Michael Jackson
Hello World- The Complete Motown Solo Collection
SITE SHIP DATE: 7/03/09
LIMITED EDITION QUANITITY: 7,000
“Michael Jackson could make you forget he was so young.”
So writes Suzee Ikeda, a Motown A&R assistant who was a creative confidante of a teenage Michael, in her introductory essay to Hello World: The Motown Solo Collection, a new 3-CD set that features every MJ recording released from 1971 to 1975, plus the Motown-era songs that were released after he left the company.
At the height of Jacksonmania in 1970-71, when everyone in the world, it seemed, was focusing on the hot kids’ group from Gary, Indiana, a solo career for Michael was not necessarily a given. But when 13-year-old Donny Osmond went solo while staying in the Osmonds family group, so did Michael, then turning 14, who was given material that made him sound even wiser and more mature as an artist. “Got To Be There” was his first solo hit, which featured a stunning, declamatory phrase that provided the name of this collection.
The LP Got To Be There, released in January 1972, also included the hits “Rockin’ Robin” and “I Wanna Be Where You Are.” It was followed by Ben, after the hit title song from a film about a pet rat—a song that became an unlikely No. 1 smash for Michael. The album was first issued with a cover featuring lurid artwork from the film, which was quickly replaced by a simpler image of MJ; our package reproduces both covers in the 48 page booklet.
Music And Me was next, an experiment in softening Michael’s sound—the album featured a few Adult Contemporary covers—followed by Forever, Michael. That LP had a harder dance age, and included the now-classic, sample-favorites “We’re Almost There” and “Just A Little Bit Of You.”
Those four albums might have been the end of the story for Michael and Motown, as the J5 left in 1975 to go to Epic Records. In the aftermath of the huge success of MJ’s solo Off The Wall, however, came the compilation One Day In Your Life, whose title song—lifted from Forever, Michael—turned into a No. 1 hit in the U.K. and top 40 AC in the U.S. Following the crazy ride of Thriller, Motown released Farewell My Summer Love, a batch of songs from the vault with contemporary overdubs; the title song went top 10 R&B.
There’s more: in 1986 Motown issued Looking Back To Yesterday, a collection of more vault masters—some with the J5—that contained further unexpected gems.
Hello World has all of that and these extra gems: all nine songs from Farewell My Summer Love are included in their original, undubbed mixes. Plus, we unearthed the original mix of “Twenty-Five Miles”—Michael’s cover of the Edwin Starr hit that has previously been available only in a 1987 vault collection. It’s all in a splendid 8” x 5.5” package with Ms. Ikeda’s intro, a main essay by Mark Anthony Neal, pages of annotations, rare photos and repros of the LP jackets. It’s deserving of the one of the greatest performers the world has ever known, at any age.
Read More at Hip-O-Select.com
Hello World- The Complete Motown Solo Collection
SITE SHIP DATE: 7/03/09
LIMITED EDITION QUANITITY: 7,000
“Michael Jackson could make you forget he was so young.”
So writes Suzee Ikeda, a Motown A&R assistant who was a creative confidante of a teenage Michael, in her introductory essay to Hello World: The Motown Solo Collection, a new 3-CD set that features every MJ recording released from 1971 to 1975, plus the Motown-era songs that were released after he left the company.
At the height of Jacksonmania in 1970-71, when everyone in the world, it seemed, was focusing on the hot kids’ group from Gary, Indiana, a solo career for Michael was not necessarily a given. But when 13-year-old Donny Osmond went solo while staying in the Osmonds family group, so did Michael, then turning 14, who was given material that made him sound even wiser and more mature as an artist. “Got To Be There” was his first solo hit, which featured a stunning, declamatory phrase that provided the name of this collection.
The LP Got To Be There, released in January 1972, also included the hits “Rockin’ Robin” and “I Wanna Be Where You Are.” It was followed by Ben, after the hit title song from a film about a pet rat—a song that became an unlikely No. 1 smash for Michael. The album was first issued with a cover featuring lurid artwork from the film, which was quickly replaced by a simpler image of MJ; our package reproduces both covers in the 48 page booklet.
Music And Me was next, an experiment in softening Michael’s sound—the album featured a few Adult Contemporary covers—followed by Forever, Michael. That LP had a harder dance age, and included the now-classic, sample-favorites “We’re Almost There” and “Just A Little Bit Of You.”
Those four albums might have been the end of the story for Michael and Motown, as the J5 left in 1975 to go to Epic Records. In the aftermath of the huge success of MJ’s solo Off The Wall, however, came the compilation One Day In Your Life, whose title song—lifted from Forever, Michael—turned into a No. 1 hit in the U.K. and top 40 AC in the U.S. Following the crazy ride of Thriller, Motown released Farewell My Summer Love, a batch of songs from the vault with contemporary overdubs; the title song went top 10 R&B.
There’s more: in 1986 Motown issued Looking Back To Yesterday, a collection of more vault masters—some with the J5—that contained further unexpected gems.
Hello World has all of that and these extra gems: all nine songs from Farewell My Summer Love are included in their original, undubbed mixes. Plus, we unearthed the original mix of “Twenty-Five Miles”—Michael’s cover of the Edwin Starr hit that has previously been available only in a 1987 vault collection. It’s all in a splendid 8” x 5.5” package with Ms. Ikeda’s intro, a main essay by Mark Anthony Neal, pages of annotations, rare photos and repros of the LP jackets. It’s deserving of the one of the greatest performers the world has ever known, at any age.
Read More at Hip-O-Select.com
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