"Shop Around" is a song originally recorded and released in September 1960 by The Miracles on the Tamla Records label, a subsidiary of Motown Records. It was written by Miracles lead singer Smokey Robinson and Motown Records founder Berry Gordy.

Robinson recalled that he wrote “Shop Around” in about half an hour and that it was first intended for Barrett Strong, whose “Money (That’s What I Want)” had just been a hit for Motown, but Motown leader Berry Gordy, convinced Robinson to record it with his group.  Gordy worked on the song with Robinson, which was a slower and more bluesy number when the Miracles first recorded it.

The original version was released in the local Detroit area before Gordy decided that the song needed to be re-recorded to achieve wider commercial appeal.  

in September 1960, Gordy couldn’t sleep, worried that it wasn’t good enough (“too slow, not enough life”).  He called Smokey in the middle of the night and had him bring all the Miracles to the studio to lay down a new, faster take of the song.

Re-released in October 1960 it became a smash hit, reaching number one on the Billboard R&B chart, number one on the Cashbox Top 100 Pop Chart, and number 2 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart.  It was the Miracles' first million-selling hit record, and the first-million-selling hit for the Motown Record Corporation

Tamla Records was one of the four major Motown labels and the first to be incorporated by the Motown Record Corporation.  It was started on January 12, 1959, by Berry Gordy using $800 borrowed from his family's loan fund.  Later in the year, he started his second label, Motown, which became Tamla's parent label and the cornerstone of Gordy's musical empire, in which Tamla is only second to Motown in number of releases.

Various Sources