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Music: Soul/R&B Smokey Robinson

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Rod Stewart owes him his phrasing. Boy bands owe him their steps. And thanks to Smokey's "Quiet Storm" phase, some of us owe him our very existence. Solo or Miracle, pop or soul, Smokey Robinson's honey-kissed vocals made sorrow sound sexy ("Tears of a Clown") and true love sound like heartbreak ("You Really Got a Hold on Me"). Those classics are so effortlessly charming, it's easy to sometimes think of them as quaint little artifacts — Good Time Oldies from a bygone era. But, as Robert Christgau once wrote, "Motown wasn't silly; it was real on its own biracial artistic and economic terms." We're gonna have to second that emotion.

– Stephen Gossett

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