Smokey Robinson Admits ‘My Girl’ Isn’t About A Woman And Was Written For The Temptations

Many believe that the infectious tune was written by Smokey Robinson, about women. Afterall, who wouldn’t with a title like “My Girl?” But in a 2015 interview, Robinson clarified that the tune, in fact, was written for its eventual performers, the Temptations.

As Smokey explains, “he was so enamored with the group’s vocals that he simply had to write a song for them.” Robinson explained that any writer or producer could go up to an artist with a song. This bred competition, and so artists would get to pick the songs they believed were going to be chart-toppers. Motown competition may have been fierce, but it was incredibly common for everyone to work together in a collaborative effort to strike gold with a big hit, in turn, producing more successful singles, one of which included “My Girl.”

“It would be nothing for us to go into the studio and help one of our competitors with a song that they were working on, with an artist that we were working on,” Smokey says. “We all did that, for each other.”

In fact, Motown’s policy was that no one had a lock on a particular artist; any writer or producer could choose to work with any willing artist. This is what happened with Smokey and The Temptations. He very deliberately wrote “My Girl” for them.

“Were it not for The Temptations, I never would have written ‘My Girl,’” Smokey says.