As a former Features Editor with JET magazine and later as a Senior Editor with EBONY magazine, I greeted Smokey Robinson and interviewed him several times throughout the years.
Just as Motown founder Berry Gordy had his company's headquarters in the little house at 2648 W. Grand Blvd in Detroit. My former boss, publishing magnate John H. Johnson, had the Johnson Publishing Company (JPC) headquarters, which housed EBONY and JET magazines along with Fashion Fair Cosmetics, at 820 S. Michigan Ave. in Chicago.
You name it. Anybody who was anybody visited The House That John H. Johnson Built. From presidents to kings and queens, to music icons, all day, every day there was a new adventure. So, it should come as no surprise that the legendary Robinson--and even Gordy--visited the JPC building often and so did most Motown artists.
However, under new leadership, by 2010 the JPC headquarters relocated and started leasing office space in the 200 S. Michigan Ave. building. It was at this new location when I hosted the last celebrity before I left the company in 2014. That person was Robinson. Gone was Mr. Johnson, who died in 2005, and the 11-story headquarters the JPC family once called home. He and I could only reminisce about what once was.
Fast forward. It was great seeing Robinson on Friday, April 10, at the Genesee Theatre in Waukegan, IL, for his Legacy of Love tour. Before the concert, I was able to present him with a copy of the much-lauded biography It's No Wonder: The Life and Times of Motown's Legendary Songwriter Sylvia Moy about his late Hitsville U.S.A. colleague, who made history as its first female certified in-house songwriter and producer.
When I interviewed some of Moy's male colleagues, including William "Mickey" Stevenson and Eddie Holland, a few years ago while working on the book, they were adamant that she was never a producer and refused to acknowledge her as such. But Robinson, the first person from Motown that I interviewed, revealed otherwise.
"She was one of our top writers and did produce a couple of things," he told me when I interviewed him in March 2022 for It's No Wonder.
So, it was a full circle moment to give him the finished book. As always, he gave me a big smile and a tight hug. I opened the biography to show him a page with the beautiful picture inside that he took with Sylvia back in the 1970s. The 86-year-old flashed an even bigger smile before I asked, "Where were y'all?" Laughing he said, "I can't remember!"
It was also nice to meet photographer Barry Brecheisen. You've seen his celebrity images before, particularly if you watched the celebrated 2019 documentary Hitsville: The Making of Motown.
And for as large as the world is, there's always six degrees of separation. Turns out that Brecheisen knows S'Von, my forever Cardinal Ritter College Prep high school family member and St. Louis native. He is Smokey's longtime pianist and keyboardist. #LionPride #StL #CRCP
S'Von also did work with Kelly Clarkson, Jessica Simpson and Rihanna. You might recognize him from doing voiceover work in various commercials for McDonald's, Anheuser Busch, NIKE, Tom Clancy Video Games and Fat Albert, to name a few.
As I surveyed the audience, there were people of all races and ages, swooning, singing and grooving with Robinson. That was the magic of Motown. It brought people together and it still has that ability from what I witnessed.
Behind his band on the big screen there was a beautiful picture of himself with Stevie Wonder displayed. He shared the story of how Wonder gave him a music track at a Motown Christmas party one year and asked him to see what he could do with it. Being the masterful songwriter that he was, Robinson created the clever, heartfelt 1967 song The Tears of a Clown.
I smiled as I sat and watched Robinson and Wonder's image, listening to Robinson's smooth voice caress every word and marveling at how it has never seemed to change.
I was touched inside knowing that a courageous and relentless woman named Sylvia Moy lived and worked among music greats like Robinson. Because she was one, too.
