Michael Jackson, The #5 Artist of the Rock Era, Part Four

 

(More from Thriller, continued from Part Three)

Jackson debuted his moonwalk dance to rave reviews while he performed "Billie Jean" for the Motown 25:  Yesterday, Today, Forever television special on NBC in 1983.  The groundbreaking performance won an Emmy Award.  

The red-hot Jackson combined with McCartney again for another song recorded while Paul was working on his album Tug of War.   Jackson stayed at the home of Paul and his wife Linda during the sessions and became friends with both.  

 

While sitting at the dining table one night, McCartney brought out a booklet to show Jackson that showed all the songs to which he owned the publishing rights.  "This is the way to make big money," Paul told Michael according to Randy Taraborrelli's 2004 book, The Magic and the Madness.  "Every time someone records one of these songs, I get paid.  Every time someone plays these songs on the radio, or in live performances, I get paid.  Those words had a profound impact on Jackson and his purchase of ATV Music Publishing in 1985.  The two superstars combined for the #1 hit "Say Say Say" (#2 for four weeks R&B), which sold over two million copies.

Jackson then released the title song, which was promoted with an iconic video which featured the creepy spoken voice of Vincent Price.  "I've known Vincent since I was 11 years old," Michael told Smash Hits.  I thought he was the perfect voice."  The six-million-selling "Thriller" went to #1 in France and Spain, #3 in Canada, Australia, Switzerland and New Zealand and #4 in the U.S. (#3 R&B) and Germany.

Jackson came home with eight awards at the Grammys, still a Grammy record that Santana tied 16 years later.  Michael and producer Quincy Jones shared the award for Producer of the Year, while Michael won Album of the Year, Record of the Year and Best Rock Vocal Performance, Male (for "Beat It"), Best Pop Vocal Performance, Male (with the entire album recognized in this instance), and Best R&B Song and Best R&B Vocal Performance, Male for "Billie Jean".  He was also nominated for Song of the Year (for both "Billie Jean" and "Beat It"), Best Pop Vocal Performance by a Duo or Group (for "The Girl Is Mine") and Best R&B Song (for "Wanna' Be Startin' Something"). 

Michael also scored big at the American Music Awards, taking home eight trophies:  Favorite Male Artist, Favorite Pop/Rock Male Artist, Favorite Soul/R&B Male Artist, Favorite Pop/Rock Album/ Favorite Soul/R&B Album, Favorite Pop (Rock) Song and Favorite Soul/R&B Song for "Billie Jean", Favorite Pop/Rock Video and Favorite Soul/R&B Video (for "Beat It") and winning the Award of Merit to boot.

Jackson was the hottest performer in the world and was earning $2 for every album sold, the best royalty rate in the business.  He won People's Choice Awards for Best All Around Entertainer of the Year and Favorite Video of the Year (for "Thriller").  

"Farewell My Summer Love" is a song Jackson recorded in 1973 that was included on the compilation album of the same name.  It hit #7 in the U.K.

But not all was going smoothly in Jackson World.  In 1983, although he and his brothers signed a $5 million promotional contract with PepsiCo, while Jackson was filming a commercial, pyrotechnics accidentally set Michael's hair on fire.  The mishap caused second-degree burns to his scalp, and Jackson ordered treatment to hide the scars and also had a third rhinoplasty as well.  But the surgeries did not help his appearance; the more he had, the worse it got.

He also was diagnosed with vitiligo, a disorder of the skin that causes loss of pigmentation in parts of the body.  As he related to those closest to him, this was a humiliating personal challenge, as Michael went to great lengths to hide his condition with long-sleeve shirts, hats, gloves, sunglasses and masks.

 

Michael lent his star and talents to Berry Gordy's son, Kennedy, in 1984.  Credited to Rockwell, it has a lot of MJ on it, as well as brother Jermaine who helped out--"Somebody's Watching Me".  It shot up to #2 in the United States and reached the Top 5 in most countries.

U.S. President Ronald Reagan honored Jackson with an award recognizing his support of alcohol and drug abuse charities.  Michael earned a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame and joined the Jacksons for a worldwide tour in 1984.  

