The Miracles - Do It Baby!

[marv2]

By the time the seventies rolled around, the Miracles found themselves without their principle lead sing and songwrite, Smokey Robinson. However, they went on and hit paydirt with a number of nice, comtemporary recordings such as this one......"Do It Baby" from 1974. We loved it

!

[marv2]

What in your opinion made this song work so well for them?

[paladin]

You said it, they were contemporary, maintained their Miracle cool and all the ladies thought Billy Griffin was a cutie. He could also sing his azz off....

Bill was in a similar position as Damon Harris, he was replacing a legend, but in his case he had to carry a group who were always more or less background singers. I think he did a splendid job of filling Smoke's shoes........now that I think about it, they were dam near the only Motown group that celebrated the shift to LA.......

[marv2]

Great observation Paladin and yes Billy proved he was up for the challenge! Looking at this clip now, it reminded me of how the Miracles were able to regain their popularity and maintain it over several years in the 70's. The Miracles [[God Bless them...) look like a group of my uncles trying to dance the latest dance hehehehehe.....

The song[[s) that were chosen for them to record were impeccable and fit the times perfectly. My High School band even performed "Do It Baby" in their half time shows in 1974-75.

[daddyacey]

I think Billy excellently filled the void left by Smoke leaving "Smokey Robinson and The Miracles" in regards to the voice and general sound of "The Miracles /Smokey Robinson and The Miracles". But..."The Miracles/Smokey Robinson and The Miracles" were the same entity ,both composed of two essential parts acting as a team. IMO , the core of "The Miracles/Smokey Robinson and The Miracles" sound was #1a, the lyrical genius of Smokey, #1b the combination of that lyrical genius in tandem with the compositional genius of Marv Tarplin and #2 ,the support of Claudette, Bobby and Pete. Claudette and Marv however is to Smokey and his classic sound as salt is the companion to pepper ,peanut butter is to jelly and heat is to fire. God like creations of the likes of Ashford and Simpson and Marvin and Tammi. When Smokey went solo he still had Marv and he still had Claudette to a certain point ,so his sound still had that characteristic "flavor" of "The Miracles/Smokey Robinson and The Miracles". The Miracles without those 3 important elements however would not have that same flavor. Simply replacing Smokey's /Claudette enhanced voice with Billy's tenor would not preserve the image of the sound associated with the Miracles name. They had to reinvent themselves with an altered sound and alternative material and production sources. Adding to that was the change that had begun in the genre of Soul/R&B and the industry itself towards Dance/Disco. The split of Smokey and The Miracles was a big gamble on both parties part. Smokey on one hand was a master poet ,who could make you dance and was also notorious on composing songs that would without a doubt get you some puttee! His solo period gave us the same quality tracks in intensity, up to at least his first 4 solo projects ,of that of "The Miracles/Smokey Robinson and The Miracles" period. The Miracles "after" Smokey scored big on the first album with Marvins ,I Love You Secretly and McMurray, Fonce and Larry Mizell ,Hal Davis,Frank Wilson and Willie Hutch producing and writing skills and mixed by Russ. But Smokey was there as "executive" producer. This was a good launch off but after that ,the reinvention effort ,not supported by consistant quality material and production along with the change going on in the R&B genre and the buying public not accepting the new Miracles ,sadly were the end of them. The move to Columbia was the nail in the coffin. Unfortunate also was the fact that Billy Griffin should have been able to go on as a successful vocalist ,but never got to move past "Hold Me Tighter In The Rain". The Miracles without Smokey suffered the same death as The Supremes ,without D.R. ,only quicker.

[marv2]

Interesting comments and very insightful Daddy. For me, there never really was much of a gamble on Smokey's part when the decision was made to leave the group. I always knew he'd continue on just fine. Trying to put myself back at that time and my first impression of the "New" Miracles was just so-so at first. They appeared on some local Detroit television show where they introduced Billy and performed "What Good Is A Heart For". I liked the song, I liked Billy's delivery and the Miracles were their usually great selves. But then like a whole year had passed and we heard nothing from them in terms of new singles etc. When "Do It Baby" dropped sometime around late summer, early Fall of 1974 it they sounded like a totally new group to us.

When the group left Motown for Columbia Records and Billys brother took over for Marv Tarplin, I knew it was over for them as well. Billy Griffin definitely should have had a much expansive solo recording career. [[ I chat with him from time to time on Youtube and he is also on Facebook). He will tell you himself that he really did not get the respect he deserved while at Motown from Motown. True he had landed in a gravy position with an already World famous established group, but it was a lot of his work that breathe new life into it.

[tomato tom]

I always thought The Miracles with Billy Griffin, were very underrated at Motown. Everyone Knows Love Machine, but thye did some really great music apart from this IMHO. I love Where Are You Going To My Love from the Do It Baby album for example. The Renaissance album is a favourite of mine. Not yet on CD. Paulo xxx