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"You've Really Got a Hold on Me" is a song written by Smokey Robinson, which became a 1962 Top 10 hit single for the Miracles. One of the Miracles' most covered tunes, this million-selling song received a 1998 Grammy Hall of Fame Award. It has also been selected as one of The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame's 500 Songs that Shaped Rock and Roll. It was recorded by the Beatles for their second album, With the Beatles (1963). Many other musicians also recorded versions.
The Miracles Recorded Live on Stage is a 1963 live album by the Miracles, part of the early 1960s Motown "Live on Stage" series by various artists. The first of three live albums the group released during their career, it features live R&B numbers led by Smokey Robinson along with Bobby Rogers, Ronnie White and Claudette Robinson recorded at either the Apollo Theater in New York or The Regal Theatre in Chicago, Illinois during their 1962 and 1963 tour.. The opener "Mighty Good Lovin'" was selected for various later compilations, while "I've Been Good To You" later appeared in a stereo mix on the 2002 compilation Ooo Baby Baby: The Anthology. The group's live performance of their-then current release, "A Love She Can Count On" contains some of Smokey's greatest ad-libs and is well worth the price of the album.
The Fabulous Miracles is a 1963 album by The Miracles featuring the million-selling Grammy Hall of Fame hit, "You've Really Got a Hold on Me", one of the group's most popular singles. It also features the chart hits "A Love She Can Count On" and "I've Been Good To You", which The Beatles' John Lennon has identified as his favorite Miracles song. Miracles lead singer Smokey Robinson was the principal writer on all tracks, while Miracles members Ronnie White and Bobby Rogers co-wrote with him on several of the album's songs. Although two of the album’s songs, “Won’t You Take Me Back” and “Your Love”, were taken from their debut album Hi... We're the Miracles, all eight new songs were released as either singles or b-sides.
Hi... We're the Miracles is the first album by Motown's first group, The Miracles, released on Motown's Tamla subsidiary label in the summer of 1961. It also has the distinction of being the first album ever released by the Motown Record Corporation The album features several songs that played an important role in defining The Motown Sound and establishing songwriters Smokey Robinson and Berry Gordy.
One Dozen Roses is a 1971 album by Smokey Robinson & The Miracles, issued on Motown Records' Tamla label. The penultimate album before lead singer Smokey Robinson departed the group for a solo career, One Dozen Roses features the Top 20 Billboard Hot 100 hit single "I Don't Blame You at All". Also included is the group's number-one smash hit "The Tears of a Clown", which was also made available through the reissue of the 1967 Miracles LP Make It Happen as The Tears of a Clown. Both of these songs were also huge hits in England, reaching #11 and #1 respectively.
"If You Can Want" is a 1968 single recorded by R&B group Smokey Robinson & the Miracles for Motown Records' Tamla label. Written and produced by Miracles lead singer Smokey Robinson, "If You Can Want" was the most successful of the three singles included on the group's 1968 album Special Occasion. This single just missed the U.S. Top 10, peaking at number 11 on the Billboard Hot 100 in the United States, and was a Top 5 R&B hit, peaking at number three on Billboard's R&B singles chart, and was also a minor hit in England, peaking at number 50 on the United Kingdom singles chart.
"Mickey's Monkey" is a 1963 song recorded by the R&B group The Miracles on Motown Records' Tamla label. It was written and produced by Motown's main songwriting team of Brian Holland, Lamont Dozier, and Eddie Holland, who later went on to write two more Miracles hit singles, the Top 40 "I Gotta Dance to Keep From Crying", and the Top 20 "(Come 'Round Here) I'm The One You Need". This was unusual, as most Miracles songs were composed by the group members themselves.
