Five Detroit teenagers who became Motown's first big act

The story starts with five teenagers from Detroit in 1955, singing together as the Five Chimes. Smokey Robinson, Warren “Pete” Moore and Ronnie White had been singing together since around the age of eleven, and all the original members attended Northern High School. They looked up to groups such as Billy Ward and His Dominoes and Nolan Strong & the Diablos.

The name changed more than once. After lineup changes they became the Matadors, with cousins Sonny and Bobby Rogers coming aboard. Sonny left in 1957 to join the United States Army, and his sister Claudette, who had sung with the Matadorettes, joined shortly afterwards. In 1958 the group became the Miracles. Smokey and Claudette married in November 1959, after two years of courtship. A small coincidence runs through the group: Smokey Robinson and Bobby Rogers were born in the same hospital on the same date, February 19, 1940, and did not meet until they were fifteen.

The Miracles were the first successful recording act for Motown Records. They recorded more than 50 chart hits, including 26 Top 40 pop hits and seven Top 10 singles, with “The Tears of a Clown” reaching number one in 1967. From 1965 to 1972 the group was billed as Smokey Robinson and the Miracles. “The Tracks of My Tears” is among the songs still played from that catalogue.

After Smokey, Claudette and guitarist Marv Tarplin left, the rest of the group carried on with singer Billy Griffin. They scored two last Top 20 singles, “Do It Baby” in 1974 and “Love Machine” in 1975, the second a number one, before leaving Motown for Columbia in 1977. The group disbanded in 1978. Smokey was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a solo artist in 1987, which caused controversy because the group was left out. The Miracles were finally inducted in 2012, with Robinson introducing them.