''Renaissance'' (Tamla T-325L) was a 1973 album by R&B group

The Miracles The Miracles (also known as Smokey Robinson and the Miracles from 1965 to 1972) were an American vocal group that was the first successful recording act for Berry Gordy's Motown Records, and one of the most important and most influential group ...

on Motown Records'

Tamla Motown Records is an American record label owned by the Universal Music Group. It was founded by Berry Gordy Jr. as Tamla Records on June 7, 1958, and incorporated as Motown Record Corporation on April 14, 1960. Its name, a portmanteau of ''moto ...

label, noted as the first-ever album by the group not to feature original lead singer Smokey Robinson on lead vocals. Instead, his replacement, new lead singer,

Billy Griffin William L. Griffin (born August 15, 1950) is an American singer and songwriter. He is best known for replacing Smokey Robinson as lead singer of The Miracles in 1972. Biography Griffin was born and raised in West Baltimore, Maryland. He attende ...

, did the lead vocals on this album.

History

Once Robinson decided to retire from the group to concentrate on his duties as Vice President of the Motown Record Corporation, Miracles members

Claudette Robinson Claudette Annette Rogers Robinson ( Rogers; born June 20, 1938) is an American singer, best known as a member of the vocal group The Miracles from 1957 to 1972. Her brother Emerson "Sonny" Rogers was a founding member of the group, which befor ...

(Smokey's then-wife) and

Marv Tarplin Marvin Tarplin (June 13, 1941 – September 30, 2011) was an American musician, best known as the guitarist for the Miracles from the 1950s through the early 1970s. He was one of the group's original members and co-wrote several of their bigges ...

decided to leave as well. Tarplin, after staying for a year, decided to leave the Miracles and began touring and working with Smokey. Claudette retired to concentrate on raising the couple's two children, Berry and Tamla. The other Miracles,

Bobby Rogers Robert Edward Rogers (February 19, 1940 – March 3, 2013) was an American musician and tenor singer, best known as a member of Motown vocal group the Miracles from 1956 until his death. He was inducted, in 2012, as a member of the Miracles to t ...

, Pete Moore, and

Ronnie White Ronald Anthony White (April 5, 1939 – August 26, 1995), usually referred to as Ronnie White, was an American singer, best known as the co-founder of The Miracles and its only consistent original member. White was also known for bringing Stevi ...

, decided to conduct a nationwide search for a singer to replace Smokey. After auditioning some 60 hopefuls, the group decided on

, a native of

Baltimore Baltimore ( , locally: or ) is the List of municipalities in Maryland, most populous city in the U.S. state of Maryland, fourth most populous city in the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic, and List of United States cities by popula ...

Maryland Maryland ( ) is a state in the Mid-Atlantic region of the United States. It shares borders with Virginia, West Virginia, and the District of Columbia to its south and west; Pennsylvania to its north; and Delaware and the Atlantic Ocean to ...

. In the 2006 Miracles DVD release '' The Definitive Performances (1963-1987)'', Miracles Pete Moore & Bobby Rogers, commented that the group decided on Billy because, in addition to being a great singer, he also demonstrated "some writing ability". Smokey Robinson served as the album's executive producer, and took pains to add, in the album's liner notes, that Billy was ''"a determined young man with a fresh new sound, who is sure to become dynamic in the industry"''. In his answer to "unnamed skeptics" who claimed that The Miracles couldn't make it without him ...his reply was, concerning the new lineup, "All you have to do is listen". ''Renaissance'' included several songs from noted writer-producers....including Marvin Gaye,

Willie Hutch William McKinley Hutchison (December 6, 1944 – September 19, 2005), better known as Willie Hutch, was an American singer, songwriter as well as a record producer and recording artist for the Motown record label during the 1970s and 1980s. Biog ...

Leon Ware Leon Ware (February 16, 1940 – February 23, 2017) was an American songwriter, producer, composer, and singer. Besides a solo career as a performer, Ware was best known for producing hits for other artists including Michael Jackson, Quincy ...

Fonce Mizell The Mizell Brothers were an American record producing team in the 1970s, consisting of Larry Mizell (born February 17, 1944) and Alphonso "Fonce" Mizell (January 15, 1943 – July 5, 2011). They worked together on a string of jazz or R&B albums. ...

Freddie Perren Frederick James Perren (May 15, 1943 – December 16, 2004) was an American songwriter, record producer, arranger, and orchestra conductor. He co-wrote and co-produced songs including "Boogie Fever" by the Sylvers, "I Will Survive" by Gloria Gay ...

Pam Sawyer Pamela Joan Sawyer (born 1938) is a British songwriter/lyricist, who started writing songs in the mid-1960s and whose credits as a co-writer at Motown included " Love Child", " If I Were Your Woman", "My Whole World Ended (The Moment You Left ...