In 1985, Jackson and Lionel Ritchie wrote "We Are The World", the monumental charity single which went to #1.  Proceeds from sale of the single raised $63 million to aid the poor in the U.S. and Africa.  The single sold 20 million copies and won four Grammy Awards, including Song of the Year.

Jackson began to invest in copyrights and catalogs of artists such as Sly & the Family Stone and Dion, but he hit the jackpot when he bid $46 million in 1984 and won the rights to most of the Beatles' songs.

Michael teamed up with George Lucas and Francis Ford Coppola for a 17-minute 3D film Captain EO, which was played at Disneyland theme parks.

Jackson released the album Bad in 1987, his first album since the blockbuster Thriller.  It was another historic release, becoming the first album in history with five #1 songs.  He first hoped to do a duet with Barbra Streisand and then Whitney Houston but both ideas fell through.  The ballad "I Just Can't Stop Loving You" led off the parade, sung with Siedah Garrett instead.  For the first time in his career, Michael recorded Spanish and French versions of the sing:  "Todo Mi Amor Eres Tu" and "Je Ne Veux Pas la Fin de Nous".

Sheryl Crow toured with Jackson and sang "I Just Can't Stop Loving You" on stage with him during shows.  The title song was a Top 5 hit in every major country, including #1 for two weeks in the U.S., and went Platinum.  It was the first of four consecutive R&B #1's from Bad. 

Bad went to #1 in 25 countries, the first album to do so.  Michael had such an effect on Tatiana Thumbzen (the woman he wooed in the video of this song) that she wrote a book about it.  "The Way You Make Me Feel" is The #37 R&B Song of the '80s*.

MJ toured for two years to support the album.  He performed before 504,000 in seven sold-out shows at London's Wembley Stadium (pictured above), which was a new Guinness World Record.  Fourteen shows in Japan drew 570,000 fans to nearly triple the existing record for a Japanese tour.  

Although Jackson didn't write this song, his identification with the words helped him give one of his best vocal performances.  "it is my philosophy too," he said.  "If you want to make the world a better place, take a look at yourself and then make a change...I'm never totally satisfied," Jackson continued.  "I always wish the world could be a better place...hopefully that's what I do with my music--bring happiness to people.  And to bring joy and peace into their lives."

Garrett co-wrote this song and recalled her experience:

              I was signed to Quincy's publishing

              company, and he wanted a song to 

              finish out the "Bad" album.  I wanted to

              write a song that made [Michael] feel

              like he had something important to say

              to the world, and he let me know that I

              did exactly that.  I remember the first

              time I heard the song on the radio.  I

              got goose bumps as I pulled to the 

              side of the road, and I turned up the

              radio as loud as it would go, and I

              just sat there with tears streaming

              down my face because it was such

              a moving, emotional moment.

 

"Man In The Mirror" promptly rocketed to #1 and has sold over six million copies.

We have much more to feature from Bad.  Stay tuned to Inside The Rock Era!

Michael Jackson, The #5 Artist of the Rock Era, Part Three

 

(Continued from Part Two)

While working on a dance routine, Jackson broke his nose, which required rhinoplasty and several subsequent operations because of breathing problems experienced as a result of the rhinoplasty.

In 1979, Jackson recorded the album Off the Wall, which jump-started his solo career.  At that time, the album was the first in the Rock Era to contain four Top 10 songs, and up to this point, MJ's five number one songs (four with the Jackson 5 and his 1972 solo hit "Ben") were all written by others.

Recording took place between December of 1978 and June of 1979.  The album's vocals and rhythm tracks were recorded at Allen Zentz Recording, the horn parts were recorded at Westlake Audio, and string instrumentation was captured at Cherokee Studios, all near Los Angeles.

 

It was legendary producer Quincy Jones who encouraged Michael to start writing his own material, and Jackson proved early on he was a strong songwriter.  Before Jones added the Midas Touch, Michael recorded a demo of this track with 12-year-old sister Janet playing glass bottles.  

