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Bobby Rogers, founding member of Motown group the Miracles, dies at 73

Bobby Rogers, a founding member of the group the Miracles, died Sunday in Detroit at 73.
(Todd McInturf / Associated Press)
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Bobby Rogers, a singer-songwriter who was a founding member of the Motown group the Miracles, has died at 73. Rogers died early Sunday morning in Detroit after a long illness, according to the Associated Press.

As a songwriter, Rogers worked frequently with Smokey Robinson, and the two co-founded the Miracles in 1955 along with three other partners — Claudette Rogers, a cousin of Rogers; Pete Moore; and Ronnie White. The group’s hits included “The Tears of a Clown,” “I Second That Emotion” and “You’ve Really Got a Hold on Me.”

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The Miracles were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame last year, but Rogers was reportedly too ill to attend. He attended when the group received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 2009.

Rogers collaborated with Robinson to write the Temptations’ hit “The Way You Do the Things You Do” and the Contours’ “First I Look at the Purse.” For the Miracles, he co-wrote “Going to a Go-Go.”

The Miracles broke up in the 1970s, a few years after Robinson’s decision to go single.

Robert Rogers was born in 1940 and was a native of Detroit. Information on survivors was not immediately available.

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