Michael Jackson (10 page)

What Jermaine remembers most about the day is the telegram that Diana showed them. ‘This is from me to lots and lots of people,’
she explained. It read: ‘Please join me in welcoming a brilliant musical group, The Jackson 5, on Monday, 11 August 6:30 to
9:30 p.m. at the Daisy, North Rodeo Drive, Beverly Hills. The Jackson 5, featuring sensational eight-year-old Michael Jackson,
will perform live at the party, [signed] Diana Ross.’

‘I think you made a mistake,’ Michael told her. ‘I'm not eight. I'm ten.’

‘Not any more you're not,’ Berry said with a grin.

Berry explained that the discrepancy was a matter of public relations. What ensued was a brief discussion with Michael about
the art of PR; he was reminded that, as far as the media were concerned, Diana Ross was the one who had brought him and his
brothers to Motown. He should always remember that because, as Diana explained to him, ‘It's all for your mage.’

‘Got it,’ Michael said. ‘I'm eight. And we were discovered by the great Miss Diana Ross.’

‘You got it, all right,’ Diana said with a grin. She hugged him tightly. ‘You are just so cute,’ she said, again.

Michael would later recall, ‘I figured out at an early age that if someone said something about me that wasn't true, it was
a lie. But if someone said something about my
image
that wasn't true, then it was okay. Because then it wasn't a lie, it was public relations.’

On 11 August 1968, Diana Ross introduced her new protégés, The Jackson 5, with the kind of pomp and pageantry usually accorded
major Hollywood debuts. Three hundred of Gordy's and Diana's ‘closest’ friends and business associates crammed into the chic
Beverly Hills private club, the Daisy, all having been personally invited via Diana Ross's telegram. They stood and cheered
as Michael Jackson and The Jackson 5 – as they were introduced by Diana – performed Motown songs such as Smokey Robinson's ‘Who's
Loving You’ and even Disney classics like ‘Zip-a-dee-do-dah’. The boys wore identical lime green vest suits with gold shirts
and matching green boots. Every move had been carefully choreographed for them, and rehearsed in the professional Motown tradition.
They were a hit. Afterwards, a Motown press release was distributed to everyone in attendance, with two years shaved off the
age of each boy.

Beaming with pride at their reception, Berry announced that The Jackson 5 would next appear in concert with Diana Ross and
The Supremes at the Forum five days later, and then later in October when Diana would play hostess on
The Hollywood Palace
television show.

Each Jackson boy met the press in a receiving line, with Diana Ross making the introductions: ‘This one's Michael. Isn't he
cute?
And that one's Jermaine. Isn't he
adorable?
And over there's Jackie. Look how
tall
he is,’ and so forth.

Soul
reporter Judy Spiegelman recalled, ‘I remember being impressed with the courteous, outgoing attitude of the youngsters. After
all, they were just kids but yet not at all affected by the attention.’

Pauline Dunn, a reporter from the
Sentinel,
a Los Angeles black newspaper, approached Michael.

‘How's it feel to be a star, Michael?’ she wanted to know.

‘Well, to tell you the truth, I had just about given up hope,’ Michael said with a grin. He was wearing a black bowler hat
over his Afro-style hair. ‘I thought I was gonna be an old man before being discovered.’ Then, in a hushed, dramatic tone
he concluded, ‘But then along came Miss Diana Ross to save my career. She
discovered
me.’

‘And just how old are you, Michael?’ she asked.

Michael looked up at Diana, who was standing proudly behind him, her hand on his shoulder. Berry Gordy stood nearby.

‘Eight,’ Michael said.

‘But I thought you were older. Going on eleven, maybe,’ the suspicious journalist pressed.

‘Well, I'm not,’ Michael insisted. ‘I'm eight.’

‘But I heard – ’

‘Look, the kid's eight, all right?’ Berry broke in. ‘Next question.’

‘Next question,
please,
’ Michael corrected him. He smiled and winked at Pauline Dunn as if to say, This is how we play the game.

The early 1970s were the most significant transitional years Motown Records had undergone since shoring itself up as a major
musical force. By that time, although the company was still producing superb pop and rhythm-and-blues music, some of its biggest
stars had begun grumbling about Motown's conveyor-belt method of creating hit records.

The seventies was a period of change, both socially and politically, and the production of pop music did not go unaffected.
To keep pace with the times, many labels eventually dismantled their songwriting/production staffs and signed prolific singer-songwriters
and self-contained bands who wrote and performed their own music. Berry Gordy was not thrilled about this trend. He had always
discouraged his acts from writing and producing their own material because, it was said, he did not wish for them to share
in the music's publishing, which was the inevitable next request. He preferred having his own stable of writers and producers,
all of whom were signed to his own publishing company, Jobete. In the end, much of the money stayed in Motown's coffers.

However, some of Motown's acts craved more artistic freedom. For instance, Stevie Wonder and Marvin Gaye both felt that they'd
outgrown manufacturing music the Motown way – singing songs supplied to them by staff writers and producers. They must have
finally realized that staff producers and writers like Smokey Robinson and Norman Whitfield were earning large sums from songwriting
royalties without having to sweat through gruelling forty-city tours and public appearances. Wonder and Gaye were now asking
Berry for the opportunity to express themselves musically through song-writing and, by extension, share in the publishing
of their songs.

