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Michael Jackson · S2 E8
Destiny
Epic Records, the family split, and Michael stepping forward
Los Angeles, early 1978. Michael Jackson hums a bass line into a microphone, Randy picks it up on guitar, and for the first time there is no Corporation, no handlers, just five brothers making their own record.
Shake Your Body (Down to the Ground), The Jacksons (1978). Co-written by Michael and Randy Jackson, this is the track that proved the brothers could write, produce, and deliver a hit without anyone else at the controls. Nearly eight minutes of relentless funk built on a bass riff Michael hummed to his youngest brother.
Shake Your Body (Down to the Ground), The Jacksons (1978)
Co-written by Michael and Randy Jackson, the album cut runs nearly eight minutes, built on a driving bass riff that Michael reportedly hummed to Randy. The groove is leaner and funkier than anything Gamble and Huff produced for them, with Michael's lead vocal doubling over itself in the chorus while the brothers' harmonies lock underneath. The single sold over two million copies and reached number seven on the Hot 100, making it the biggest hit of the Jacksons' career on Epic.
The Gamble That Didn't Pay
Two albums with Gamble and Huff, and the brothers are back where they started: singing other people's songs. "Goin' Places" (1977) stalls on the charts, and Epic gives the Jacksons the one thing Motown never would. Permission to try it themselves.
“We fought to leave Motown so we could write our own music. Then at Epic we were handed songs and told what to do all over again. By the third album, we said: let us do it ourselves, or we walk.”
— Michael Jackson, from interviews about the Destiny album
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Things I Do for You, The Jacksons
A deep cut from the Destiny sessions, written entirely by the brothers. Tighter and more aggressive than anything on their Gamble and Huff albums, driven by a punchy rhythm guitar and Michael's most urgent vocal on the record. This track proves Destiny was not a one-hit album. The brothers were writing full, dynamic arrangements on their own.
The Jacksons' first two albums on Epic Records were produced by Gamble and Huff. Who produced the "Destiny" album?
A handshake on a soundstage in Queens, and a twenty-year-old who knows exactly what he wants to sound like. Next season: Quincy Jones, a studio in Los Angeles, and the album that turns Michael Jackson into the future of music.
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