Jackson, Michael

Michael Jackson

Singer, songwriter, producer

For the Record…

Selected discography

Videos

Compositions

Writings

Sources

Artfully clad in an outfit featuring his signature white socks, red leather jacket, and single, sequined white glove, Michael Jackson is widely recognized as one of the world’s top musical entertainers. In barely two decades he has grown from a five-year-old boy-wonder singing with his brothers to a legendary solo artist who dazzles audiences worldwide with his deftness as songwriter, producer, video pioneer, showman, and vocalist par excellence. With a knack for translating tunes from almost any genre—rhythm-and-blues, pop, rock, soul—into success, the prodigy defies all labels. Jackson is “a half-mad and extraordinary talent,” marveled Mikal Gilmore in Rolling Stone, with the ability to “combine [his] gifts in an electrifying, stunning way … that has only been equalled in rock history by Elvis Presley.”

Born into a black, working-class family in Gary, Indiana, Jackson was the seventh of nine children, all of whose lives were shaped by their parents’ insistence on firm discipline. The Jackson parents, however, were also musical. Joe Jackson, a crane-operator for U.S. Steel, sang and played the guitar with a small-time group known as the Falcons, and Katherine Jackson played the clarinet. Both believed that encouraging their children to pursue their musical interests was a good way to keep them out of trouble.

By the time he was five years old, Michael, together with his four older brothers (Jackie, Tito, Jermaine, and Marlon), had formed a rhythm-and-blues act called the Jackson Five. Initially enlisted to play the bongos, Michael revealed himself as such a little dynamo that he soon became the group’s leader, even at a young age able to mesmerize audiences with his singing and dancing. The group won their first talent competition in 1963, gave their first paid performance in 1964, and had proven themselves a popular local act by 1967. Although primarily imitative at this stage, with their work rooted in the tradition of such musical greats as the Temptations, Smokey Robinson, and James Brown, they were good enough to cut a couple of singles for Steeltown Records, an Indiana label.

They were also good enough to compete, in 1968, at Harlem’s Apollo Theatre, then the most prestigious venue for launching black musicians. Their riveting performance brought them so many national engagements that Joe Jackson left his job to manage his sons’ act. It also captured the attention of Motown Records, in its golden days as the United States’s premier black recording label. Before long, the young musicians signed with Motown and moved to California when the label relocated its headquarters there.

Under the strict guidance of the Motown magnates, the Jackson Five propelled themselves into the public eye

For the Record…

Full name, Michael Joseph Jackson; born August 19, 1958, in Gary, Ind; son of Joseph (a crane operator) and Katherine (a homemaker and occasional sales clerk; maiden name, Corse) Jackson. Education: Attended schools in Indiana and California. Religion: Jehovah’s Witness.

Vocalist with the Jackson Five, 1963-76, recording first singles, 1967-68, began performing nationally as opener for other artists, 1968, signed with Motown, c. 1968, released first album, 1969, started appearing on television, 1970, including “The Ed Sullivan Show,” “American Bandstand,” and the “Andy Williams Show,” first worldwide concert tour, 1972; vocalist with the Jacksons, 1976-1981, signed with Epic, recording first album for that label, 1976, made a thirty-six-city tour, 1981; made “Victory” reunion tour with his brothers, 1984; co-organizer of U.S.A. for Africa famine relief effort, 1985.

Solocareer, including work as a vocalist, songwriter, producer, video artist, and actor, 1972—, recorded first solo album, Got to Be There, 1972, made songwriting debut with “Shake Your Body (Down to the Grave)” on the Destiny album, 1978, with later credits including “Beat It,” “Billie Jean,” and “Wanna Be Startin’ Somethin’,” co-produced Thriller album, 1982, established himself as a significant video artist with the Thriller videos, 1983, made first solo concert tour, 1987.

Also appeared in film version of Broadway musical “The Wiz” and involved with the 3-D film fantasy “Captain Eo.” Engages in philanthropic work, including efforts to help eliminate world hunger, establishing a burn center in Los Angeles, Calif., and supporting the United Negro College Fund (UNCF) and a camp for children suffering from cancer.

Awards: Winner of numerous awards, including twelve Grammy Awards (eight in 1984); named number one recording artist of 1983 by Billboard magazine; winner of eight American Music Association Awards in 1984, winner of two special American Music Association Awards, 1989;The Guinness Book of World Records lists Thriller as the biggest-selling album of all time.

Addresses: Home —4641 Hayvenhurst Ave., Encino, Calif. 91436.

with their first Motown single, “I Want You Back.” Released in November, 1969, the recording reached number one on the charts in early 1970 and eventually sold more than one million copies. It was quickly followed by other hit singles like “ABC,” the Grammy Award-winning pop song of 1970, as well as similarly successful albums. Even a “Jackson Five” television cartoon program was created to showcase the group’s music. By the time the Jackson Five took their version of “bubblegum soul,” as their music was now called, on worldwide tour in 1972, they were a smashing success, especially among the teenybopper set. Indeed Michael, “the little prince of soul,” was barely a teenager himself and had become not only a millionaire, but an international sex symbol ready to launch his solo career.

