Smokey Robinson, The Early Years and Smokey’s First Gig – Rayman’s Trac Two [VIDEO]

Since today is Smokey Robinson Day on Kool, I thought I'd share some of his early days with you. Smokey started with a group called the Matadores while a senior in school. They played school dances, home parties, churches..pretty much any place. A record exec saw them, and offered them an audition. Just before they had their first  audition, one of the members joined the service, so they were one voice short.

Two days before the audition, they decided to include one of the members sister, Claudette, in the group. They failed the audition badly, and on the way out of the studio, a man stopped them and wanted to know where they got the song they sang in the audition. Smokey replied "I wrote it," and produced a notebook with over one hundred songs scribbled inside. The man was Berry Gordy.

Berry Gordy offered to help Smokey smooth out his songwriting skills if the group would allow Gordy to manage them. The first thing Gordy did was change the name from Matadores to Miracles. Gordy got them hooked up with End Records, and their first song "got A Job" went to number one on the r&b charts nationwide. End records sent Gordy his royalty check for $3.19. Gordy was so mad he decided then and there to form Motown, which he did.

Motown had only four employees and worked out of  Gordy's apartment. Money was a problem, and since Gordy had no record distribution set up, they distributed the records themselves, out of Gordy's car. While that didn't work real well, it kept the wolf from the door for awhile.  Smokey cut "Bad Girl" which sold very well, so Gordy leased the distribution rights to Chess Records. Once again he received a paltry royalty check. It wasn't that Chess didn't have the money, more like Chess didn't have any faith in Motown.

Smokey had written a song for Barrett Strong called "Shop Around." Barrett didn't sing the song well enough for Gordy's tastes, and Gordy asked Smokey to record it, which he did, at three in the morning. The song took off, in fact it became huge, and finally the distributors had faith in Gordy and Motown. "Shop Around"  literally put Motown on the map, and now  Smokey and Motown were on their way.

Now that "Shop Around" was zooming up the charts, it was time to hit the road and make some money. Smokey Robinson & the Miracles first gig was with B.B. King, in Ypsilanti Michigan, and from there on to Ann Arbor and Flint. The Flint gig was the worst, in fact it got so bad that fights broke out, Smokey was constantly pushed around, beer bottles and high heel shoes were thrown at the band, ..it became riotous. The situation worsened as the night wore on, and finally Smokey and the band ran out the back door to save their hide. Gordy drove his car  around to the alley, rolled the windows down and opened the doors and the boys jumped in and drove off while the bar gang chased them own the alley. They didn't even get paid for that gig. Such were the early years of Smokey Robinson.