Smokey Robinson & the Miracles

During their twenty-year run as recording artists, the Miracles served as Motown's inaugural ensemble and first million-unit seller while navigating a range of idioms from doo wop to disco. Their career most visibly supplied a showcase for the extraordinary high tenor and skilled songcraft of Smokey Robinson. The ensemble's lush vocal blend surfaced on the 1958 R&B Top Five debut "Got a Job," a Berry Gordy, Jr. production that predated the label's official launch. They soon became consistent hitmakers on the Motown subsidiary Tamla, notching their initial pop Top Ten and R&B chart-topping single in 1960 with "Shop Around." Follow-up successes such as "You've Really Got a Hold on Me," "Ooo Baby Baby," "The Tracks of My Tears," and "Going to a Go-Go"—the last three appearing on the 1965 R&B number one album Going to a Go-Go—plus the Grammy-nominated blockbuster "I Second That Emotion" sustained their visibility through much of the decade. "The Tears of a Clown" delivered a pop chart summit early in the 1970s, after which Robinson departed for a notable solo path and yielded his spot to Billy Griffin. The group advanced with five further Top 40 R&B singles, foremost among them the R&B number one "Love Machine" from the ambitious 1975 concept album City of Angels, itself an R&B chart leader. Their last studio release appeared in 1978, though assorted lineups continued performing; the original roster entered the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 2012.

Preceding the Miracles were the Five Chimes and the Matadors. Formed in Detroit in 1955, the Five Chimes comprised Northern High School classmates William "Smokey" Robinson on tenor, Warren "Pete" Moore on bass, Ronnie White on baritone, plus Clarence Dawson and James Grice. Dawson and Grice exited soon after the start, replaced by cousins Emerson "Sonny" Rogers on tenor and Bobby Rogers on tenor and choreography; the five then operated as the Matadors. Immediately prior to a 1956 audition for Jackie Wilson's manager and creative circle, Sonny Rogers enlisted in the Army, prompting Robinson to recruit Sonny's sister, Matador-ettes member Claudette Rogers on high tenor. Although Wilson's manager Nat Tarnopol deemed the Matadors overly reminiscent of the Platters, attendee Berry Gordy, Jr., one of Wilson's songwriters, soon took over production duties. At Gordy's request the group adopted the name Miracles in 1957. Their Gordy- and Billy Davis-penned debut single "Got a Job," an answer record to the Silhouettes' "Get a Job," reached number five on Billboard's R&B chart in 1958 and was licensed to New York's End label; another End release, Robinson and Gordy's "Money" (also titled "[I Need Some] Money"), appeared shortly afterward.

Modest royalties from these sides led Gordy to found Tamla/Motown in 1959. That year Ronnie White and Smokey Robinson, billed as Ron & Bill, issued the sci-fi novelty "It" on Tamla, while the Miracles delivered "Bad Girl," their first Motown-branded single, which peaked at number 93 R&B. Guitarist and songwriter Marv Tarplin joined before year's end. Following another modest entry, "Way Over There," on Tamla—their home for the next fifteen years—the Miracles achieved mainstream breakthrough in 1960. The Robinson/Gordy composition "Shop Around" topped the R&B chart, reached number two pop, and became Motown's first million seller. Two years later "You've Really Got a Hold on Me" supplied their next R&B number one and pop Top Ten placement. Robinson and Claudette Rogers married in 1963; the following year Claudette ceased live appearances against her preference yet remained on recordings. Additional major hits followed, including "Mickey's Monkey," "Ooo Baby Baby," "The Tracks of My Tears," and "Going to a Go-Go," the latter supplying the title track of the first album credited to Smokey Robinson & the Miracles. Earlier long-players had not entered Billboard's upper LP ranks, yet Going to a Go-Go climbed to number eight overall and led the R&B chart.

