Michael Jackson

#1 Motown Artist!

Thanks to all the fans that voted on the People’s Choice website making the Jackson 5 the #1 choice for Motown artists! They will now be honored on the upcoming Motown 50 Fanthology.

Check back for updates on the release of the album which will represent the top 50 tracks chosen by the fans. More here...

as you've never heard him before !

"Michael Jackson: The Stripped Mixes" is an album of new mixes of early Michael Jackson and Jackson 5 classics. One month ago, a previously unreleased stripped mix of the Jackson 5 hit "I'll Be There" was made available on iTunes.

Now the full album, "Michael Jackson: The Stripped Mixes" is available too! Utilizing the original Motown session tapes, these new mixes strip away certain instruments and studio frills to instead focus on the essence of the spectacular recordings--Michael’s vocals and the harmonies provided by his brothers. The recordings on "Michael Jackson: The Stripped Mixes" shine a fresh light on Michael Jackson’s early career and are proof that his music will live forever. Listen to the album now here.

The Motown 50 Podcast series has been an ongoing tribute to 50 years of The Motown Sound. This particular episode released on 4/28/09 has a special place now. Listen to Michael and his brothers enjoying one another.

EPISODE 15: THE JACKSON 5 – BROTHERLY LOVE

A rare and fun radio session from the early 70’s featuring the original Jackson 5 – Jackie, Tito, Jermaine, Marlon and Michael – interviewing one another.

Tracks featured on this episode:
ABC - The Love You Save - I'll Be There - I Want You Back - Never Can Say Goodbye - Mama's Pearl - I'll Bet You

Motown is honored to present Michael Jackson's Motown solo legacy in "Hello World: The Motown Solo Collection". Lovingly compiled and completed well before MJ’s shocking death on June 25, "Hello World: The Motown Solo Collection" is a lavish 3-CD set featuring 71 tracks from Got To Be There, Ben, Music and Me, Forever Michael, Farewell My Summer Love and Looking Back To Yesterday.

Never-Before-Released Masters, plus a brace of rarities in a lovely book format, "Hello World" now pays tribute to the first solo recordings of one of pop music’s greatest entertainers.

Michael Jackson
"Hello World: The Motown Solo Collection"
3 CDs — 71 tracks
AVAILABLE NOW at Hip-o-Select.com or Amazon.com

I am shocked beyond words. It’s like a dream - a bad dream. This cannot be! How can Michael Jackson not be here?

As a kid, Michael was always beyond his years. He had a knowingness about him that was incredible.

When I first heard him sing Smokey’s song “Who’s Lovin’ You” at 10 years’ old, it felt like he had lived the song for 50 years.

Somehow, even at that first meeting with him, he had a hunger to learn, a hunger to be the best and was willing to work as hard and as long as it took.

I had no concern about his ability to go to the top. He was like my son. He had warmth, sensitivity and two personalities.

When he was not on stage, he was loving, respectful and shy. When he WAS on stage, he was so in charge you would not believe he was the same person.

Michael was and will remain one of the greatest entertainers that ever lived.

He was exceptional, artistic and original. He gave the world his heart and soul through his music.

I extend my sympathies to Joe, Katherine and the entire Jackson family. My prayers are with them.

Berry Gordy
Founder, Motown
June 25, 2009

Michael Jackson, born August 29, 1958 in Gary, Indiana, spent nearly his entire life as a public performer. At age four he was singing with the family group; a charismatic bundle of energy who was musically wise beyond his years, he soon became their lead vocalist and front man. Onstage, using every ounce of his old-school training, he modeled his dance moves and singing on James Brown and Jackie Wilson, and portrayed a self-confidence that belied his shy, private personality.