The rising star premiered as a solo artist with the 1972 album Got To Be There, earning him a Grammy Award as male vocalist of the year, and followed it with the gold album Ben, thus beginning a steady stream of solo recordings. With his first solo tour more than a decade away, however, the young Jackson still directed most of his energy into the group’s work. The Jackson Five, in fact, made another breakthrough in 1973 with the single “Dancing Machine.” Succeeded by the epynomous album, the sophisticated recording introduced a disco beat that broadened the group’s audience.

As members of the Jackson Five matured, so did their music, and they eventually outgrew the agenda Motown had established for them. They were eager for greater artistic control, and when their contract with Motown expired in 1976 they signed with Epic renamed as the Jacksons (Jermaine dropped out of the group while youngest brother, Randy, joined it).

Although frustrated by the creative restrictions placed on their first two albums for the label, the Jacksons were finally given control with Destiny, an album marking Michael’s songwriting debut. The risk proved fruitful both for the recording company and for the artists. Featuring the “funkier” sound the entertaining brothers favored, the 1978 album went platinum and spun off two hit singles. In 1980 the group duplicated the feat with Triumph, written and produced by Michael, Jackie, and Randy, and in the summer of 1981 they embarked on the enormously successful thirty-six city tour that produced The Jacksons Live, the group’s last album together.

As the Jacksons disbanded to pursue individual interests, Michael exploded onto the music scene as an independent artist, outstripping the success of his own multiaward-winning album of 1979, Off the Wall, as well as shattering almost every other record in recording history. His landmark album was Thriller, unleashed in 1982. It was a sensation that appealed to almost every imaginable musical taste and established Jackson as one of the world’s pre-eminent pop artists. The album went platinum in fifteen countries, gold in four, and garnered eight Grammys; its sales exceeded thirty-eight million copies worldwide, earning it a place in the Guinness Book of World Records as the largest-selling album in recording history; it spun-off an unprecedented seven hit singles; and it enabled Jackson to claim the spotlight as the first recording artist to simultaneously head both the singles and albums charts for both rhythm-and-blues and pop.

The extraordinary Thriller also generated a frenzy among the heartthrob’s fans, dubbed Michaelmania by the media, and its remarkable success sealed the musician’s reputation as “brilliant” and a “rock phenomenon”; one critic even went beyond “superstar” to call Jackson a “megastar.” But success has also brought the artist under intense scrutiny, both by his admirers and the communications industry, and each new achievement—from his innovative video work to his astonishing 1984 reunion “Victory” tour with his brothers to his latest, most startling album, the 1987 Bad —has only seemed to fuel the lust for information.

Indeed, for someone who has been in the limelight since the age of five, Jackson has seemingly by magic kept his private life private. Writing for Maclean’s, Gillian MacKay reported that he “has astonished his fans by shedding his lively, button-cute image and transforming himself into a mysterious, otherworldly creature perpetually posing behind a mask.” So intensely private is this star that he rarely interacts with the media.

His silence, however, has tended to stimulate conjecture, and the tabloids are notorious for speculating about him. One day there are rumors that he has lightened his skin with chemicals and taken female hormones to maintain his falsetto voice quality, while the next day gossip columns question his sexual identity and charge that he has extensively remodeled his body with plastic surgery. He is also infamous for what has been described as a certain “weirdness” or “quirki-ness,” although many dismiss the charge as nonsense. As Jackson’s friend, producer Quincy Jones, was quoted in the star’s defense by People: “[Michael is] grounded and centered and focused and connected to his creative soul. And he’s one of the most normal people I’ve ever met.”

Dissecting the Jackson mystique is a task that even seems to have eluded more serious journalists. Most view him as a paradox. He is both superstar and devout Jehovah’s Witness, a man who—as neither drinker, smoker, nor drug experimenter, has eschewed much of the glamorous life for healthy living. Some see him as a man-child living in his own reality—like one of his heroes, Peter Pan, refusing to grow up. Others, like Newsweek’s Jim Miller, find him “a stunning live performer, but also a notorious recluse…. He’s utterly unlike you and me, with a streak of wildfire that unpredictably lights his eyes.”

Theories aside, admirers and detractors alike agree, as Gilmore concluded, that Jackson’s success is based on his “remarkably intuitive talents as a singer and dancer—talents that are genuine and matchless and not the constructions of mere ambition or hype.” It is this talent, coupled with the star’s hard work and often touted perfectionism, that has enabled Jackson to cross virtually every music line ever drawn.