, and others. Griffin proved to be a more-than-capable lead singer, and Bobby, Ron and Pete's vocal blends were among their best. The album's first intended single was "What Is a Heart Good For" which was performed by the group on a July 13, 1973, telecast of

NBC The National Broadcasting Company (NBC) is an American English-language commercial broadcast television and radio network. The flagship property of the NBC Entertainment division of NBCUniversal, a division of Comcast, its headquarters are l ...

's '' The Midnight Special'' which marked the group's first national television appearance with Billy... and was hosted by Smokey himself. The Miracles also performed the song on a June 23, 1973 and a repeat performance on September 28, 1974 telecast of

Don Cornelius Donald Cortez Cornelius (September 27, 1936 – February 1, 2012) was an American television show host and producer widely known as the creator of the nationally syndicated dance and music show ''Soul Train'', which he hosted from 1971 until 1993 ...

' ''" Soul Train"''. Radio began playing the uptempo single (Tamla 54240), when it was inexplicably withdrawn, and replaced with a ballad "Don't Let It End ('Til You Let It Begin)", which, while not a bad song, may have been a poor choice for the group's inaugural single: seen by some as the weakest song in an otherwise very strong album. As a result, "Don't Let It End ('Til You Let It Begin)" only reached #56 Pop, #26 R&B on the '' Billboard'' chart, and without a big hit single to promote it, ''Renaissance'' only reached #174 Pop, #33 R&B on the Billboard album chart. An undeserved fate for an album otherwise filled with potential hits that never saw the light of day as singles, including "Nowhere to Go", a powerful song featuring all of The Miracles on lead vocals, the Willie Hutch written-and-produced "I Didn't Realize the Show Was Over", (Hutch also contributed to Smokey's first Post-Miracles

solo album An album is a collection of audio recordings issued on compact disc (CD), vinyl, audio tape, or another medium such as digital distribution. Albums of recorded sound were developed in the early 20th century as individual 78 rpm records co ...

), and Marvin Gaye's "I Love You Secretly"- a song about inter-racial love. Critics at the time gave the album almost universally positive reviews. However, the group's next album, ''

Do It Baby "Do It Baby" is a 1974 single recorded and released by the Motown R&B group The Miracles. The song was taken from the album of the same name, and written by Motown staff songwriters Freddie Perren and Christine Yarian and produced by Perren. Ba ...

'', based on their #13 million-selling hit single of the same name, would fare far better. While The Miracles' ''Renaissance'' had never been re-issued on CD, several of its songs did appear on the 2003 Motown compilation CD ''The Miracles-Love Machine: The 70's Collection''. However, it was finally released on CD in June 2012 in a CD package, also featuring the Miracles' 1974 ''

'' album.

Track listing

All lead vocals by

except where noted Side One #"What is a Heart Good For" ( Arthur Ross,

) # "If You're Ever in the Neighborhood" (Don Fenceton, Jerry Marcellino, Mel Larson) # "I Wanna Be With You" (

) # "Wigs and Lashes" (

Larry Mizell Larry is a masculine given name in English, derived from Lawrence or Laurence. It can be a shortened form of those names. Larry may refer to the following: People Arts and entertainment *Larry D. Alexander, American artist/writer *Larry Boone ...

) (lead vocals: Billy Griffin,

) # "Don't Let It End ('Til You Let It Begin)" (Christine Yarian,

) (lead vocals: Billy Griffin, Ronnie White; spoken word segment:

) Side Two # "I Love You Secretly" (

Anna Gordy Gaye Anna Ruby Gaye (née Gordy; January 28, 1922 – January 31, 2014) was an American businesswoman, composer and songwriter. An elder sister of Motown founder Berry Gordy, she became a record executive in the mid-to-late 1950s distributing records ...

Elgie Stover Elgie Rousseau Stover (September 12, 1938 – July 11, 2011) was an American songwriter, composer, producer and background singer, most famous for his associations with cousin Harvey Fuqua and Marvin Gaye, co-writing two of Gaye's songs from t ...

, Marvin Gaye) # "I Don't Need No Reason" (

) # "Nowhere To Go" (Clay McMurray, Dennis Jackson, Gary Fears) (lead vocals: Billy Griffin, Pete Moore, Ronnie White, Bobby Rogers) # "I Didn't Realize The Show Was Over" (Richard Hutch,

)

Personnel

- lead vocals *

- baritone backing vocals * Pete Moore - bass backing vocals *

- tenor backing vocals *

- guitar * Smokey Robinson - executive producer *Assorted

Los Angeles Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, largest city in the U.S. state, state of California and the List of United States cities by population, sec ...

studio musicians - instrumentation

Charts

Singles

References

External links

The Miracles-Renaissance at Discogs

{{Authority control 1973 albums">"RENAISSANCE" MEN: a Landmark MIRACLES Album turns 35
{{Authority control 1973 albums
The Miracles albums Albums produced by Smokey Robinson Albums produced by the Mizell Brothers Albums produced by Hal Davis Albums produced by Marvin Gaye Albums produced by Freddie Perren Tamla Records albums