Smokey Robinson & the Miracles - Going to A Go-Go (US 1965) & Away We Go-Go (US 1966)

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2 Albums on 1 CD

Going to a Go-Go (1965)
Going to a Go-Go is a 1965 album by The Miracles, the first to bill the group as Smokey Robinson & the Miracles. It includes four of the Miracles' Top 20 hits: "Ooo Baby Baby", "The Tracks of My Tears", "Going to a Go-Go", and "My Girl Has Gone". Primarily produced by Miracles lead singer Smokey Robinson, Going to a Go-Go features compositions co-written by Miracles members Robinson, Ronald White, Bobby Rogers, Pete Moore, and Marv Tarplin. In fact, with the sole exception of the song, My Baby Changes Like The Weather, this entire album was written by The Miracles.

The album also features two important Miracles b-sides, "Choosey Beggar" and "A Fork in the Road". "Choosey Beggar" charted on the Billboard Hot R&B Singles chart at number 35. "A Fork in the Road", on the other hand, did not chart nationally, but proved to be a strong regional hit in several areas of the country and was regularly performed as part of the Miracles' live show.

Though its title track ignited a nationwide fad for go-go music, Smokey Robinson & the Miracles' Going to a Go-Go LP certainly wasn't just a cash-in effort. It's one of the best records the group put out, and the first six songs make for the best side of any original Motown LP of the '60s (granted, all but one are also available on dozens of Miracles compilations). The four biggest hits were among the best in a set of Miracles archetypes: the throwback to the aching '50s doo wop ballad ("Ooo Baby, Baby"), the flashy up-tempo dance song ("Going to a Go-Go"), the dancing-with-tears-in-my-eyes jerker ("The Tracks of My Tears"), and the mid-tempo orchestral epic ("My Girl Has Gone"). "Choosey Beggar" is one of the sweetest of all Robinson's lead vocals, with stunning background work by the rest of the Miracles. Even the album tracks shine, with "All That's Good" and "Let Me Have Some" working as excellent additions to the program.

Away We a Go-Go (1966)
Away We A Go-Go is a 1966 album by Smokey Robinson & The Miracles. The album features the singles "(Come 'Round Here) I'm The One You Need",a Billboard Top 20 Pop hit, written and produced by Holland-Dozier-Holland; and "Whole Lot Of Shakin' In My Heart (Since I Met You)" , written and produced by Frank Wilson. The album uses a different take of "I'm The One You Need" than what was issued on the single.

Also featured are covers of contemporary hits, among them The Temptations' "Beauty Is Only Skin Deep",(which The Miracles actually recorded in 1964, some two years before The Temptations did), Dusty Springfield's "You Don't Have to Say You Love Me, and two Dionne Warwick songs, "Walk On By", and " Don't Know What To Do With Myself". Although not pictured on the cover (or on any Miracles album cover since 1963's The Fabulous Miracles), original Miracles member Claudette Robinson is pictured with the group on this album's back cover.

The follow-up to Going to a Go-Go probably disappointed the teenagers, offering only a few up-tempo dance songs and mostly consisting of odds and ends. It boasted only one pop Top 40 hit, Holland-Dozier-Holland's "(Come Round Here) I'm the One You Need," and never came together the way their classic LPs had. In fact, only four of the songs were Smokey Robinson originals, in part because the Miracles had been so busy on the road. Ivy Jo Hunter, Frank Wilson, and Norman Whitfield took up the slack and contributed material up to par, like the album's other chart entry, Wilson's "Whole Lot of Shaking in My Heart (Since I Met You)." the Miracles also did better than other Motown acts with crossover material; their two Burt Bacharach covers, "Walk on By" and "I Just Don't Know What to Do With Myself," are convincing performances, thanks to Robinson's familiarity with the range required by pop songs. Besides the singles, the other two interesting songs here are their B-sides, both written and produced by the group. Both "Save Me" and "Oh Be My Love" are simply average compositions, but the Miracles make them both winners with thoughtful, caressing performances. 

Biography:
The Miracles were an American rhythm and blues group that was the first successful recording act for Motown Records in the 1960s. Formed in 1955 by Smokey Robinson,Warren "Pete" Moore, and Ronnie White, the group started off as The Five Chimes, changing their name to The Matadors two years later. The group then settled on The Miracles after the inclusion of Claudette Robinson in 1958. The most notable Miracles lineup included the Robinsons, Pete Moore, Ronald White, Bobby Rogers and Marv Tarplin. 

