Smokey Robinson

There isn't much of a crucial difference between this and the previous Smokey Robinson & the Miracles collection entitled Anthology, originally issued in 1973 and then on CD with minor variations in 1995. More to the point, perhaps, about 85 percent of the songs on the two-CD set Ooo Baby Baby: The Anthology were also on the more plainly titled Anthology, so the differences are kind of cosmetic. Ooo Baby Baby: The Anthology has all 28 of their Top 40 hits, so someone looking for the essentials, garnished by a good amount of other material that isn't as familiar, will undoubtedly be satisfied. Ooo Baby Baby: The Anthology does have a small but significant edge in the inclusion of the exquisite mid-'60s mid-tempo ballad "Would I Love You," a great 1964 B-side that somehow escaped inclusion on the CD iteration of Anthology.

Scoring over 40 hits in the R&B Top 40 charts, The Miracles started out as the Five Chimes in the mid-'50s while the members were still in high school. The Detroit vocal group consisted of William "Smokey" Robinson, Warren "Pete" Moore, Clarence "Humble" Dawson, Donald Wicker, and James "Rat" Grice. Not too long after the group formed, Wicker and Grice left and were replaced by cousins Emerson "Sonny" Rogers and Bobby Rogers, who both sang tenor, and baritonist Ronnie White was in Dawson's place. The vocal quintet then changed their name to the Matadors, and in 1956 Claudette Rogers joined the band after her brother Sonny Rogers was drafted. The Matadors auditioned for Jackie Wilson's manager, Nat Tarnapol, in 1956. Although Tarnapol wasn't interested, finding the group too similar to the Platters, Jackie Wilson's songwriter Berry Gordy Jr. was, and he soon began producing the band, who now went by the name The Miracles. Gordy produced their first single, "Get a Job," which was issued by the N.Y. label End Records in 1958.