Scoring over 40 hits in the R&B Top 40 charts, the Miracles started out as the Five Chimes in the mid-'50s while the members were still in high school. The Detroit vocal group consisted of William "Smokey" Robinson, Warren "Pete" Moore, Clarence "Humble" Dawson, Donald Wicker, and James "Rat" Grice. Not too long after the group formed, Wicker and Grice left and were replaced by cousins Emerson "Sonny" Rogers and Bobby Rogers, who both sang tenor, and baritonist Ronnie White was in Dawson's place. The vocal quintet then changed their name to the Matadors, and in 1956 Claudette Rogers joined the band after her brother Sonny Rogers was drafted. The Matadors auditioned for Jackie Wilson's manager, Nat Tarnapol, in 1956. Although Tarnapol wasn't interested, finding the group too similar to the Platters, Jackie Wilson's songwriter Berry Gordy Jr. was, and he soon began producing the band, who now went by the name the Miracles.
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