The Disco song "Don't Stop 'Til You Get Enough" (no doubt inspired by the blockbuster movie Star Wars) sold over two million copies and rolled to #1 in the U.S., Australia, and New Zealand and settled for #2 in the Netherlands and Spain and #3 in the U.K. and Canada.  It was a #1 smash on the R&B chart for five weeks and is The #7 R&B Song of the 70's*.  Listen for the contributions of brother Randy on percussion.

Off the Wall was a solid best-seller for two years, reaching a peak of #1 in Australia, #3 in the U.S. and the U.K. and #4 in Canada.  It has now sold over 20 million copies worldwide.

(Temperton, Jones and Jackson)

 

This combination worked well.  Take a song written by Rod Temperton, keyboardist and the main songwriter for Heatwave ("Boogie Nights" and "Always And Forever").  Those excellent songs got the attention of producer Quincy Jones, who recruited Temperton to write songs for Jackson.  The idea was Temperton would present Michael with three songs and Jackson would choose his favorite.  But he loved all three and used them all on Off The Wall.

The first one Rod wrote for MJ was this one.  "Rock With You" was one of the top songs of 1980, holding on to #1 in the U.S. and Spain and also selling over four million copies.  A #1 R&B killer for six weeks, it is The #19 R&B Song of the 80's*.

Jackson captured the Grammy Award for Best Male R&B Vocal Performance for "Don't Stop 'Til You Get Enough".  He won American Music Awards for Favorite Pop (Rock) Album, Favorite Soul/R&B Album, Favorite Soul/R&B Male Artist, and Favorite Soul/R&B Single for "Don't Stop" and was nominated for Favorite Pop (Rock) Album.

Temperton also wrote the title song, which hit #7 in the U.K. and #10 in the United States (#5 R&B) and gave Michael a third consecutive Platinum single.  That's Louis Johnson from the Brothers Johnson ("I'll Be Good To You", "Strawberry Letter 23" and "Stomp!") playing the awesome bass line. 

The album was later inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame.  This next song by Tom Bahler was thought to be about Karen Carpenter, whom Bahler dated briefly, but Bahler said it was written before he and Karen hooked up and it is actually more about Rhonda Rivera, his previous girlfriend.

Jones had Frank Sinatra in mind for the song before giving it to Jackson.  Bahler's painful breakup song was difficult for Michael to sing, as Jones wrote in the liner notes to a later edition of the album:

            "She's Out Of My Life", I'd been carrying 

            around for about three years--you can feel

            the pain in it, you know.  And I held on to 

            it and finally something said "this is the 

            right moment to give it to Michael."

            And when we recorded it with Michael, I

            know it was an experience he'd never 

            even thought about to sing in a song, 

            'cause it's a very mature emotion.  And

            he cried at the end of every take, you

            know.  We recorded about--I don't 

            know--8-11 takes, and every one at the

            end, he just cried, and I said, "Hey, 

            that's supposed to be, leave it on

            there."

In Jackson's autobiography, Moonwalk, Michael wrote that the song is about "knowing that barriers separating him from others are seemingly easy to overcome, yet they cause him to miss out on what he really desires."  He said he cried because "I had been letting so much build up inside me."  Michael felt "so rich in some experiences while being poor in moments of true joy."

"She's Out Of My Life" peaked at #3 in the U.K. and #10 in the U.S. and sold one million singles.

 

"One Day In Your Life" was originally released on his final solo album with Motown, Forever, Michael, but re-released in 1981 after the huge success of The Wall.  It became Jackson's first solo #1 in the U.K. when it replaced Smokey Robinson's "Being With You" at the top.

In a 2013 piece by 60 Minutes on CBS-TV, "The Manifesto", as it was called, was found in a storage warehouse among many other personal items.  Looking back and ignoring briefly the benefit all of us have of knowing what we now know about this incredible performer, it is truly remarkable that 21-year old Michael wrote this in 1979:

            MJ will be my new name.  No more 

            Michael Jackson.  I want a whole new

            character, a whole new look.  I should be

            a tottally [sic] different person.  People 

            should never think of me as the kid who

            sang "ABC", "I Want You Back".  I should

            be a new, incredible actor/singer/dancer

            that will shock the world.  I will do no

            interviews.  I will be magic.  I will be a

            perfectionist, a researcher, a trainer, a

            masterer [sic].  I will be better than every

            great actor roped into one.  I "must" have

            the most incredible training system.  To

            dig and dig and dig until I find.

