Side 1:

Listen: Shop Around / The Miracles
Shop

Listen: Who’s Loving You / The Miracles
MiraclesWhosLovin.mp3

Side 2:

Listen: Ain’t It Baby / The Miracles
MiraclesAintIt.mp3

Listen: The Only One I Love / The Miracles
The

This UK EP and the US hit single that sparked it, ‘Shop Around’, were released in 1961.

1961! Can you believe it?

Bill Robinson, lead voice and writer for The Miracles, known to the greater populous, we mere mortals, as Smokey Robinson…well it just seems impossible that he started that long ago. His songs and mainstream success with Smokey Robinson & The Miracles being so ubiquitous, seems like yesterday.

Pretty safe question to ask: “Has Smokey Robinson ever written a bad song?” Hmm, maybe not.

For all the great songwriters you or I might name check, this fellow has outdone each and every one when you stop to actually look at his output through the years.

Unquestionably a higher form of life.

Listen: You Really Got A Hold On Me / The Miracles
You Really Got A Hold On Me / The Miracles

I do think The Beatles cover version on a very early US album turned me on to ‘You Really Got A Hold On Me’. Not one for The Beatles after about two minutes into The Rolling Stones ‘Not Fade Away’ in ’64, it must have been their second album at most. Long gone from my collection, I can’t verify. Never mind – it did the job.

Smokey Robinson & The Miracles, as time would eventually refer to them, indeed made many great singles – it’s virtually impossible to pick a favorite. But this I remember as one of those first times in life. I still feel the exact same wonderment with every listen. It has never gone away and there are very few records I can say that about.