"I've Been Good to You" is a 1961 R&B song by The Miracles on Motown Records' Tamla label. It was released as the B-side of their Billboard Top 40 hit, "What's So Good About Goodbye", and was included on their album I'll Try Something New the following year. This sad, melancholy ballad charted #103 on the Billboard Pop chart. Despite its relatively modest chart placing, this song has been hugely influential, and is noted as Beatle John Lennon's favorite Miracles tune, and was the inspiration for The Beatles' songs "This Boy" and "Sexy Sadie". Written by Miracles lead singer Smokey Robinson, the song begins with the lyric, "Look what you've done...You've made a fool out of someone..." which Lennon later paraphrased in Sexy Sadie song as, "What have you done...You've made a fool of everyone."
"Way Over There" is a 1960 Motown soul song and single, written by William "Smokey" Robinson, produced by Berry Gordy, and first performed by The Miracles for the Tamla (Motown) label. It was one of The Miracles' earliest charting singles, reaching #94 on the Billboard Pop chart. Motown president Berry Gordy, Jr. had The Miracles record the song several times during its chart run. The first version had minimal orchestration. The second version added strings, and this is the version played by most oldies stations today. Claudette Robinson had several lead parts on this song, answering Smokey's leads with chants of "Come to me, Baby". The song's B-side, "(You Can) Depend on Me", while not charting nationally, did become a popular regional hit in many areas of the country, and Smokey still sings it in his live shows today. "Way Over There" has inspired cover versions by Edwin Starr, The Temptations, The Marvelettes, The Royal Counts, The Spitballs, and Eddie Adams Jr, while "(You Can) Depend on Me" has inspired cover versions by The Temptations, The Supremes, Mary Wells, and Brenda Holloway. The song was also used for the title of Hip-O Select's 2009 compilation: The Miracles – Depend on Me: The Early Albums, which collects the first five LP releases by the group.
"Bad Girl" is a 1959 doo-wop single by The Miracles. Issued locally on the Motown Records label, it was licensed to and issued nationally by Chess Records because the fledgling Motown Record Corporation did not, at that time, have national distribution. It was the first single released on the Motown label – all previous singles from the company were released on Motown's Tamla label. Although The Miracles had charted regionally and on the R&B charts with several earlier songs, including "Got a Job", "I Cry", "I Need a Change", and "(You Can) Depend on Me", "Bad Girl" was their first national chart hit, reaching #93 on the Billboard Hot 100. Written by Miracles lead singer Smokey Robinson and Motown Records' President and Founder Berry Gordy, "Bad Girl" is a sad, remorseful ballad about a young woman, whom Robinson, as the narrator, says "was so good at the start", but who later in the song "is breaking my heart". It is in the popular doo-wop style, as several of The Miracles' songs were during the late 1950s. The record's success, coupled with the distributor's failure to pay Gordy and The Miracles properly for its sales, prompted Robinson to urge Gordy to "go national" with it, meaning that Motown should do its own national distribution of its songs, and eliminate the middleman, to ensure that all money from sales of its records would go directly to the label.
"After All" is a 1960 song written by Smokey Robinson and originally recorded and released by The Miracles on the Tamla label. It was first recorded as an unreleased single by The Supremes for Tamla; it was supposed to be their first single but it was canceled in favor of "I Want a Guy", and their cover wasn't released until it appeared on the 2000 box set, The Supremes. The song is noted for both groups' unusual choices for leads. For the Miracles' version it serves as a rare lead for Claudette Rogers Robinson, instead of the group’s main lead, Claudette's husband, Smokey Robinson. In the Supremes' case it is their only single to feature Barbara Martin singing on lead vocals. Florence Ballard, Mary Wilson, and Diana Ross sing verses, and Martin sings the bridge. "After All" was also later covered by The Marvelettes, in the early 1970s, with group member Wanda Young Rogers as lead. Their version appears on the album The Return of the Marvelettes, and later became the group's belated final single.
"(You Can) Depend on Me", was a 1959 song by Motown Records group The Miracles, which also appeared on the group's first album, Hi... We're The Miracles. It also appeared as the "B" side of the group's hit single, "Way Over There". It was written by Motown Records' President and founder Berry Gordy and Miracles member William "Smokey" Robinson. While not charting nationally, this song was a very popular regional hit tune in many areas of the country, so much so, in fact, that it was included on the group's first greatest hits album, Greatest Hits from the Beginning, and Smokey still sings it, by request, in his live shows today.
