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Michael Jackson · S1 E2
The Jacksons of Jackson Street
Nine children, one house, and a father with a plan
Gary, Indiana, 1962: the moment Joe leaves for the night shift at Inland Steel, eleven-year-old Tito sneaks out his father's guitar and starts to play. When Joe finally catches him, he doesn't reach for his belt, he listens, then looks at his sons and says: we're forming a group.
I'll Be There. Jackson 5 (1970). Listen to how Michael and Jermaine split the song: Jermaine smooth and controlled, Michael urgent and searching. A twelve-year-old singing about devotion with the emotional weight of someone who already knows what it means to need somebody.
I'll Be There. Jackson 5 (1970)
Produced by Hal Davis, this is a ballad, not a groove, and Berry Gordy bet the production budget on it. The strings are unusually warm for Motown. The dual lead works because of contrast: Jermaine is composed, Michael is aching. It held #1 for five weeks and became the biggest Jackson 5 hit.
Katherine
Katherine Esther Scruse grows up in Alabama, moves north, and marries Joe Jackson in 1949. A devout Jehovah's Witness who plays piano and clarinet, she teaches all nine children music from the earliest age she can. She is the counterweight to Joe: the warmth to his discipline, the gentleness to his iron. Michael will credit her, again and again, for everything soft in him.
“She always showed us love. She was the one who held everything together. Without my mother, I don't think any of us would have had the courage to keep going.”
— Michael Jackson, Oprah Winfrey interview, February 10, 1993
TAP TO REVEAL: The Jackson who could have been the star, but stepped aside
Got to Be There. Michael Jackson
Michael's first solo single (1971), and the first time you hear him outside the Jackson 5 sound. He was 13. The production is simple. The voice is already something else entirely.
In which faith did Katherine Jackson raise her nine children?
The Jackson 5 are playing clubs and talent shows across the Midwest, but something is happening that Joe didn't plan for. Every eye in the room keeps finding the same boy, and next episode we see the moment Michael stops being the youngest member of the act and becomes the act.
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