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Smokey Robinson & The Miracles

Smokey Robinson & The Miracles

40 articles

Audio interviews

Smokey Robinson (1977)

Interview by Cliff White, Rock's Backpages audio, November 1977

Smokey goes disco! The great singer-songwriter on producing and recording the soundtrack to the Big Time movie; giving the public what they want; his changing role at Motown; why he left the Miracles; his renewed love of performing; the uniform results of Motown's artist development department... and his current live show.

File format: mp3; file size: 36.2mb, interview length: 37' 45" sound quality: ****

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The Temptations: Hit Was Written in a Car

Interview by Ronnie Oberman, Evening Star, The (Washington DC), 6 March 1964

IT TOOK the help of a "miracle" for the Temptations to come up with their first big hit, 'The Way You Do the Things You ...

The Tymes, Freddie King, Dionne Warwick, Dee Clark, Solomon Burke, The Miracles: Regal Theatre, Chicago IL

Live Review by Guy Stevens, Record Mirror, 4 April 1964

ON STAGE WITH THE R&B LEGENDS ...

Motown: Will 'HITSVILLE U.S.A.' Hit Britain Now?

Report by Norman Jopling, Record Mirror, 13 June 1964

THEY SAY that there's not much chance for American hits here now. But nevertheless the multi-million dollar American label Tamla has scored its FIRST hit ...

Mr. Gordy has a formula for success — 'It is Love'

Profile and Interview by Maureen Cleave, The Evening Standard, 10 October 1964

THE BEATLES have done terrible things to the American record industry. Nobody knows what to record any longer. Should they try to reproduce what is ...

Claudette: Alone among the Miracles

Interview by Maureen Cleave, The Evening Standard, 5 December 1964

CLAUDETTE MUST be one of the few women who got the job when she stood in for her brother. She has been standing in now ...

A Warning To The Tamla-Motown Visitors From Their Biggest Fan!

Interview by Ian Dove, New Musical Express, 19 March 1965

BRITAIN'S Mr. Tamla-Motown — he's Dave Godin, organiser of the Tamla-Motown Appreciation Society — was walking around warning the Supremes, Martha and the Vandellas, the ...

America Hits Back With Tamla Motown Attack

Report by Norman Jopling, Record Mirror, 20 March 1965

IN RETALIATION to the British craze sweeping the States, America launches its biggest-ever campaign to bring back the Yanks into the British charts in the ...

Class and Soul Spell Success For Miracles

Profile and Interview by Carol Deck, KRLA Beat, 11 December 1965

WHEN THE Miracles are performing in a club you don't eat. You don't drink. You don't even think. You just feel. ...

The Other Smokey Robinson — Songwriter

Interview by Loraine Alterman, Detroit Free Press, 14 October 1966

BACK IN 1957 Bill "Smokey" Robinson, then 17, bumped into Berry Gordy Jr. Smokey had a stack of about 100 songs he had written, and ...

Tempo: R&B and Jazz Album Reviews

Review by Jim Delehant, Hit Parader, November 1966

FOR SOME reason, recordings of live rock and roll shows are selling very well. You can hardly hear the music above the enthusiastic audience response ...

Britain's Lulu Looks at America and the Hemlines

Report and Interview by Loraine Alterman, Detroit Free Press, 4 August 1967

TO US LULU is the name of a comic strip character, but to the British Lulu is the name of an adorable 18-year-old pop singer. ...

The Miracle They Call Smokey And How He Climbed from the Ghetto To the Top of His Musical World

Interview by Loraine Alterman, Detroit Free Press, 6 August 1967

IN 1946 AT Dwyer Elementary School in Detroit, a six-year-old first-grader, wearing a pasted-on beard and white high-top shoes, played Uncle Remus in a school ...

Loraine Alterman on Pop Records: A Powerful New Kind of 'Suite'

Review by Loraine Alterman, Detroit Free Press, 8 October 1967

TWO EXCELLENT new albums show how far the best contemporary song-writing and record making has come from the June-moon-spoon days. One is Of Cabbages and ...

Tamla's Miracles Break Through At Last!

Report by Norman Jopling, Record Mirror, 20 January 1968

THE FIRST of the Tamla Motown groups, Smokey Robinson and the Miracles, have finally made it big in the British charts with their runaway transatlantic ...

Smokey Robinson & the Miracles, the Fifth Dimension, Etta James: Long Beach Arena, Long Beach CA

Live Review by Pete Johnson, Los Angeles Times, 19 March 1968

Long Beach Hosts Pop Music Concert ...

Smokey Robinson: The Miracle Of Motown

Interview by Jim Delehant, Hit Parader, April 1968

BILL "SMOKEY" Robinson, the leader of the Miracles, couldn't decide between athletics and engineering. At Northern High School in Detroit (where all the Miracles were ...

Smokey and His Associates Work Hit Parade Miracles

Profile by Mike Gormley, The Ottawa Journal, 31 May 1968

MOTOWN'S MOST VERSATILE ACT ...

Smokey Robinson

Profile and Interview by Michael Lydon, Rolling Stone, 28 September 1968

SMOKEY ROBINSON is the reigning genius of Top-40. Since the Beatles and the Beach Boys dropped out of the single-then-follow-up-album pattern aimed at the AM ...