             I will study and look back on the whole

             world of Entertainment and perfect it.  

             Take it steps further from where the

             greats left off.

It is safe to say that Michael Jackson accomplished most of his goals.  This Stevie Wonder song was written for his 1977 masterpiece but wound up on another great album.  "That was supposed to be one of the songs on Songs in the Key of Life," Wonder said.  "My sister Renee had been hearing me play this cassette, she and Michael were friends, and she took it over to let Michael hear it."   Here is that song from one great to another--"I Can't Help It".

 

"Get On The Floor", co-written by Michael with Louis Johnson, is another example of the cutting-edge, ready for the dance floor music of this landmark album.  "Though it wasn't a single, [it] was particularly satisfying," Jackson wrote in his 1988 memoir Moonwalk, "because Louis gave me a smooth enough bottom to ride in the verses and let me come back stronger and stronger with each chorus."  "Bruce Swedien, Quincy Jones' engineer, put the final touches on that mix, and I still get pleasure out of hearing it," Jackson added.  Joseph Vogel, author of the 2011 book Man In The Music:  The Creative Life and Work Of Michael Jackson, calls the song "quite simply, a celebration of life, music and dance."

Despite being the B-side to "Rock With You" in the U.S. and "Off The Wall" in the U.K., "Working Day And Night" has nonetheless become one of Jackson's most popular songs and one he performed often in concert.

As a result of the blockbuster album, Michael renewed his contract with Epic for the highest royalty rate in the business--37% of album profits.  Michael recorded duets with Freddie Mercury of Queen that were meant for an album but the project was shelved.  The recordings were later released in 2014.

What happened next changed music history in multiple ways.  

Michael released the album Thriller in 1982.   In Craig Halstead's 2007 book Michael Jackson:  For the Record, Jackson said that the recording of this song was one of his favorite memories in the studio:

               One of my favorite songs to record, of all

               my recordings as a solo artist, is probably

               "The Girl Is Mine", because working with

                Paul McCartney was pretty exciting and

                we just literally had fun.  It was like lots

                of kibitzing and playing, and throwing 

                stuff at each other, and making jokes.

                We actually recorded the (instrumental)

                track and the vocals pretty much live at

                the same time, and we do have footage

                of it, but it's never been shown."

Footage of the recording was later shown during the McCartney World Tour.  Several members of the great group Toto helped out on this song, including David Paich on piano, drummer Jeff Porcaro, guitarist Steve Lukather and Steve Porcaro, providing synthesizer programming.

Although "The Girl Is Mine" was an overrated #2 (#1 R&B), there was much more to come.

With the verse “She was more like a beauty queen from a movie scene / I said, “Don’t mind, but what do you mean, I am the one / Who will dance on the floor in the round?’”, we learn right away that there is an admiring woman obsessed with the protagonist, and no matter what he does, he cannot shake her.

There has been much speculation as to who the subject of the song is.  Jackson said (in Moonwalk) that "there never was a real Billie Jean."  The girl in the song is a composite of people my brothers have been plagued with over the years," he said.  "I could never understand how these girls could say they were carrying someone's child when it wasn't true."

Michael would experience those kind of accusations (some true, most untrue) over the coming years.  Thanks to songs like "Billie Jean", which sold two million and hit #1 in nearly every country, the album stayed in the Top 10 for 80 straight weeks.  The single went Platinum and dominated the R&B chart for nine weeks, garnering the spot as The #3 R&B Song of the '80's*.

Thriller caught the world by storm, rocketing to #1 for an unbelievable 37 weeks in the U.S. and topped charts throughout the globe.  Superstar guitarist Eddie Van Halen helped "Beat It" jump to #1 in the U.S. (as well as #1 R&B), Canada, New Zealand, the Netherlands and Spain and go Top Three throughout the world.  It has now sold over 8 million singles.

