Tag: Smokey Robinson

For sixty years, Smokey Robinson has been the smoothest man in soul music — the velvet tenor, the poet’s pen, the vice president’s polish. But the life behind the voice is anything but smooth. It’s a story of a boy who lost his mother at ten and was raised in a house with ten cousins,…

Read story →

Smokey Robinson calls it his “international anthem” — the most well-known tune he ever wrote, the one that has, in his words, “stood the test of time.” He wrote it about his wife. He meant it for his own group. And then he gave it to five other guys, because he heard something in one…

Read story →

Bob Dylan once called him America’s greatest living poet. John Lennon called him one of his favorite singers. And for three decades, William “Smokey” Robinson Jr. was the velvet-voiced engine room of Motown — writing the songs, singing the songs, producing the songs, and, as vice president of the company, practically running the place. He…

Read story →