YEAR
2012
INDUCTED BY
Smokey Robinson
CATEGORY
Performers
The Miracles could bring audiences to their feet or to tears with their satiny smooth vocals.
The first act in the budding Motown label, the Miracles were pure musicians. They didn’t rely on flash; with their superior blend and songwriting, they didn’t need to.
Bobby Rogers
Claudette Rogers Robinson
Marv Tarplin
Ron White
Warren "Pete" Moore
HALL OF FAME
ESSAY
By Harry Weinger
In the beginning, there were the Miracles.
They were Berry Gordy’s first group, before he started Motown Records. They were his anchor and his talent scouts, the softly urgent choir behind his—and their—ambitions.
William “Smokey” Robinson was the Miracles’ lead singer, their chief songwriter, and eventually their producer. With him, behind him his “partners,” Smokey called them—were Warren “Pete” Moore, a bass singer whom Smokey had known around their Detroit neighborhood since they were 13; Ronald “Ronnie” White, a baritone, a harmony whiz, and intellectual nicknamed “Mr. Exact,” who introduced the group to modern jazz; Robert “Bobby” Rogers, the suave second tenor, lover o f life, and their choreographer; and Claudette Rogers, Bobby’s younger cousin, a soprano/first tenor/alto, smart, cute, their den mother and secretary— and future Mrs. Robinson