The Miracles – Depend On Me: The Early Albums is a 2009 double-CD limited release by Motown Records' original vocal group The Miracles, released through Universal's Hip-O Select imprint to coincide with the legendary Motown label's 50th anniversary. In addition, this collection's release also coincided with The Miracles' being honored with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame on March 20 of that year.
"Point It Out" is a 1969 recording by Motown Records R&B group The Miracles on that label's Tamla subsidiary. This mid-tempo song was a national Billboard Top 40 Pop hit, reaching #37 on the Hot 100, and was a Top 10 R&B hit was well, reaching #4. It was taken from their album "A Pocket Full Of Miracles", and was written by Miracles members William "Smokey" Robinson and Marv Tarplin, along with Motown staff songwriter Al Cleveland.
Four In Blue is a 1969 album by the Motown R&B group The Miracles, issued on the label's Tamla Records subsidiary in the U.S., and the Tamla-Motown label elsewhere in the world,, and was the final Miracles album of the 1960s. It reached #78 on the Billboard 200 pop album chart, and reached the Top 10 of Billboard's R&B Album chart, peaking at #3, despite the fact that no singles were released from this album in the U.S. or the UK.
"(You Can't Let the Boy Overpower) The Man in You" is a 1964 R&B song by the Miracles on Motown Records' Tamla subsidiary label. It was written by Miracles lead singer Bill "Smokey" Robinson, and was produced by Robinson and Motown president/founder Berry Gordy Jr. One of several gospel-styled call and response tunes the group issued in 1964, this song reached number 59 on the Billboard Pop chart, and the top 20 of the Cash Box R&B chart, peaking at number 12. The song was recorded on August 17, 1963, and was the group's first single release of 1964.
We've Come Too Far to End It Now was a 1972 single by Motown Records R&B group The Miracles on its Tamla Label subsidiary (T54220F) and taken from their 1972 album, Flying High Together, the group's final studio album with original lead singer Smokey Robinson. This song charted at #46 on the Billboard Pop Chart, and reached the Top 10 of its R&B chart, peaking at #9.
"A Love She Can Count On" is a 1963 hit single by Motown Records R&B group the Miracles, issued on that label's Tamla subsidiary label. It was taken from their album The Fabulous Miracles, and was the follow-up to the group's million-selling Grammy Hall of Fame inducted tune, "You've Really Got A Hold On Me". The first of three singles released by The Miracles that year, this song was a Billboard Top 40 Pop Hit, peaking at number 31, and missed the Top 20 of its R&B chart by only one position, peaking at number 21.
"Come Spy With Me" (T54145) was a 1967 song recorded by Motown Records R&B group The Miracles, released on its Tamla Records subsidiary label. The B-side of the group's Top 20 hit single "The Love I Saw in You Was Just a Mirage", It was written by Miracles lead singer Smokey Robinson, and was the original titular theme song from the 1967 20th Century Fox feature film of the same name, starring Troy Donahue and Andrea Dromm.
The Miracles Sing Modern was an unreleased 1963 album by Motown Records R&B group The Miracles. It was given the official catalog number of Tamla T234 and was due for release after The Miracles' 3rd album I'll Try Something New, having been mentioned on the sleeve notes of that album. It was intended for release in March 1963. However it was never given an official release date and Motown later decided to shelve the project.
References
- "Happy Landing"- by The Miracles - Song Review from the "Motown Junkies" website
- The Miracles–Depend On Me: The Early Albums liner notes, p. 12.
- Smokey Robinson & The Miracles: The 35th Anniversary Collection [liner notes]. Motown Records
- The Complete Motown Singles Vol. 2: 1962 [liner notes]. New York: Hip-O Select/Motown/Universal Records