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William Robinson grew up in Detroit’s North End, nicknamed Smokey Joe by his uncle Claude and insisting on the name until age 12. After his mother died when he was 10, he was raised by his sister Geraldine in a household with her husband and 10 children, a few houses from a young Aretha Franklin. In 1957 his group, by then the Matadors, failed a Brunswick Records audition, but Berry Gordy was in the room, and Robinson came with a notebook of 100 songs written in class. He briefly studied electrical engineering in 1959, and Shop Around became the label’s first million-seller in late 1960.

Robinson wrote for the Temptations, Mary Wells, Marvin Gaye and others, produced 26 top 40 hits for the Miracles between 1960 and 1970, and became Motown vice president. He tried to quit touring in 1969, but The Tears of a Clown hit number one in the UK and kept him on the road until 1972. His 1975 album A Quiet Storm gave its name to a late-night radio format, and after writer’s block, Marv Tarplin’s guitar tune became Cruisin’, his first solo top 10. He married Miracle Claudette Rogers in 1959 and they divorced in 1986; he married Frances Gladney in 2002.

• He named his children Berry, after Gordy, and Tamla, after the label.
• He has admitted a year-long affair with Diana Ross that ended largely because she was friends with his wife.
• One Heartbeat brought his first Grammy in 1987, and the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inducted him alone in 1988, adding the Miracles only in 2012.
• In May 2025 four former housekeepers sued him and his wife, alleging sexual battery, assault and false imprisonment from 2012 to 2024 and seeking $50 million; he denies the claims.
• His lawyers filed a $500 million countersuit, and in November 2025 a former car valet and another housekeeper joined the original suit.