The odds are very good you're familiar with Robinson, because he sang many hits, both with his band the Miracles in the 1960s and as a solo artist after that. But this series isn't about Robinson as a performer, it's about Robinson as a songwriter. I have included no performances of Smokey Robinson and the Miracles here, and only one of Robinson solo on a later volume. That means there are lots of songs that were first hits by Smokey Robinson and the Miracles done by other musical acts. Plus, many songs are the ones wrote that were first hits for other acts, almost always other Motown acts.
Robinson, who is alive at the age of 84 as I write this in 2024, was basically one of the founders of the Motown Record company, and one of its most important employees for many years.
Here is the Wikipedia entry about him:
He started his band the Miracle in 1955, but they struggled at first. Then he met Berry Gordy, the future head of Motown Records, in 1957, after a failed audition for another record company. Gordy was impressed by Robinson's vocal talent. But he was even more impressed that Robinson had brought a notebook with over a hundred original songs in it. Gordy had already written a few hits, and became a mentor, teaching Robinson the art of songwriting.
Robinson's music career with the Miracles started to take off. They had their first hit in 1958 (with a song Robinson didn't write). But they really hit it big in 1960 with the song "Shop Around," which was co-written by Robinson, along with Gordy. It hit Number One on one of the U.S. singles charts at the time, and was the first million seller for Motown. Rolling Stone Magazine would later put it on their list of the top 500 songs of all time.
From that time forward, Robinson went from success to success. At first, he was THE main hit songwriter. He wrote lots of hits for other musical acts on the Motown label, especially Mary Wells and the Temptations. But in a few years the Holland-Dozier-Holland team because the most successful songwriters for the company. Robinson still wrote lots of hits every year, but focused more on hits for his own group, the Miracles. By the way, "My Girl," "Ooh Baby Baby," and "Tracks of My Tears" also all made it to the Rolling Stone Magazine top 500 songs list. That's pretty incredible, to write four such songs in a five-year time span!
As I mentioned above, I had to go out of my way to find versions of many Smokey Robinson and the Miracles hits, or this could have looked a lot like a greatest hits album from them, and that's less interesting, in my opinion. So, for instance, I went with a non-hit version of "Shop Around" by Mary Wells from 1961 rather than the big hit version mentioned above from 1960. But note that Robinson wrote many songs with others (though he didn't really have a long-lasting songwriting partner), so some of the Miracles versions show up on Covered albums for other songwriters. For instance, the Miracles version of "Shop Around" appears on the Covered album for Berry Gordy.
I'm too lazy to make a list of exactly which of these songs were hits for the Miracles and which were first hits for others. But there's a paragraph in his Wikipedia entry that lists most of the big hits for others from this time period. So I'm posting it here:
Between 1962 and 1966, Robinson was also one of the major songwriters and producers for Motown, penning many 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", "It's Growing", and "Get Ready" for the Temptations; "Still Water (Love)" for the Four Tops; "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.
Note that some of the songs mentioned there aren't included here because I chose versions with release dates after 1966. So they'll be on the later two volumes.
This album is 53 minutes long.
01 Shop Around (Mary Wells)
02 The One Who Really Loves You (Mary Wells)
03 Two Lovers (Mary Wells)
04 I Want a Love I Can See (Temptations)
05 You Beat Me to the Punch (Mary Wells)
06 Better Un-Said (LaBrenda Ben)
07 You've Really Got a Hold on Me (Beatles)
08 The Way You Do the Things You Do (Temptations)
09 Lucky Lucky Me (Marvin Gaye)
10 My Guy (Mary Wells)
11 My Girl (Temptations)
12 My Smile Is Just a Frown [Turned Upside Down] (Caroline Crawford)
13 When I'm Gone (Brenda Holloway)
14 My Baby (Temptations)
15 Ain't that Peculiar (Marvin Gaye)
16 Don't Mess with Bill (Marvelettes)
17 Operator (Brenda Holloway)
18 It's Growing (Temptations)
19 One More Heartache (Marvin Gaye)
https://www.upload.ee/files/17350552/COVRDSMOKYRBNSN1961-1966Vlum1_atse.zip.html
alternate:
https://pixeldrain.com/u/KDd8E5FS
The cover photo was taken on the set of the "Ready Steady Go" TV show in 1964. It was in color already, so I didn't have to do much to it.
Thanks. Truly a giant.
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