and his close label-mate Marvin Gaye, the demise of his marriage and his own career troubles, Robinson developed an addiction to crack.

Robinson got clean in 1986 after visiting a church under the advice of longtime friend Leon Kennedy. Robinson has said that since the church visit, he has been clean and sober. In 1989, Robinson wrote the memoirs, Inside My Life, in which he opened up about his drug use. In 2004, Robinson married his second wife, Frances Robinson. The couple currently lives in Los Angeles. That same year, his company, SFGL Foods, launched a gumbo brand called "Smokey Robinson's The Soul is in the Bowl Gumbo", which was produced after the release of Robinson's gospel album, Food for the Spirit. Robinson has not eaten red meat since 1972. He practices Transcendental Meditation.

"Smokey" nickname

In a 2000 Entertainment Weekly article, Tom Sinclair wrote that Robinson told reporters that the nickname "Smokey Joe" was given to him by his uncle. Robinson, as a fan of Western films, assumed that this was a "cowboy name for me", until he was later told that smokey was a pejorative term for dark-skinned Blacks. Robinson, who is mainly of African-American and French descent (his maternal great-grandmother is French), remembers his uncle saying to him: "I'm doing this so you won't ever forget that you're black." In 2012, Robinson disavowed the story:

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.

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. Two years 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. 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. 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. However, later, Tarplin did receive his star. He was also finally 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.

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.

Further reading

• Christgau, Robert (June 1972). "Smokey Robinson". Newsday.

External links

• 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 at IMDb
• Smokey Robinson interviewed on the Pop Chronicles (1969)