Mary Wilson thrilled to honor 'Motown Family' member, Music Masters recipient Smokey Robinson
Mary Wilson, pictured at a 2009 appearance, will be in town on Saturday, Nov. 7, to honor her "Motown Family'' friend and mentor, Smokey Robinson, who is the Rock and Roll Hall of Fae's 2015 Annual Music Masters recipient. Wilson and the Supremes were inducted into the Rock Hall in 1988. (Darron Cummings, AP file)
Smokey Robinson: 2015 Music Masters
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- Rock Hall begins final push to honor Music Masters recipient Smokey Robinson
- Annual Music Masters tribute to Smokey Robinson: The week's schedule
- Temptations' Dennis Edwards recalls Smokey Robinson as 'the peacemaker'
- Mary Wilson thrilled to honor 'Motown Family' member, Music Masters recipient Smokey Robinson
- Robert Glasper Experiment to offer new twists on Smokey Robinson songs at Music Masters show
- Berry Gordy Jr.: Motown founder to appear at Music Masters show honoring Smokey Robinson
- Musical director Adam Blackstone determined to get Smokey Robinson onstage for Music Masters show
- Former Destiny's Child member Michelle Williams anxious to honor Smokey Robinson, meet other Motown legends
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CLEVELAND, Ohio – "The Motown Family.''
The phrase crops up over and over in conversations about the Detroit-based machine founded by Berry Gordy Jr. and run with the help of his right-hand man, singer-songwriter-producer Smokey Robinson.
But only those who were there know just how close it really is to being more than a movie catchphrase. Just ask former Supremes alto Mary Wilson, who will be in town on Saturday, Nov. 7, when the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame honors Robinson as the 2015 Annual Music Masters recipient.
Note the word "is.'' Not "was.'' Yeah, Motown is still around, now operating out of Los Angeles. But the label's true heyday was from 1959 to 1972 in the city that gave it its name.
Those who lived that – like Wilson – know just how close "The Motown Family'' is, and it's one reason she agreed to participate in the ceremony honoring Robinson.
"It's always like a family reunion whenever we're together,'' Wilson said in a call to her hotel in Branson, Missouri, where she was performing earlier this fall.
"I just performed with the Four Tops a couple of weeks ago, and the Temptations, too,'' she said. "It's like seeing your cousins.
"You do what you do at family reunions, with conversations like, 'Hey remember that time ... ?' '' she said, laughing.
"We always meet up as if it was just yesterday."
It's a sure bet that some of that "Hey, remember that time'' reminiscing when Wilson and her "Motown Family'' relatives Dennis Edwards and Robinson get to gabbing will have her time-traveling to 1960 and hanging around the Motown offices then.
It wasn't all peaches and cream back in those days -- but for a young Wilson, it was heaven.
"Let me tell you, it wasn't stressful at the time,'' she said. "Motown was a fabulous place to be.
"First, I was a teenager, 16 years old, so all these handsome guys being around was a great thrill,'' she said. "You'd have Marvin Gaye in the corner, playing the piano and singing in his sexy style and asking everybody, 'What do you think about this?' ''
For the Supremes – Wilson, Florence Ballard and eventual lead vocalist Diana Ross -- it was a heady time and place.
"We were trying to get a hit record, so it was an exciting adventure,'' she said. "There was no unhappiness there at all.
"People think there was competition, but the competition was different from trying to beat someone else,'' Wilson said. "It was more about trying to climb up to where everybody else was.''
And in a way, it wasn't that much different than the factories that dominated the Motor City at the time.
"Sometimes, it was about money, but that was secondary,'' she said. "Just as an example, most of the people who were older than we were, were trying keep jobs at Motown and would be there all day.''
Unlike a lot of today's corporate world, there was a sense of togetherness, from founder Gordy to Robinson and on down.
"Smokey was a vice president, but he was still one of us as well,'' Wilson said. "We never thought of him as anything but a singer. He never put on airs.''
That's one reason she jumped at the chance to be part of the Music Masters program.
"I was quite honored, because Smokey is one of the great songwriters and singers of our time,'' she said. "I just happened to know him. It's just a thrill to be able to say something about someone like Smokey.
"You could've asked anyone, and they would have jumped at it,'' Wilson said.
Wilson recalled the Supremes' first audition for Motown. It happened at the home of the woman who eventually married (and later divorced) Robinson, Claudette Rogers.
Ross had known Robinson from their school days and thought maybe he could get them into Motown.
"He invited us over to Claudette's house, and we auditioned for Smokey and the Miracles – all of the guys,'' she remembered. "They had his record out on the radio and here we were, auditioning for the stars.''
It didn't quite work out as planned right then. The girls showed up with guitarist Marvin Tarplin, who'd been backing them, and Robinson was impressed.
"He asked, 'Marvin, can you play this?' 'Marvin can you play that?' '' Wilson recalled. "He played it, and we never saw Marvin again.''
Tarplin became part of Robinson's band and was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame with the Miracles in 2012. Sadly, his induction was posthumous; Tarplin, who co-wrote one of Robinson's biggest hits, "The Tracks of My Tears,'' died a year earlier.
In typical "Motown Family'' fashion, Wilson has no hard feelings about Tarplin "winning'' that Supremes audition.
"The great part of it was Marvin ended up writing a lot of songs with the guys, and we eventually got the meeting with Motown,'' she said.
The Supremes signed with Motown in 1961, and began what was to be a storied career that saw them inducted into the Rock Hall in 1988, just two years after the first Hall of Fame class was enshrined.
