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Smokey Robinson
Age: 69
Height: 6' 0 1/2"
Birth Place: Detroit, Michigan, USA
Born: Feb. 19th, 1940
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Smokey Robinson's Main TV Roles
NOTE: Complete List of Works can be found at
IMDB
BIOGRAPHY: Multi-talented performer/writer/producer Smokey Robinson's career, and life, is inextricably tied up with Motown Records' founder Berry Gordy (his first two children are named Tamla, for the Gordy-owned label Smokey recorded for, and Berry, for Gordy himself). He and Gordy have had a professional and personal relationship since the late 1950s, when Robinson went to work for Gordy's budding musical empire not only as a performer with his group, The Miracles, but also as a songwriter/producer. Robinson and The Miracles began turning out an almost unbroken string of hits in the early 1960s on Gordy's Tamla label (although they had minor hits on a few labels before they signed with Gordy). Robinson's high, warm tenor was perfect for the romantic ballads that he wrote for the group (one of the music industry's most prolific songwriters, Robinson was also such an imaginative one that Bob Dylan once called him "America's greatest living poet"), although they could also do hard, driving dance records (i.e., "Mickey's Monkey"). In addition to his writing/performing/producing chores for The Miracles, Robinson also turned out hit after hit for other Motown acts: Mary Wells (I) ("My Guy"), The Temptations ("My Girl"), and others for The Marvelettesand Marvin Gaye. He left The Miracles to go solo in 1972, and met with even more success, turning out hit record after hit record all through the 1970s and 1980s. He was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1987.
TRIVIA:
- Uncle of 'Eric West (II)' (qv).
- He was awarded a Star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame for Recording at 1500 North Vine Street in Hollywood, California.
- One of the personalities mentioned in the song Genius of Love by Tom Tom Club. The others mentioned were 'James Brown (I)' (qv), 'Bob Marley (I)' (qv), 'Hamilton Bohannon', 'George Clinton (I)' (qv), 'Bootsy Collins' (qv), 'Kurtis Blow' (qv) and 'Lowell 'Sly' Dunbar' (qv) (as Sly and Robbie) and 'Robbie Shakespeare' (qv) (as Sly and Robbie).
- Inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 1990.
- He was awarded the U.S. National Medal of Arts in 2002 from the National Endowment of the Arts.
- Children, with his first wife 'Claudette Robinson' (qv): Tamla and Berry.
- Awarded Kennedy Center Honors in 2006, with 'Dolly Parton' (qv), 'Steven Spielberg' (qv), 'Zubin Mehta' (qv), and 'Andrew Lloyd Webber' (qv).
- Received an honorary Doctor of Music degree from Howard University (May 13, 2006).
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