Jackson, in fact, has been credited with resuscitating a languishing music industry and with practically eliminating barriers barring blacks from mainstream music venues. More than one critic has imbued him with a chameleon-like capacity for being all things to all people and thus pleasing everyone. In a review for People, Gary Smith related the artist’s musical conquest to his ability to create “a portable dream,” explaining that “in this dream world his androgyny does not threaten the virile, his youth does not threaten the old. His blackness does not threaten the white, for nothing seems quite real and all is softened by fragility and innocence.”

Although the music idol himself might be eccentric or enigmatic, his achievements are very real. With the completion of his first solo tour, a long, triumphant venture begun in September, 1987, Michael Jackson seems to be at the peak of his powers, a hero living the American Dream. Indeed, experts who appoint Frank Sinatra as the star of the 1940s, Elvis Presley as the star of the 1950s, and the Beatles as the stars of the 1960s have already named Michael Jackson the star of the 1980s—and speculate that he will claim the 1990s as well.

Selected discography

Single releases for Steeltown Records; With the Jackson Five

“I’m a Big Boy Now,” c 1967.

“You’ve Changed,” c 1967.

“We Don’t Have to Be Over 21 (To Fall in Love),” c. 1968.

“Jam Session,” c. 1968.

LPs; With the Jackson Five

Diana Ross Presents the Jackson Five, Motown, 1969.

ABC, Motown, 1970.

Third Album, Motown, 1970.

The Jackson Five Christmas Album, Motown, 1970.

Maybe Tomorrow, Motown, 1971.

Goin’ Back to Indiana, Motown, 1971.

The Jackson Five’s Greatest Hits, Motown, 1971.

Looking Through the Windows, Motown, 1972.

Skywriter, Motown, 1973.

Get It Together, Motown, 1973.

Dancing Machine, Motown, 1974.

Moving Violation, Motown, 1975.

Joyful Jukebox Music, Motown, 1976.

The Jackson Five Anthology, Motown, 1976.

Boogie, Natural Resources/Motown, 1980.

Farewell My Summer Love (recorded, 1973; previously unreleased), Motown, 1984.

Also released numerous anthologies since 1980.

LPs; With the Jacksons

The Jacksons, Epic, 1976.

Goin’ Places, Epic, 1977.

Destiny, Epic, 1978.

Triumph, Epic, 1980.

The Jacksons Live, Epic, 1981.

Victory, Epic, 1984.

LPs; Solo

Got to Be There, Motown, 1972.

Ben, Motown, 1972.

Music and Me, Motown, 1973.

Forever, Michael, Motown, 1975.

The Best of Michael Jackson, Motown, 1975.

Off the Wall, Epic, 1979.

Thriller, Epic, 1982.

Bad, Epic, 1987.

Also narrator for E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial Storybook, MCA, 1982. Other recording credits include the soundtrack to the documentary film Save the Children; the soundtrack from the movie The Wiz, MCA, 1978; and, in collaboration with an all-star ensemble of the top American recording artists collectively known as U.S.A. for Africa, We Are the World, Columbia, 1985.

Videos

(With the Jacksons) Blame It On the Boogie, 1978.

Don’t Stop ‘Til You Get Enough, 1979.

Rock With Me, 1979.

(With the Jacksons)Triumph, 1980.

(With Paul and Linda McCartney)Say, Say, Say, 1983.

Billie Jean, 1983.

Beat It, 1983.

Thriller, 1983.

Bad, 1987.

Smooth Criminal, 1988.

Moonwalker, 1989.

Compositions

Has written and co-written numerous songs, including “Shake Your Body (Down to the Grave),” 1978, “Beat It,” 1983, “Billie Jean,” 1983, “Wanna Be Startin’ Somethin’,” 1983, (with Lionel Richie) “We Are the World,” 1985, “Bad,” 1987, “I Can’t Stop Loving You,” 1987, and “The Way You Make Me Feel,” 1987.

Writings

Moonwalk (autobiography), Doubleday, 1988.

Sources

Books

Bego, Mark, Michael, Pinnacle Books, 1984.

Bego, Mark, On the Road With Michael, Pinnacle Books, 1984.

Brown, Geoff, Michael Jackson: Body and Soul, an Illustrated Biography, Beaufort Books, 1984.

George, Nelson, The Michael Jackson Story, Dell, 1984.

Latham, Caroline, Michael Jackson: Thrill, Zebra Books, 1984.

Machlin, Milt, The Michael Jackson Catalog, Arbor House, 1984.

Periodicals

Ebony, June, 1988.

Essence, July, 1988.

Jet, May 16, 1988.

Macleans, July 23, 1984.

Newsweek, July 16, 1987.

People, June 11, 1984; July 23, 1984; August 27, 1984; September 14, 1987; October 12, 1987; March 28, 1988.

Rolling Stone, March 15, 1984; September 24, 1987; October 22, 1987; May 19, 1988.

Time, July 16, 1984; September 14, 1987.

—Nancy H. Evans