The Reason Smokey Robinson Wrote 'My Girl' Had Nothing To Do With A Girl.... It was primarily because of one man: David Ruffin. (WATCH VIDEO)

By Lisa Capretto of Oprah Winfrey Network (OWN). Posted 11/1/15

It's almost impossible to think of the song "My Girl" without immediately humming those first few notes of its iconic opening riff. It was one of the biggest hits to come out of Berry Gordy's Motown -- "My Girl" became a best-selling single, rose to the top of the Billboard charts, became The Temptations' first number-one song and marked the first time the label itself landed a number-one hit with one of their male vocal groups. Even today, more than 50 years after its release, "My Girl" still stands out, ranking among the best songs of all time.

Smokey Robinson

A big part of the song's success was its writer, Smokey Robinson. Smokey was one of Motown's big songwriters/producers at the time; he was also the lead singer of his own vocal group, the Miracles. And, yet, Smokey never intended to keep "My Girl" for himself -- it was always meant for his so-called competitors.

As Smokey tells "Oprah's Master Class," competition at Motown may have been fierce, but it was incredibly common for everyone to work together in an effort to strike gold with a big hit.

"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.

When The Temptations first signed with Motown, the label's founder, Berry Gordy, instructed Smokey to "get some hits on them." Eddie Kendricks and Paul Williams typically alternated as the group's lead singers, but Smokey saw incredible potential in background singer David Ruffin. more