Mickey & Sylvia are best known for their timeless song “Love is Strange,” a Top 20 pop hit in 1957 and again as the B-side to “I’ve Had the Time of My Life” from 1988’s soundtrack Dirty Dancing.
The group split in 1962 when Mickey left for Paris. Sylvia continued recording, and married her husband Joe Robinson in 1964.
She hit again with 1973’s record “Pillow Talk,” and launched All Platinum with Robinson.
The label housed groups like The Whatnauts and The Moments, whose single “Love on a Two Way Street” was recently reworked into “Empire State of Mind” by Jay-Z and Alicia Keys.
The Robinson’s also bought out the entire Chess Records catalog from owner GRT, before selling to MCA in a deal many believe helped to speed up the demise of their indie operation.
In the late 1970’s The Robinson’s launched Sugar Hill Records and released the first commercial Hip-Hop hit, “Rappers Delight” by The Sugarhill Gang in addition to genre defining tracks by Grandmaster Flash and The Furious 5.
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