Smokey Robinson Add to My Celebs Age 72 Birthday Feb. 19th, 1940 Born in Detroit, Michigan, USA Height 6' 0 1/2"

Smokey Robinson's Main TV Roles Show Character(s) Dolly Smokey Robi… Celebrity Duets Himself - M…

Main Movie Roles 2006 - Last Holiday 2003 - Hollywood Homicide 2002 - Standing in the Shadows of Motown

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:

• Children, with his first wife 'Claudette Robinson' (qv): Tamla and Berry.
• 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.
• Elected to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1987.
• Uncle of 'Eric West (II)' (qv).
• Received an honorary Doctor of Music degree from Howard University (May 13, 2006).
• He was awarded a Star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame for Recording at 1500 North Vine Street in Hollywood, California.
• He and his singing group, 'The Miracles' (qv), were voted the 32nd Greatest Rock 'n' Roll Artists of all time by Rolling Stone.

Smokey Robinson Photos

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