The Jackson Five—Michael, Jermaine, Jackie, Marlon and Tito—signed to Motown Records at the end of 1968, and were immediately groomed for stardom: “They’ll have three No. 1 records in a row,” Motown founder Berry Gordy famously announced before any records were released. In fall 1969 they exploded with “I Want You Back,” one of the greatest singles in pop history, and it was the first of four consecutive no. 1 pop hits, as “ABC,” “The Love You Save” and “I'll Be There” followed. Flip sides such as “Who’s Lovin’ You,” a knockout performance by Michael with all the hallmarks of a great soul artist, illustrated his remarkable maturity.

It seemed inevitable that young MJ would spin off as a solo artist. The aching ballad “Got To Be There” was his first solo single, released October 7, 1971, and it shot to no. 4 on both the pop and R&B charts. His debut solo album Got To Be There was released in January 1972 and reached the pop Top 20. The LP also spun off “Rockin’ Robin,” a cover of a fifties smash that hit no. 2 pop and R&B, and “I Wanna Be Where You Are” (top 20 pop/no. 2 R&B).

In July 1972 Michael sang “Ben,” the title song from a movie about a trained rat, and it became his first solo pop no. 1. Michael’s emotional, sincere performance helped the song win a Golden Globe Award, and it was nominated for an Oscar®. The stylistically rich Ben album showcased Michael’s interpretive skills: the tracks included a moody cover of the Stylistics’ moody “People Make The World Go Round,” which in later years became a favorite of hip-hoppers; the happy, funky “We’ve Got A Good Thing Going;” and a nod to the great jazz singer Jimmy Scott, a man-child of another era, with a cover of Scott’s signature song “Everybody’s Somebody’s Fool.”
MJ was still only 14 years old.

Music & Me, released April 13, 1973, was Michael’s next album—a push towards more adult contemporary pop like “Ben,” which backfired commercially, although it contains fine performances, including “With A Child’s Heart,” originally cut by Stevie Wonder, Motown’s sixties teen superstar, and a vocal version of “Happy,” the love theme from Lady Sings The Blues, the Gordy-produced film on the life of Billie Holiday released the previous that starred Jackson mentor Diana Ross.

Forever, Michael, released in January 1975, got things back on the R&B track. A more danced-oriented project that featured the return of Brian and Edward Holland to Motown, the LP hit the Black Album chart top 10, while its tracks “We’re Almost There” and “Just A Little Bit Of You” both peaked inside the R&B Singles top 10. In the two years prior, the Jackson 5, after a commercial lull, had been successful with dance tracks, particularly the smash no. 1 “Dancing Machine.”

Those four albums might have been the end of the story for Michael and Motown, as he and the group, sans Jermaine, left to go to Epic Records. Michael was 17 years old. While the group—now the Jacksons—kept the groove going, MJ set aside his solo career. He took up acting, memorably appearing as the Scarecrow in The Wiz with Diana Ross in 1978. He struck up a friendship with the film’s music producer, Quincy Jones and, in 1979, at age 21, MJ re-ignited his solo career, collaborating with Jones on Off The Wall. In the aftermath of its huge success, Motown issued the compilation One Day In Your Life, on March 25, 1981. Its title song—lifted from Forever, Michael—turned into a no. 1 hit in the U.K. and top 40 AC in the U.S.

Then came Thriller. The hits. The videos. The moonwalk on Motown 25. In May 1984 Motown released the LP Farewell My Summer Love, a batch of songs from the vault with contemporary overdubs; the title song went top 10 R&B. Two years later Motown issued Looking Back To Yesterday, a collection of more vault masters—some with the J5—that contained further unexpected gems.

Michael and his brothers were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1997. Michael went in as a solo artist in 2001. “He has transfixed the world like few entertainers before or since,” it says in his inductee biography. “As a solo performer, he has enjoyed a level of superstardom previously known only to Elvis Presley, the Beatles and Frank Sinatra.”

It was at Motown where MJ first bared his young soul and was set on his path to becoming the biggest pop star of our time. He died at age 50, much too young, on June 25, 2009. He is loved, he is missed. He is Forever, Michael.