The Miracles – Mickey’s Monkey

This week’s song choice has been brought about once again by the passing of another one of the soul greats – Mr Bobby Rogers. There may be some of you out there who don’t know of Bobby, but I’m pretty sure all of you will be aware of at least some of his music as he was one of the founding members of The Miracles.

Rogers  was born in Detroit in 1940 – ironically on the exact same day, in the exact same hospital as his future band mate, Smokey Robinson. Together they would go on to form The Miracles – one of Motown’s most successful acts. The release of “Shop Around” in 1960 gave Motown its first big hit – in fact it was the first single to sell one million copies.

As well as performing with The Miracles, Rogers also co-wrote songs alongside Smokey, including The Temptations “The Way You Do The Things You Do”, The Contours “First I Look At The Purse” (a big mod favourite) and some of The Miracles’ own hits.

The song we bring you today is one of my favourite Miracles tunes – it’s not particularly rare, in fact I’d say it’s one of their most well-known songs, but it just sums up for me all that was great about the Motown sound at that stage (1963) For those of you that haven’t seen it, I highly recommend checking out the youtube video of The Miracles performing this on the Ready Steady Go! Motown special in 1965. As well as The Miracles, it also features Stevie Wonder, Earl Van Dyke, Martha & The Vandellas, The Supremes and The Temptations.

R.I.P. Bobby, gone but not forgotten.