Smokey Robinson
Smokey Robinson led the Miracles, wrote songs and produced records for Motown as a vice president of the company from 1961 to 1988, and gave quiet storm its name. He has more than 4,000 songs to his credit, and “Shop Around” was the first Motown single to become a nationwide hit. He received the Kennedy Center Honors in 2006, and in 2016 the Library of Congress honored him as the King of Song with its Gershwin Prize for Popular Song. Rolling Stone’s 200 Greatest Singers of All Time (2023) has him at 23. He is a champion of Music Will, the largest nonprofit music education program in the United States.
William Robinson Jr., born in Detroit on February 19, 1940, grew up in the city’s Brewster housing project and picked up the nickname “Smokey Joe” from his Uncle Claude. In 1955 he formed a vocal group with his schoolmates, the Five Chimes, which became the Matadors and then, once Claudette Rogers joined, the Miracles. In 1958 Robinson met Berry Gordy, who helped the group land a deal with End Records for its first single, “Got a Job,” and Robinson urged Gordy to start his own label. The Miracles became the first act signed to Motown, and “Shop Around” became the label’s first number one on the R&B singles chart.
Through the 1960s the Miracles scored with “The Tracks of My Tears,” “Mickey’s Monkey,” “You’ve Really Got a Hold on Me,” and “Ooo Baby Baby,” and in 1966 the group became Smokey Robinson & the Miracles. He wrote “My Guy” for Mary Wells, “My Girl,” “Get Ready,” and “The Way You Do the Things You Do” for the Temptations, and “Ain’t That Peculiar” for Marvin Gaye. He postponed a planned departure when “The Tears of a Clown,” recorded in 1966, became a major hit in 1970, then left after a farewell tour and began his solo career with 1973’s Smokey. A Quiet Storm (1975) brought two major R&B hits, its title song and “Baby, That’s Backatcha”; “Cruisin’,” from 1979’s Where There’s Smoke, was a Top 5 hit, Being with You (1981) achieved platinum status, and One Heartbeat (1987) produced “Just to See Her,” which won him a Grammy.
The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inducted Robinson as a solo artist in 1987 and again with the Miracles in 2012, and the Songwriters Hall of Fame inducted him in 1990. He received the Recording Academy’s Grammy Legend Award in 1990 and its Lifetime Achievement Award in 1999, and the National Medal of Arts in 2002. Four Miracles recordings, among them “Shop Around” and “The Tracks of My Tears,” are in the Grammy Hall of Fame, and “The Tracks of My Tears” found a place in the Library of Congress’s National Recording Registry in 2008. In October 2022 MusiCares named him and Berry Gordy its 2023 Persons of the Year.
Primary Wave Music Publishing announced its partnership with him in September 2016. He sang on and co-wrote the gold-certified track “Make It Better,” from Anderson .Paak’s album Ventura, and in 2023 he released Gasms, an album of original songs. In 2024 he launched his own SiriusXM channel, Smokey’s SoulTown, and 2025 brought his 85th birthday, the 50th anniversary of A Quiet Storm, and What The World Needs Now, an album of inspirational covers that includes the single “Be Thankful.”