The fact is that music wasn't at the forefront of founder Berry Gordy's reasoning when he decided to relocate Motown from
Detroit to Los Angeles. Berry picked up and moved two decades' worth of Michigan roots for the same reason optimistic high
school graduates and pretty young runaways swarm to the City of Angels every day from all over the world: the Silver Screen.
Berry wanted to get into films, and his protégée Diana Ross was to be his ticket. In masterminding the westward move, Gordy
was his usual methodical self. He used the occasion to clean house: employees and artists considered deadweight would be left
behind in the Motor City, while desired staffers could keep their jobs, but only if they were willing to relocate to Los Angeles.

When Berry Gordy saw the film of The Jackson Five's Detroit audition, he realized that these youngsters had arrived at a precipitous
time. Not only would this group usher in a new musical era for Motown, but they would do so with a hit single supplied by
Motown's own production staff. These kids didn't want to write and produce their own songs, they just wanted to be stars.
For Berry, this must have been déjà vu. How he longed for a time not so long ago when Stevie and Marvin cared only about singing
and not about publishing. Signing a group that would be exclusively reliant on Motown for its material would validate the
tried-and-true Motown process for at least a few more years. (Even Gordy couldn't have predicted, though, how much Jobete
would prosper as a result of his signing of The Jackson 5.)

In 1969, Motown's West Coast Division was operated under the direction of one of the company's top staff writer-producers.
As an integral part of a writing-producing team at Motown called the Clan, Deke Richards was responsible for some terrific
songs (such as The Supremes' ‘Love Child’). He and Berry enjoyed a close relationship; Deke even had a phone line exclusively
for Berry's use, and Berry would call him at all hours of the early morning, brimming with ideas.

Integral to Deke's job as Creative Director of Talent for Motown's West Coast Division was an on-going search for promising
new writers and artists to bolster the company's roster. That year, he was introduced to two talented young writers, Freddie
Perren and Fonce Mizell. He thought both had amazing ability and couldn't wait to bring them into the Motown family.

For the next three months, Deke Richards, Freddie Perren and Fonce Mizell collaborated on a song entitled ‘I Want to Be Free’,
which was intended for Gladys Knight and the Pips. The team went into the Motown studios with a talented corps of musicians
to cut the instrumental track for ‘I Want to Be Free’, remembered fondly by Perren as ‘one of Motown's greatest instrumental
performances’.

Meanwhile, Berry invited Deke to the show The Jackson 5 gave at the Daisy, presented by Diana Ross. Deke was impressed.

He had heard through the Motown grapevine that Bobby Taylor was presently recording material with the brothers in Detroit.
Though Taylor was producing some good songs, everyone knew that there wasn't a hit record to be found in the bunch. When Deke
played the track of ‘I Want to Be Free’ for Berry, he liked it so much he thought it might be ideal for the Jackson boys.
‘Give the song a Frankie Lymon treatment,’ he told Deke, ‘and we'll see what happens.’

Deke recalled, ‘Berry lived with the track for a while and had a couple of ideas which were good. He was starting to get excited.
I
wanted
Berry to get involved. This was starting to become a very exciting proposition for all of us.’

Deke decided to call the team of Fonce Mizell, Freddie Perren, himself and Gordy the Corporation, which would reinforce the
democratic premise that there would be no overblown egos involved in the work and that everyone would be treated fairly. He
remembered, ‘After the basic instrumental track was finished, it was time to begin rehearsing the kids' vocals to record over
it. The boys came over to Berry's house, and that's when we started talking about the song with them and developing a rapport.
For the next few weeks, those kids worked a tremendous number of hours on this one song. It was hard work. Eventually, the
song was retitled “I Want You Back”.’

‘The biggest problem with The Jackson 5 was not the willingness to work,’ said Deke. ‘The problem was that you not only had
to be a producer, you had to be a phonetics and English teacher. It was draining, teaching them the pronunciation of words.
We had to go over and over words one at a time, which was tough.

‘If Michael had any problems other than phonetics, they had to do with attacking and sustaining words and notes. Like any
kid, he tended to throw away words, he would slur a note rather than hold on to it. He'd be thinking about dancing or whatever
and not concentrate on getting the lyrics out. I'd have to tell him, “I need those notes, Michael, every last one of them.”

‘As a singer, though, he was great. As far as tone and all, he was terrific. We put a lot of pressure on him, because whenever
you find a little kid who can sing like that, the feeling is, “Yeah, he's so great I want him to be even greater.” I felt
that if he could be that good in the raw, imagine how amazing he could be if you really polished him up.’

‘I remember that Deke Richards was one of my first teachers,’ Michael Jackson said. ‘God, we spent so much time on “I Want
You Back”. He was really patient with me, all of us. I think I must have recorded that thing two dozen times. I had no idea
that recording could be such work. I remember falling asleep at the mike. I wondered if it would ever be finished. Just when
I thought we were through, we'd have to go back and do it again.’

The final recording session for ‘I Want You Back’ lasted until two in the morning. ‘This had to be the most expensive single
in Motown history, up to that point,’ Deke Richards added. ‘It cost about ten thousand dollars. At that time the cost of a
Motown single was about two thousand. We kept adding and subtracting music until the very end. In fact, the original song
started off with just a guitar, but at the last minute I wanted a piano glissando at the top. I had Freddie and Fonce go in
there and run their fingers down the piano to kick the song off.’

On 2 October 1969, after the final mixing of ‘I Want You Back’, Berry asked Deke how he thought the group's name should appear
on the record's label. ‘Jackson Five’? ‘Jackson Five featuring Michael Jackson’? Deke said he thought the group should be
called simply The Jackson 5, with the numeral 5. Berry agreed. Joseph Jackson wasn't even consulted. Imagine what kind of
tension might have resulted in the family if Deke had suggested ‘Jackson Five featuring Michael Jackson’?