Smokey Robinson

"America’s greatest living poet"

It’s no small feat to be dubbed “America’s greatest living poet” by Bob Dylan, hardly an outside contender for the title himself, but then Smokey Robinson is truly a songwriter that has united his country in song - all 4000 of them!

Smokey - William to his parents - was born in Detroit in 1940. By the age of 25 he was Vice-President of Motown Records (serving under best friend and founder Berry Gordy), the lead singer of one of the label’s most successful acts, The Miracles, and had penned dozens of hits for most of its roster, including Marvin Gaye, The Temptations and The Four Tops.