Smokey Robinson
Smokey Robinson recorded 37 top 40 Motown hits between 1960 and 1987, including the classics “You’ve Really Got a Hold on Me,” “The Tracks of My Tears,”“ I Second That Emotion” and also two #1 solo singles “Cruising” and “Being with You.” Bob Dylan once pronounced him America’s “greatest living poet,” and through the decades, America has lived in love and heartbreak to the soundtrack of his music.
Founded on devotion and constancy, Smokey Robinson and the Miracles released 15 albums in 15 years on the Motown imprint. Robinson was Vice President of the label from its third year of inception, and released another 16 solo albums until the label was sold to MCA in 1988.
In addition to his own projects, Robinson wrote and produced dozens of hits for other artists, including Mary Wells’ “My Guy” and The Temptations’ “My Girl” and “The Way You Do the Things You Do.” Over the course of his 50-year career in music, Robinson has over 4,000 songs to his credit.
Robinson has received numerous awards including the Grammy Living Legend Award, NARAS Lifetime Achievement Award, Honorary Doctorate (Howard University), and the National Medal of Arts Award from the President of the United States. And he’s also a Kennedy Center Honoree. He has also been inducted into the Rock ‘n’ Roll Hall of Fame and the Songwriters’ Hall of Fame. In 1989, he released a book of his life titled In My Life.
Still a popular entertainer, Robinson continues to perform live, and has made cameo television appearances in countless shows, including Days of Our Lives, The Young and the Restless, Hollywood Homicide, and Later with Jools Holland. He has been a guest judge on American Idol, and performed a medley of his hits with the top six male contestants on the finale of American Idol Season 6 in 2007.
Robinson has been busy as a public speaker and is the spokesman of the Great American Smokeout, which takes place annually one week before Thanksgiving. Exploring new business opportunities, his new line of soul food entrees is called “The Soul is in the Bowl” and can be found in major supermarkets across the country. His food company also services the armed forces.
Last year Robinson put out a new album, Timeless Love, an album of standards about which Rolling Stone proclaimed, “The Motown giant shows everyone how you do a covers album.” During his current “Timeless Love” tour, Robinson continues to thrill audiences around the world with his high tenor voice, impeccable timing, and profound sense of lyric.
