Forever, Michael
| Forever, Michael | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Michael Jackson studio album | ||||
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Publication |
January 16, 1975 |
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| Label (s) | Motown Records | |||
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Format (s) |
CD, LP, MC |
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Title (number) |
10 |
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running time |
32:54 |
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| occupation | ||||
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Studio (s) |
Motown Recording Studios, Hollywood , California (USA) |
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Forever, Michael (English for: " Forever, Michael ") is the fourth solo album by the then sixteen year old American singer Michael Jackson and the last official album that he recorded for the Motown Records label.
background
After Michael Jackson's third solo album Music and Me , released in April 1973, had been less commercially successful than the two previous albums, Michael was in 1974 with the Jackson 5 in Las Vegas and performed with them in evening shows. Between the second album Ben and Forever, Michael, Michael 's voice also changed, changing from a somewhat shrill tone to a clearer and finer, a little deeper tone. Motown had already tried on their third album, Music & Me , to hide this voice break with the trick of grouping four new pieces of music around two older ones, to conceal Michael's new voice. Since one can not imitate the boyish timbre , he never lost it. His last album, Forever, Michael was released on Motown Records in January 1975 . All Motown Records releases that followed this album were no longer released in association with Michael Jackson.
In the run-up to the release, as well as after, there had already been disagreements between the Jackson family and Motown Records, as the Jacksons no longer saw themselves sufficiently supported by the record company and its founder Berry Gordy . Gordy had always looked after his artists personally, but had been trying for some time to withdraw from the music sector and switch to the film business. One of these differences was that neither the Jackson 5 nor Michael were allowed to publish self-written and self-produced songs, as Motown preferred to leave this to the label's own songwriters and producers. In Gordy's view, the Jackson 5, and thus Michael, didn't have the potential for songwriting and production.
Michael Jackson himself stated that he was deeply unhappy that the Jacksons were not allowed to write and produce their own songs because they did not like the music they were making. On the other hand, he thought Gordy was a genius and admired him as a brilliant man. Michael also owes him a lot of thanks for having predicted the Jackson 5 and for Michael's life would have been different without Gordy.
The album was mixed and recorded by LT Horn, Russ Terrana also took on part of the mixing, Jim Britt contributed the photography for the album cover. The songs were composed by Holland & Holland, Armand, Brown, Sutton, Willensky, Yarian, Meitzenheimer, Davis and Perren. Stylistically, the individual pieces of music are still strongly based on earlier Motown classics, they did not have a danceable style and the disco style, which was already popular at the time, is missing.
Michael's solo albums at Motown had the musical difference to the releases of the Jackson 5 that he was preferably allowed to sing ballads, as it was believed that the slow music would bring out the melodious sound of his "touching" voice. Furthermore, melodic instruments such as violins, flutes and “prancing” keyboards were increasingly used on Michael's albums.
After the failure of Forever, Michael decided to leave Jacksons Motown Records as their rights on the label were severely restricted. So they looked around for a new, more suitable contract partner. With the Epic Records belonging to the CBS a contract was negotiated, which should be valid after the separation from Motown. Motown released the Jackson 5 album Movin Violation in May 1975 and Joe Jackson only announced the change of the Jacksons to Epic Records on June 30th, as he was too hesitant to make the change public.
reception
Chart placement of the album
While the album never rose above number 101 in the pop charts, it was much better placed in the American Black Charts and reached tenth place there.
Chart placement of the singles
| year | title | Chart positions | annotation | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| US pop singles | US Black Singles | US disco singles | |||
| 1975 | Just a little bit of you |
23 | 4th | 10 | |
| 1975 | We're Almost There |
54 | 7th | - | |
| 1975 | One Day in Your Life |
- | - | - | |
Six years after the album was released, “One Day in Your Life” was a compilation of several songs by Michael Jackson, directed by Motown and produced by Quincy Jones. The third single from the album Forever, Michael was eponymous for the new release and was simultaneously re-released as a single. She reached first place in the UK singles chart; Number 42 in the American Black Charts and number 55 in the American Pop Charts.