Interestingly enough, when Van Halen's 1984 album reached #2, it was Thriller that kept it out of the top spot.

Thriller is now the top-selling album of all-time in both the U.S. and worldwide, with 33 and 66 million copies, respectively.  One of the key elements of this song is the "bathroom stomp board", a 4 x 3-foot piece of plywood that Michael played in the middle of the song.  Jackson released "Wanna' Be Startin' Somethin'" next, a #1 smash in Canada that also hit #5 in the U.S. on both the Popular and R&B charts and sold over two million.  

Thriller spawned a record seven Top 10 songs, including the #7 hit "Human Nature", co-written by Steve Porcaro of Toto and John Bettis.  

Grammy Award-winning engineer Bruce Swedien mixed the album, just as he had done for its predecessor, Off The Wall.  Jackson and Greg Phillinganes wrote the original demo of this song but when Quincy didn't like it but liked the title, he brought in James Ingram to write a completely different song.  "P.Y.T. (Pretty Young Thing)" sold over four million singles and peaked at #10.

 

"The Lady In My Life" is another song written by Temperton.

An album so great that everyone knows its name.  Stay tuned as the Michael Magic continues.

Michael Jackson, The #5 Artist of the Rock Era, Part Two

 

(Continued from Part One)

Motown boss Berry Gordy, Jr. created "The Corporation" (Alphonso Mizell, Freddie Perren, Deke Richards and himself) as a songwriting team for the Jackson 5, and they helped Michael out here as well.  "We've Got A Good Thing Going" was originally issued as the B-side of "I Wanna' Be Where You Are". 

Gordy wrote "You Can Cry On My Shoulders" on his own, and young Michael came through on the high notes of this Brenda Holloway cover.

In 1973, Jackson released his third album, Music & Me.  Although the lead single "With A Child's Heart" stalled at #50, it is a worthy cut.  Written by Stevie Wonder, it was the B-side to "Nothing's Too Good For My Baby" and featured on his album Up-Tight.

Several artists have recorded this 1951 song by Sidney Lippman and Sylvia Dee, most notably Nat King Cole.  Michael does a nice job on "Too Young".

 

"All The Things You Are" was written by Jerome Kern and Oscar Hammerstein II for the musical Very Warm for May in 1939.

 

The highlight of this song is the great chorus from Stephen Schwartz, who wrote Godspell--"Morning Glow".

 

This song written by Smokey Robinson was inspired by the melody (written by Michel Legrand) to the movie Lady Sings The Blues, produced by Gordy for Diana Ross.  Smokey said, in an interview for the album Timeless Love:

         I was looking at the movie one day, and I

                  was listening to that melody, and I thought

                  it was just such a beautiful melody, until

                  I wanted to write some words for that

                  melody, and upset because I didn't write

                 them before he finished the movie so

                  they could've been in the movie.

This is "Happy" (Love Theme From 'Lady Sings The Blues'").

In 1975, he released the album Forever, Michael, and thanks to the return of Brian and Eddie Holland to Motown, Jackson had writers that could write songs for a maturing Michael.  "We're Almost There" made it up to #7 on the R&B chart.

During this time, Michael also performed and recorded with the Jackson 5.  The group left Motown Records in 1975, signed with Epic Records, and changed their name to the Jacksons.  Jermaine stayed with Motown and pursued a solo career, with younger brother Randy taking his place.  The Jacksons released six albums between 1976 and 1984, with Michael writing most of their biggest hits.

(L-R Jackson, Nipsey Russell, Diana Ross and Tedd Ross)

Meanwhile, Michael moved to New York City to star with Diana Ross in the movie musical The Wiz.  Although the movie was not received well, Michael made a key connection when he met Quincy Jones, who arranged the score for the movie.  Jones would go on to produce three of Michael's solo albums.

Music after the Jackson 5's heyday, but before he emerged as a superstar.  Much more from Michael Jackson!