And a lot of their success could be attributed to Robinson's songwriting skills, Wilson said.
"I think he's a poet,'' she said. "They're not just straightforward lyrics – they all have a little kind of twist to it, as in poetry. Also, his melodies are very beautiful.''
Because of that – and because Gordy liked to keep the money in-house – there was fierce competition for Robinson-penned songs, she said.
Could a Motown happen again?
"I guess you could, if you had another Berry Gordy,'' she said. "What's needed is someone who could corral a lot of different types of talent together in one house, and then people would come flocking.''
Especially if the "Family'' included another Smokey Robinson.
The phrase crops up over and over in conversations about the Detroit-based machine founded by Berry Gordy Jr. and run with the help of his right-hand man, singer-songwriter-producer Smokey Robinson.
But only those who were there know just how close it really is to being more than a movie catchphrase. Just ask former Supremes alto Mary Wilson, who will be in town on Saturday, Nov. 7, when the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame honors Robinson as the 2015 Annual Music Masters recipient.
Note the word "is.'' Not "was.'' Yeah, Motown is still around, now operating out of Los Angeles. But the label's true heyday was from 1959 to 1972 in the city that gave it its name.
Those who lived that – like Wilson – know just how close "The Motown Family'' is, and it's one reason she agreed to participate in the ceremony honoring Robinson.
"It's always like a family reunion whenever we're together,'' Wilson said in a call to her hotel in Branson, Missouri, where she was performing earlier this fall.
"I just performed with the Four Tops a couple of weeks ago, and the Temptations, too,'' she said. "It's like seeing your cousins.
"You do what you do at family reunions, with conversations like, 'Hey remember that time ... ?' '' she said, laughing.
"We always meet up as if it was just yesterday."
It's a sure bet that some of that "Hey, remember that time'' reminiscing when Wilson and her "Motown Family'' relatives Dennis Edwards and Robinson get to gabbing will have her time-traveling to 1960 and hanging around the Motown offices then.
It wasn't all peaches and cream back in those days -- but for a young Wilson, it was heaven.
"Let me tell you, it wasn't stressful at the time,'' she said. "Motown was a fabulous place to be.
"First, I was a teenager, 16 years old, so all these handsome guys being around was a great thrill,'' she said. "You'd have Marvin Gaye in the corner, playing the piano and singing in his sexy style and asking everybody, 'What do you think about this?' ''
For the Supremes – Wilson, Florence Ballard and eventual lead vocalist Diana Ross -- it was a heady time and place.
"We were trying to get a hit record, so it was an exciting adventure,'' she said. "There was no unhappiness there at all.
"People think there was competition, but the competition was different from trying to beat someone else,'' Wilson said. "It was more about trying to climb up to where everybody else was.''
And in a way, it wasn't that much different than the factories that dominated the Motor City at the time.
"Sometimes, it was about money, but that was secondary,'' she said. "Just as an example, most of the people who were older than we were, were trying keep jobs at Motown and would be there all day.''
Unlike a lot of today's corporate world, there was a sense of togetherness, from founder Gordy to Robinson and on down.
"Smokey was a vice president, but he was still one of us as well,'' Wilson said. "We never thought of him as anything but a singer. He never put on airs.''
That's one reason she jumped at the chance to be part of the Music Masters program.
"I was quite honored, because Smokey is one of the great songwriters and singers of our time,'' she said. "I just happened to know him. It's just a thrill to be able to say something about someone like Smokey.
"You could've asked anyone, and they would have jumped at it,'' Wilson said.
Wilson recalled the Supremes' first audition for Motown. It happened at the home of the woman who eventually married (and later divorced) Robinson, Claudette Rogers.
Ross had known Robinson from their school days and thought maybe he could get them into Motown.
"He invited us over to Claudette's house, and we auditioned for Smokey and the Miracles – all of the guys,'' she remembered. "They had his record out on the radio and here we were, auditioning for the stars.''
It didn't quite work out as planned right then. The girls showed up with guitarist Marvin Tarplin, who'd been backing them, and Robinson was impressed.
"He asked, 'Marvin, can you play this?' 'Marvin can you play that?' '' Wilson recalled. "He played it, and we never saw Marvin again.''
Tarplin became part of Robinson's band and was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame with the Miracles in 2012. Sadly, his induction was posthumous; Tarplin, who co-wrote one of Robinson's biggest hits, "The Tracks of My Tears,'' died a year earlier.
In typical "Motown Family'' fashion, Wilson has no hard feelings about Tarplin "winning'' that Supremes audition.
"The great part of it was Marvin ended up writing a lot of songs with the guys, and we eventually got the meeting with Motown,'' she said.
The Supremes signed with Motown in 1961, and began what was to be a storied career that saw them inducted into the Rock Hall in 1988, just two years after the first Hall of Fame class was enshrined.
And a lot of their success could be attributed to Robinson's songwriting skills, Wilson said.
"I think he's a poet,'' she said. "They're not just straightforward lyrics – they all have a little kind of twist to it, as in poetry. Also, his melodies are very beautiful.''
Because of that – and because Gordy liked to keep the money in-house – there was fierce competition for Robinson-penned songs, she said.
Could a Motown happen again?
"I guess you could, if you had another Berry Gordy,'' she said. "What's needed is someone who could corral a lot of different types of talent together in one house, and then people would come flocking.''
Especially if the "Family'' included another Smokey Robinson.
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