After a failed audition with Brunswick Records, the group began working with songwriter Berry Gordy, who helped to produce their first records for the End and Chess record labels before establishing Tamla Records in 1959 signing the Miracles as its first act. The group eventually scored the label's first million-selling hit with "Shop Around" in 1960 and further established themselves as one of Motown's top acts with the hit singles, "You've Really Got a Hold on Me", "Mickey's Monkey", "Going to a Go-Go", "Ooo Baby Baby", "Tracks of My Tears" , "I Second That Emotion" , "Baby Baby Don't Cry" The Tears of a Clown","Love Machine" and "My Girl Has Gone".

Referred to as Motown's "soul supergroup", the Miracles recorded over 50 chart hits,including 26 Billboard Top 40 hits, 16 of which reached the top 20 ,six top ten singles and a number-one single, "The Tears of a Clown", while Robinson was with the group. Following the departure of Marv Tarplin and the Robinsons, the rest of the group continued with singer Billy Griffin and scored two final top forty singles,the top 20 "Do It Baby" and the number-one hit "Love Machine", before departing for Columbia Records in 1977 recording as a quintet with Donald Griffin, where after a few releases, they disbanded in 1978.In addition,the group also had 26 Top 10 R&B hits,including 4 R&B number ones. The group continued sporadically as a touring unit until the remaining original Miracle, Bobby Rogers, was forced into retirement due to health issues in 2011.

US EP 1966

Initial career and success:
The group that later became The Miracles was formed in 1955 by five teenage friends from Detroit, Michigan, under the name The Five Chimes. Three of the founding members, Smokey Robinson, Pete Moore and Ronald White had been singing together since they each were around the age of eleven. The group, influenced by acts such as Billy Ward and His Dominoes and Nolan Strong & The Diablos, featured Clarence Dawson and James Grice in the original lineup. All five original members attended Northern High School in Detroit. After Dawson quit the group and Grice dropped out to get married, they were replaced by Emerson "Sonny" Rogers and his cousin Bobby and changed their name to The Matadors. Ironically, both Smokey Robinson and Bobby Rogers were born in the same hospital on the same month, date and year, despite not actually meeting each other until they were fifteen. In 1957, Sonny Rogers left to join the United States Army and Claudette Rogers, his sister, who had been singing with the sister group The Matadorettes, joined them shortly afterwards. Following two years of courtship, Robinson and Claudette married in November 1959.

The group auditioned for Brunswick Records in front of Alonzo Tucker, Nat Tarnopol (Jackie Wilson's manager) and one of the label's staff songwriters, Berry Gordy, who remained quiet during the audition. Tucker was unimpressed by the audition, stating that because there was The Platters that "there couldn't be two groups in America like that with a woman in the group." After Tarnopol and Tucker rejected the group, Gordy followed them and soon agreed to work with the group after discovering Robinson's notebook full of songs he had written and had been impressed with Robinson's own singing voice.

UK Promo Single 1965

Gordy recorded their first recording, "Got a Job", an answer song to The Silhouettes' "Get a Job" in January 1958. Gordy shortly thereafter struck a deal with George Goldner's End Records to distribute the single. Before the song was released, the group changed their name to The Miracles, taking it from the moniker "Miracletones", with the "'Tones" taking out. After earning only $3.19 for his production success, Gordy was told by Robinson to form his own label, which Gordy did, forming Tamla Records in 1959. One of the Miracles' first Tamla singles, the ballad "Bad Girl", became the Miracles' first song to chart that October when it was licensed to and issued nationally by Chess Records.

The next Miracles song, "It", was actually credited to "Ron & Bill", in a duet between White and Robinson, and was released on Tamla and nationally picked by Argo Records. Following a dismal reception at the Apollo Theater in 1959, Robinson recruited guitarist Marv Tarplin to join them on a few touring dates after Tarplin played with The Primettes (later The Supremes), with Tarplin officially joining them shortly afterwards. The addition of Tarplin was the random element that made The Miracles "classic lineup" complete .