The album itself was re-released once in CD format in 1994 and as a compilation on two CDs ( Got to Be There / Forever Michael ) in 2001 .
Track list
| No. | title | Composer / s |
|---|---|---|
| 1. | We're Almost There | Holland & Holland |
| 2. | Take me back | Holland & Holland |
| 3. | One Day in Your Life | Armand & Brown |
| 4th | Cinderella Stay a While | Sutton |
| 5. | We've Got Forever | M. & Willensky |
| 6th | Just a little bit of you | Holland & Holland |
| 7th | You are there | Brown, Yarian & Meitzenheimer |
| 8th. | Dapper Dan | Fletcher, Davis |
| 9. | Dear Michael | Davis & Willensky |
| 10. | I'll come home to you | Perren & Yarian |
Re-use of the individual titles
All tracks by Forever, Michael and the three previously released solo albums were also released individually or in groups on various other compilations that either only contain Michael Jackson's songs recorded at Motown or are mixed with Jackson 5 songs, as well as various best-of compilations .
Individual evidence
- ↑ release date
- ↑ The Many Faces of Michael Jackson by Lee Pinkerton; Bosworth Musikverlag, ISBN 0-7119-6783-0 , ISBN 978-0-7119-6783-0 .
- ^ Michael Jackson The Biography of J. Randy Taraborrelli, ISBN 3-89365-795-9 , ISBN 978-3-89365-795-7 , p. 141.
- ↑ The Michael Jackson phenomenon by Jochen Ebmeier, ISBN 3-89136-639-6 , p. 86ff.
- ↑ Michael Jackson: The King of Pop by Lisa Campbell & A. Caso, ISBN 0-8283-1957-X , ISBN 978-0-8283-1957-7 (English).
- ↑ The Michael Jackson phenomenon by Jochen Ebmeier, ISBN 3-89136-639-6 , p. 83
- ↑ Moonwalk. My life by Michael Jackson, ISBN 3-442-32510-2 , ISBN 978-3-442-32510-8 , pp. 92ff.
- ↑ Michael Jackson The biography of J. Randy Taraborrelli, ISBN 3-89365-795-9 , ISBN 978-3-89365-795-7 , pp. 150 ff.
- ↑ Moonwalk. My Life by Michael Jackson, ISBN 3-442-32510-2 , ISBN 978-3-442-32510-8 , pp. 93, 94.
- ↑ Brief album info at discogs.com
- ↑ [http://www.billboard.com/bbcom/discography/index.jsp?JSESSIONID=6gk4LJVQDgnTFQMBZ80LN49LW1GGhnWQGWQJXGpST7X9m0nlT1WJ!
- ↑ The Michael Jackson phenomenon by Jochen Ebmeier, ISBN 3-89136-639-6 , p. 73.
- ↑ The Michael Jackson phenomenon by Jochen Ebmeier, ISBN 3-89136-639-6 , p. 88ff.
- ↑ The Michael Jackson phenomenon by Jochen Ebmeier, ISBN 3-89136-639-6 , p. 90.
- ↑ Album placement at Allmusic (English)
- ↑ Single placement at Allmusic (English)
- ↑ UK charts database - search query required
- ↑ Publication information One Day in Your Life at Allmusic (English)
- ↑ [http://www.starpulse.com/Music/Jackson,_Michael/Discography/album/P4576/R41470/ short review and list of composers at starpulse.com] (web link no longer available)
- ↑ Dear Michael
- ↑ We've Got Forever
- ↑ One Day In Your Life
- ↑ We're Almost There
- ↑ Just a Little Bit of You
- ^ Cinderella Stay Awhile
- ↑ You Are There
- ↑ Dapper-Dan
- ↑ I'll Come Home to You