Bad Girl (Miracles song)

Bad Girl was a 1959 Doo Wop hit single by Motown Records group The Miracles , issued locally on the Tamla label, and nationally on Chess Records . Although the group had charted regionally prior to this time , with several early songs, including "Got A Job", "I Cry" , "I Need A Change", "You Can Depend On Me", and others , This song beacme The Miracles' first-ever "national" chart hit recording, reaching # 93 on the Billboard Hot 100. Written by Miracles lead singer Smokey Robinson and Motown Records' President and Founder Berry Gordy , It was licensed to and issued nationally by Chess Records, as the new Motown Record Corporation did not , at the time, have national distribution . A sad, remorseful ballad about a "Bad Girl" , that Smokey , as the narrator, exclaims " was so good at the start", but that later in the song ,"is breaking my heart" , this song was composed and recorded in the popular "Doo-Wop" style,as several of The Miracles' songs were during the late 1950's period. The record's success, coupled by the failure of the distributor's part to pay Gordy and The Miracles properly for it's sales, prompted Robinson to urge Gordy to "go national" with it , meaning that Motown should do it's own national distribution of its songs , and eliminate the middleman, to insure that all money from sales of it's records would go directly to the label.According to the Motown/Universal DVD release, "Smokey Robinson and The Miracles:The Definitive Performances 1963-1987" Smokey, and fellow Miracles Bobby Rogers and Pete Moore commented that the song's success allowed the group to tour nationally for the first time, and play New York's legendary Apollo Theatre during the Ray Charles Show ,an appearance that the young group was not ready for , due to their lack of performance experience, and failure to produce professional "Big Band" style arrangments to theatre manager Honi Coles. However,the show's star, Ray Charles himself,intervined, took the young group under his wing, and with his band, created arrangments and music charts for their songs, and was one of the first to help them along their climb to eventual success."Bad Girl" has since become a Doo-Wop classic, and has been selected as one of the "100 Greatest Doo-Wop Songs of All Time" by "Doo Wop Nation" . It has inspired a cover version by The Dazz Band , and appears on The Miracles' album "Greatest Hits from the Beginning ,and several other Miracles "Greatest Hits" CD compilations.

References

"Bad Girl" - One of the " Top 100 Doo-Wop Songs Of all Time"-Doo-Wop Nation.http://home.earthlink.net/~jaymar41/Top_100-Part_2.htmlhttp://home.earthlink.net/~jaymar41/contents_one.html

"Smokey Robinson & The Miracles: The Definitive Performances 1963-1987"

"Smokey: Inside My Life" (autobiography), McGraw-Hill,(1989) "by Smokey Robinson and David Ritz, pgs 84-86"

Personnel:The Miracles

*Smokey Robinson
*Claudette Rogers Robinson
*Marv Tarplin
*Ronnie White
*Pete Moore
*Bobby Rogers

Instruments: The Funk Brothers