In 1960, the Miracles reached the charts with the song "Way Over There", which Robinson wrote and based off The Isley Brothers' "Shout". It was released off the Motown label as its first national release. Later that year, the group, returning to Tamla, the group released the song, Shop Around",backed with "Who's Lovin' You" which became the group's first smash hit, reaching number-one on the R&B charts,#2, Pop, on the Billboard Hot 100, and #1 Pop on the Cash Box Magazine "Top 100" Chart, and was the first Motown single to sell well over a million copies. 

UK Single 1965

Both sides of this record became standards for R&B and rock musicians alike for several decades afterwards. As a result of this success, The Miracles became the first-ever Motown act to appear on Dick Clark's "American Bandstand" on December 27, 1960.[ The Miracles had modest success with their next few singles, including "Ain't It Baby", "Mighty Good Lovin'", "Brokenhearted" and "Everybody's Gotta Pay Some Dues", as 1961 continued. During this early period, the group suffered some problems as Robinson caught the Asian Flu and had to be bedded for a month, Claudette Robinson suffered her first miscarriage that occurred after a car accident and Moore was drafted to serve in the United States Army. The group's next charted successes included "What's So Good About Goodbye", and the string-laden "I'll Try Something New".

Mainstream success:
The group reached the top ten again with "You've Really Got a Hold on Me" in 1962, reaching the top ten again with "Mickey's Monkey" the following year. The group's exciting live performances were so well received that they were often referred to as "The Showstoppers".[19] The Miracles' success paved the way for all future Motown stars, and ,as Motown's first group, they would serve as the prototype for all other Motown groups to follow. Their success catapulted them to the position of Motown's top-selling act, making them headliners at the nationwide package Motortown Revue shows,which showcased Motown artists,and that started around late 1962. In addition to penning their own material, Miracles Robinson, White, Rogers, Tarplin, and Moore wrote for many of their labelmates as well. 

UK Single 1966

Motown hits written, but not recorded, by members of the Miracles include songs for the Temptations ("The Way You Do The Things You Do", "My Girl", "Don't Look Back", "Since I Lost My Baby", "It's Growing", "Get Ready", "My Baby"), Mary Wells' ("My Guy", "The One Who Really Loves You", "What Love Has Joined Together", "Two Lovers"), Marvin Gaye ("I'll Be Doggone", "Ain't That Peculiar"), The Marvelettes' ("Don't Mess With Bill", "My Baby Must Be a Magician)", "The Hunter Gets Captured by the Game" , The Contours' ("First I Look at the Purse), and Brenda Holloway's ("When I'm Gone"). Unlike other Motown artists, whose songs were written by staff songwriters, the Miracles were one of the few Motown acts that composed their own songs, adding to the group's already impressive reputation.

Around 1964, Smokey Robinson became Motown's vice president, while the other members of the Miracles also began to work staff jobs with the company. Claudette Robinson retired from the performing stage in 1964 after another miscarriage, her sixth. After Claudette Robinson's departure, The remaining Miracles appeared in The T.A.M.I. Show, a 1964 concert film, released by American International Pictures. that included performances by numerous popular rock and roll and R&B musicians from the United States and England, and filmed and recorded live at the Santa Monica Civic Auditorium on October 28 and 29, 1964. This film also included performances by fellow Motown artists The Supremes and Marvin Gaye, along with Chuck Berry ,Lesley Gore , The Beach Boys , The Rolling Stones , and James Brown and The Famous Flames.

US Single 1966

The Miracles' performance was one of the show's highlights, called " athletically electrifying" by critics. In 1965, the group released their landmark Top 10 album, Going to a Go-Go, under the moniker, Smokey Robinson and The Miracles. This album launched four top 20 singles on the Billboard Hot 100, including "Tracks of My Tears", "Ooo Baby Baby", "Going to a Go-Go" and "My Girl Has Gone", all of which became top ten R&B hit singles as well. During this period, their music had also made its way abroad influencing several British groups along the way. The effects of this influence became even more pronounced when The Beatles , The Hollies, The Zombies, The Who, and The Rolling Stones all began recording covers of Miracles' hits.Members of The Beatles, in particular,publicly stated that the music of The Miracles greatly influenced their own.