Smokey Robinson & the Miracles: Special Occasion (Tamla Motown Stereo STML 11089)

Review by uncredited writer, Record Mirror, 18 January 1969

'Yester Love'; 'If You Can Want'; 'Special Occasion'; 'Everybody Needs Love'; 'Just Losing You'; 'Give Her Up'; 'I Heard It Through The Grapevine'; 'Yesterday'; 'Your ...

Smokey Robinson & the Miracles: Mr. D's, San Francisco CA

Live Review by Philip Elwood, The San Francisco Examiner, 6 March 1969

The Soul Shows Through ...

Question-Time with Smokey of the Miracles

Interview by Ritchie Yorke, New Musical Express, 21 June 1969

KNOWING THAT Smokey Robinson is one of the five vice-presidents of the fabulously successful Tamla Motown label, I expected him to be a bustling businessman, ...

Smokey Robinson & the Miracles, Stevie Wonder, Martha Reeves & the Vandellas: Inglewood Forum, Los Angeles CA

Live Review by John Mendelssohn, Los Angeles Times, 9 September 1969

Smokey Robinson Crew Performs in Inglewood ...

Smokey Robinson, Proving That Miracles Still Happen

Interview by Royston Eldridge, Melody Maker, 14 February 1970

WILLIAM 'Smokey' Robinson is the lead singer of the Miracles, vice president of Motown Records and the man Dylan has described as "America's greatest living ...

Smokey and Miracles Used To Record Two Songs in Three Hours

Profile and Interview by Alan Smith, New Musical Express, 15 August 1970

BOB DYLAN once referred to Smokey Robinson as "America's greatest living poet," a statement which is not quite so bizarre as it might at first ...

Smokey Can Do All The Tamla Jobs —

Interview by Ann Moses, New Musical Express, 12 September 1970

– but still finds time for his golf! ...

Do You Really Know What Soul IS?

Comment by Charlie Gillett, Record Mirror, 24 October 1970

I BELIEVE that the sudden rash of hit records by black singers is a flash in the pan, and doesn't mean anything in the long ...

Smokey Robinson & the Miracles, Jr. Walker & the All-Stars, the Chairmen of the Board, Martha & the Vandellas: Olympia Stadium, Detroit MI

Live Review by Dave Marsh, Creem, September 1971

The Motown Variations ...

The Miracle of Smokey Robinson

Profile and Interview by Charlie Gillett, Record Mirror, 25 September 1971

ABOUT twelve years ago, Berry Gordy told Smokey Robinson how to write songs: "Every song should have an idea, tell a story, mean something." Smokey ...

Smokey Robinson & The Miracles: From The Beginning…

Report and Interview by Dave Marsh, Creem, April 1972

SMOKEY IS LEAVING the Miracles. This may mean more to those of us in Detroit, who've watched the Miracles almost, but never quite, make the ...

Smokey Robinson & the Miracles, Al Green, the Whispers: Cow Palace, Daly City CA

Live Review by Philip Elwood, The San Francisco Examiner, 17 June 1972

Smokey Fans Spoil Farewell ...

Smokey Robinson: Motown And Mafia, And Why He's Quitting The Miracles

Interview by Danny Holloway, New Musical Express, 15 July 1972

SMOKEY ROBINSON is a hell of a lot more than just a giant of soul or Motown. For more than a decade, his original and ...

No stop for Old Smokey, all ready to go

Interview by Roy Carr, New Musical Express, 12 May 1973

LOS ANGELES: If we hadn't been formally introduced by a super cool hip slingin' secretary I very much doubt that I'd have recognised Smokey Robinson. ...

Cholly Atkins: The Man Who Put Pep In Soul's Step

Interview by Tom Vickers, Black Music, May 1977

Choreographer Cholly Atkins is the most important figure in the history of black music stage presentation. The choreographer who conceived all those unison spins and ...

Smokey Robinson (1977) [transcript]

Audio transcript of interview by Cliff White, Rock's Backpages transcripts, November 1977

This is a transcript of Cliff's interview with Smokey. Listen to the audio of this interview. ...

Smokey Robinson

Interview by Michael Goldberg, Rolling Stone, 5 November 1987

Motown's slogan was "The Sound of Young America" not "The Sound of Black America." ...

Smokey Robinson & The Miracles: 35th Anniversary Collection

Review by Charles Shaar Murray, MOJO, July 1994

AS FAR AS I KNOW, Smokey Robinson and Frank Zappa never met. However, if they had, five'll getcha ten they'd have ended up talking ...

The T.A.M.I. Show: Rock's Greatest Concert Movie Ever?

Retrospective and Interview by Richie Unterberger, Record Collector, May 2010

Richie Unterberger celebrates a legendary who's who of rock and soul royalty caught live in their prime, and now finally available on DVD. ...

Bob Babbitt, 1937-2012

Obituary by Dave Laing, The Guardian, 18 July 2012

One of the last surviving members of the Funk Brothers, the backbone of Tamla Motown ...

Smokey Robinson and the Art of Pop

Retrospective by Mitchell Cohen, Music Aficionado, August 2019

"I DON'T LIKE you, but I love you." Those eight words, the ones that start off 'You've Really Got a Hold on Me', were the ...

see also Miracles, The

see also Smokey Robinson

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