This ode to slow, sensuous love inspired a new music genre: the quiet storm. An R&B offshoot focused on baby-making music, many radio stations started running "quiet storm" shows late at night, often on weekends. This Smokey Robinson song was the template, a sultry tune that played well in the background as a soundtrack to more pressing activities.
Popular artists on these shows included Luther Vandross, LTD, Al B. Sure!, Atlantic Starr and Sade. In many cases, the disc jockeys who ran these shows came in just for the occasion, often bringing in their own records (the studio usually smelled funny afterwards). If the hosts of these love jams didn't show up, it could cause chaos, which is played for laughs in an episode of the TV series WKRP in Cincinnati. When their quiet storm DJ Venus Flytrap doesn't show, program director Andy Travis fills in, claiming to be Venus' brother, Apollo Flytrap. The next day, he tries to convince incredulous callers that Apollo is, in fact, Black.
Robinson left his group The Miracles in 1972 and took a job as vice president of Motown. He began recording as a solo artist, but found the office work stifling. In 1975, he released his third solo album, and made "Quiet Storm" the title track. The song was a statement. "'Quiet Storm' was my move back into show business," he told Rolling Stone. "I figured I was a quiet singer, and I said to myself, 'I'm gonna change my imagery and my vocal sound and I'm gonna take it by storm - quiet storm!'"
Robinson wrote this song with his older sister, Rose Ella Jones. "I grew up in a home where there was nothing but music," Robinson told Mojo magazine. "My mom played gospel and blues and classical, and my two sisters were playing jazz. My sister Rose Ella was also a great lyricist. I used a lot of her songs in my life. Her background was basically Count Basie, Duke Ellington, Sarah Vaughan, Billy Eckstine, Patti Page and Frank Sinatra, so she had that kind of flavoring to her writing. I took the 'Quiet Storm' song to her and asked her to finish it, because I wanted that feel, like a Capitol recording artist singing from The Great American Songbook. A languid intimacy. That was my intention. Absolutely."
The album version of this song runs 7:47, which is about right for songs in the quiet storm format. It was whittled down 3:49 for release as a single, but the long version is the one that typically got played on those late-night radio shows.
On the drive home from Motown one evening, Smokey Robinson began mulling over the idea of a comeback. Ever since Marvin Gaye had unveiled What's Going On in 1971, Robinson had toyed with the notion of creating his own self-produced concept album. As he recalled to Mojo magazine, the thought hit him mid-drive: "I've always been a quiet singer, but what if I came back and took show business by storm? That would be some quiet storm."
He laughed at the comic simplicity of the phrase, but the idea stuck. Robinson went home that night and began writing.
"With my comeback," he said, "I wanted to be more of an adult act. The Miracles were a teenage pop group for young people, but our fans were growing up with us too. They were getting older, and I felt this was how I could change my image."
