Smokey Robinson Born: Motown's Poetic Genius
Smokey Robinson wrote My Girl for the Temptations in 1964, Ain't That Peculiar for Marvin Gaye, My Guy for Mary Wells, and Tracks of My Tears for himself — all in the same period, in the same room on West Grand Boulevard in Detroit. He was Motown's in-house genius before anyone outside the industry understood what a producer did. Bob Dylan publicly called him America's greatest living poet in 1966. Dylan was not known for hyperbole.
February 19, 1940
86 years ago
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