By 1967 the group was routinely billed Smokey Robinson & the Miracles. Album success persisted with releases such as Make It Happen, Greatest Hits, Vol. 2, Special Occasion—an R&B number one—and Live! before the decade closed. Among eleven more Top 40 singles stood another R&B chart-topper, the sole Grammy-nominated "I Second That Emotion," alongside the Top Ten R&B and pop track "Baby, Baby Don't Cry." The Make It Happen cut "The Tears of a Clown," co-written by Smokey, Hank Cosby, and Stevie Wonder (whom Ronnie White had discovered), surfaced as a U.K. single in July 1970. Two months later, near its U.K. pop summit, Tamla issued a revised U.S. version that duplicated the feat stateside. Although Smokey had planned to exit as Motown vice president and focus on family, these successes retained him for several more years, yielding four additional studio albums as a unit. Standouts included the 1970 sets What Love Has...Joined Together and A Pocket Full of Miracles, while their final Top Ten R&B hits from the period, "I Don't Blame You at All" and "We've Come Too Far to End It Now," appeared on 1971's One Dozen Roses and 1972's Flying High Together. A six-month 1972 tour concluded that July with Smokey presenting Billy Griffin as successor; the double album 1957-1972, issued five months later, captured the tour's final three shows.

Baltimore native Billy Griffin had sung with Last Dynasty, an NBC talent-contest winner whose recording contract never materialized. A songwriter and budding producer, Griffin had long admired Smokey Robinson before his successful audition to front the Miracles. In April 1973 the revised lineup—now also without Claudette Robinson—released Renaissance, which reached number 33 R&B and number 174 pop. The set was written and produced by more than a dozen Motown associates including Leon Ware, Willie Hutch, Freddie Perren, and Larry and Fonce Mizell, with Smokey credited as executive producer; he began his solo career only two months afterward. Do It Baby arrived in August 1974 and broadened the audience. With fewer collaborators—Ware, Hutch, and Perren among those remaining—and without Tarplin, who departed to continue with Smokey, the album yielded the single "Do It Baby," which climbed to number 13 pop and number four R&B while propelling the parent release to number four on the R&B album chart. Don't Cha Love It and its title track returned the group to the R&B Top Ten early the next year; that project, helmed by Perren and written almost entirely by him with partner Christine Yarian, featured an even tighter circle of contributors.

Later in 1975 the Miracles secured their third R&B number one album with the conceptual City of Angels, alternately lush and funky. Written solely by Billy Griffin and Pete Moore and produced by Moore and Freddie Perren, the narrative followed a heartbroken singer/songwriter pursuing his fame-seeking ex-girlfriend in Los Angeles. Lead single "Love Machine" ascended to the pop summit and became the ensemble's best-selling single, with or without Smokey. Though not issued commercially as a single, "Ain't Nobody Straight in L.A." drew notice for its title, lyrics declaring "Homosexuality is a part of society," and closing dialogue in which male characters seeking a good time decide on a gay bar because "some of the finest women" frequent such venues and "gay people are nice people too." Their final Tamla album, The Power of Music, appeared in 1976. Donald Griffin, Billy's brother, had contributed guitar to City of Angels and formally joined for this follow-up, expanding his role to vocals and co-production. No singles emerged, yet the set peaked only six positions lower on the R&B chart than its predecessor. The subsequent Columbia tenure opened uncertainly when programmers wary of FBI scrutiny avoided the Martin Luther King, Jr.-inspired "Spy for Brotherhood," the lead single from Love Crazy; the track nevertheless became the Miracles' 45th and final Top 40 R&B single.

Following the self-titled second Columbia album in 1978, the group disbanded, allowing Griffin and Moore to concentrate on writing for others. White and Bobby Rogers performed as the New Miracles in the early 1980s alongside David Finley and Carl Cotton. Smokey, Claudette Robinson, and Tarplin rejoined Moore and Bobby Rogers for a medley on the 1983 television special Motown 25: Yesterday, Today, Forever. A decade later White and Rogers revived the Miracles, occasionally featuring Claudette, with new lead Sydney Justin, formerly of Shalamar; Justin had auditioned successfully in the late 1970s but opted for a professional football career lasting until the mid-1980s. Mark Scott eventually replaced Justin, and the two later headed separate performing iterations. In 2012 the Miracles—Moore, White, Rogers, Tarplin, and Claudette—entered the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, introduced by Smokey, who had been inducted twenty-five years earlier. White's and Tarplin's inductions were posthumous; White succumbed to leukemia in 1995, Tarplin to undetermined causes in 2011. Rogers, the longest-serving member, died from diabetes complications in 2013. Donald Griffin, who remained active as a session musician after the late-1970s breakup, including work with Billy Griffin, perished in a 2015 car accident. Moore died from diabetes complications in 2017.