Around this time, the group had begun performing in nightclubs and other high-profile venues after years on the chitlin' circuit. According to an Ebony article on the group, the group began grossing $150,000 a year due to royalties and personal investments. They also were making between $100,000 and $250,000 for nightly shows. The Miracles' success continued with several hits including "(Come 'Round Here) I'm the One You Need", "Special Occasion" , "If You Can Want",and the Top 10 hits "I Second That Emotion",and "Baby Baby Don't Cry". Around this time, the group was starting to be billed as Smokey Robinson & The Miracles on several of their albums. The name change didn't appear on their singles until the release of "The Love I Saw in You Was Just a Mirage", a Top 20 hit released in 1967.On that song's flipside was the tune"Come Spy with Me". The Miracles sang the original theme to the 1967 20th Century Fox film of the same name. 

US Single 1966

Due to constant changes in the music industry and Motown, however, by 1969, Smokey Robinson sought to leave the Miracles and the stage, to settle for continued work as Motown's vice president as well as become more of a family man to his wife and children. Robinson's plans however were thwarted after the Miracles' 1967 song, "Tears of a Clown", was released in 1970, and became a number-one hit in the U.K. It was subsequently released in the U.S., where it duplicated it's U.K. success, reaching #1 on the Billboard Hot 100 Pop Chart.As a result, Robinson decided to stay with the group for another two years .In 1970, the group were given their own ABC television special, The Smokey Robinson Show, which starred The Miracles, with guest stars The Supremes , The Temptations , Stevie Wonder, and Fran Jeffries. In 1971, they scored one more top 20 hit with 1971's "I Don't Blame You At All". In 1972, Robinson made good on his promise to leave the Miracles, starting a six-month tour which ended in July at Washington, D.C., later introducing Billy Griffin as his official replacement. Within a year afterwards, Marv Tarplin also decided to leave the group and continued working with Robinson on his solo material,while Claudette, who had essentially retired from the Miracles' live performances when her husband Smokey did, retired from recording with them,as well.


Smokey Robinson & the Miracles - Going to A Go-Go (US 1965)
01."The Tracks of My Tears" (Warren Moore, Smokey Robinson, Marvin Tarplin) – 2:55 
02."Going to a Go-Go" (Moore, Robinson, Robert Rogers, Tarplin) – 2:46 
03."Ooo Baby Baby" (Moore, Robinson) – 2:45 
04."My Girl Has Gone" (Moore, Robinson, Tarplin, Ronald White) – 2:50 
05."In Case You Need Love" (Robinson) – 2:47 
06."Choosey Beggar" (Moore, Robinson) – 2:33 
07."Since You Won My Heart" (Robinson, William "Mickey" Stevenson) – 2:16 
08."From Head to Toe" (Robinson) – 2:25 
09."All That's Good" (Moore, Robinson) – 3:12 
10."My Baby Changes Like the Weather" (Hal Davis, Frank Wilson) – 2:47 
11."Let Me Have Some" - (Robinson, Rogers) – 3:07 
12. "A Fork in the Road" (Moore, Robinson, White) – 3:26 

Smokey Robinson & the Miracles - Away We Go-Go (US 1966)
13."Whole Lot Of Shakin' In My Heart (Since I Met You)" (Frank Wilson) 
14."You Don't Have to Say You Love Me" (Pino Donaggio, Simon Napier-Bell, Vicki Wickham, Vito Pallavicini) 
15."(Come 'Round Here) I'm The One You Need" (Holland-Dozier-Holland) 
16."Save Me" (Smokey Robinson, Robert Rogers, Warren Moore) 
17."Oh Be My Love" (Robinson, Moore) 
18."Can You Love a Poor Boy" (Ivy Jo Hunter, Stevie Wonder) 
19."Beauty is Only Skin Deep" (Norman Whitfield, Edward Holland, Jr.) 
20."I Just Don't Know What to Do with Myself" (Burt Bacharach, Hal David) 
21."Baby Baby" (Helen Lewis, Kay Lewis) 
22."Walk On By" (Burt Bacharach, Hal David) 
23."Swept for You Baby" (Robinson) 
24."More, More, More of Your Love" (Robinson)

Bonus:
25."It's Fantastic" [Stereo Mix] 
26."Goin' Out of My Head" [Stereo Mix]
27."A Fork in the Road" [Live]

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A photo from the kickoff of 1965’s Tamla-Motown UK Tour: The Supremes, Smokey Robinson & The Miracles, Martha and the Vandellas, and Earl Van Dyke Sextet.