As excitement builds on Broadway for the opening of “Motown: The Musical,” news for real-life Motown singers over the past few weeks has been far more somber.
Bobby Rogers, a founding member of the Miracles, died Sunday at his Southfield, Mich., home. He was 73.
That followed the death last Wednesday of Richard Street, a long-time second generation member of the Temptations.
Street, 70, died in a Las Vegas hospital from a blood clot in his lung.
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He was the second member of the 1970s Temptations to die recently. Damon Harris passed away Feb. 18 in Baltimore of prostate cancer. He was 62.
While these artists were not the most famous in the Motown stable, they played a significant role in creating some of the music that made Motown an American musical institution and a ripe subject for a Broadway show.
Rogers cowrote a number of songs with his fellow Miracle Smokey Robinson, including the Temptations’ breakthrough hit “The Way You Do the Things You Do” and the Miracles’ dance anthem “Goin’ To a Go-Go.”
Besides his many years with the Miracles, he sang on Marvin Gaye’s “What’s Going On.”
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Rogers was a founding member of the Miracles in 1956 with Robinson, Pete Moore, Ronnie White and his cousin Claudette, who later married Robinson.
At first they sang in 1950s style, but they soon added the “soul” flavor that nudged vocal group music into the ‘60s.
Their first hit, “Shop Around,” was one of the seminal records in that evolving sound.
Rogers was widely known for his cheerful disposition.
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“People always commented on the tall one with the glasses,” his cousin Claudette told the Detroit Free Press. “He was personable, approachable and he loved talking to the women, loved talking to the guys, loved to dance, loved to sing, loved to perform. That was the joy of his life.”