A chance meeting between Smokey Robinson & Berry Gordy at the Brunswick offices in Chicago in 1959 permanently altered the face of R&B music forever. Smokey & the Miracles with future wife Claudette Rogers in the group had just been turned down for a contract where he was told that his group the Miracles was passe but they might be interested in doing something with Smokey & Claudette in a Mickey & Sylvia-style duo. The audition had been heard by Berry Gordy, a fellow Detroit hustler who had written some of Jackie Wilson's early hits. But Berry had big plans to start his own label & the Miracles were the perfect candidates to mold into a clean-cut group acceptable to the white America of the 1960s. Plus Smokey Robinson was a fledgling songwriter with a portfolio of over 100 unfinished songs. The first collaboration was "Got A Job"- the answer record to the Silhouettes 1958 #1 hit "Get A Job". "Got A Job" didn't fare as well but it did get their foot in the door when it was released on End Records in 1959. The first chart record was "Bad Girl" which made it to #93 when released by Chess Records later in the year. The big breakthrough for both the Miracles & Berry Gordy's Tamla Records came in December, 1960 with the #2 up-tempo smash "Shop Around". It took two years before the group scored another hit with "You've Really Got A Hold On Me" which went to #8 late in 1962. The next cross-over hit came in August, 1963 with the infectious dance hit "Mickey's Monkey" which also peaked at #8. Meanwhile, Smokey Robinson had become an integral part of the Motown/Tamla/Gordy family thanks to writing great songs for the Temptations, Mary Wells, the Marvellettes, Marvin Gaye & others while maintaining a hectic schedule touring & recording with the Miracles. He found his groove with the high, mellow sound of "Ooh Baby Baby" in 1965 eventually scoring with such classics as "The Tracks Of My Tears", "I Second That Emotion" & "The Tears Of A Clown". Claudette, who became Mrs. Bill "Smokey" Robinson dropped out of the group in 1967 which had now become known as Smokey Robinson & The Miracles. But this collection contains 22 songs from the formative years of 1959 thru 1964- the most recent song here is "That's What Love Is Made Of" a #35 hit from September, 1964. It traces the development of the Miracles as well as the early history of Motown.