Forever, Michael
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Forever, Michael | ||
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| Studio album by Michael Jackson | ||
| Released | January 16, 1975 | |
| Recorded | 1974 | |
| Genre | Soul | |
| Length | ?? | |
| Label | Motown | |
| Producer(s) | Edward Holland, Jr., Brian Holland, Hal Davis | |
| Michael Jackson chronology | ||
|---|---|---|
| Music and Me (1973) |
Forever, Michael (1975) |
The Best of Michael Jackson (1975) |
Forever, Michael was the fourth album in American pop and R&B singer Michael Jackson's solo career and was Jackson's final contractural studio album as a soloist in Motown Records. Released in January 1975, Jackson was now sixteen years old and in full tenor at this point in his career.
Around this time, The Jackson 5 had experienced a rebirth as one of the pioneering disco/funk groups, due to the success of their 1974 single "Dancing Machine". That song saw the next-to-youngest Jackson showcasing his skills bringing in a new dance move called "The Robot". As Michael's dance led to a cultural revolution, he was still under the throes of Motown having songs written for him. There was also a delay for this album orignally thought to be recorded in mid 1974 was pushed back because of the success of the Jackson Five's hit "Dancing Machine". The mood in Forever, Michael is musically different from that of Music and Me, and featured the songs "Just a Little Bit of You", Jackson's biggest solo hit in three years, "We're Almost There", "I'll Come Home to You" and the memorable ballad "One Day in Your Life".
Though it peaked at #101 on Billboard's Pop Albums Chart, it was more successful than Music and Me and considered to be one of his defining moments as a Motown solo artist.
[edit] Track listing
- "We're Almost There" (Holland/Holland)
- "Take Me Back" (Holland/Holland)
- "One Day In Your Life" (Armand/Brown)
- "Cinderella Stay Awhile" (Sutton)
- "We've Got Forever" (Willensky)
- "Just a Little Bit of You" (Holland/Holland)
- "You Are There" (Brown/Meitzenheimer/Yarian)
- "Dapper Dan"
- "Dear Michael" (Davis/Willensky)
- "I'll Come Home to You" (Perren/Yarian)
[edit] Charted Hits
- "We're Almost There" - #54 Pop Singles Chart; #7 Soul Singles Chart
- "Just a Little Bit of You" - #23 Pop Singles Chart; #4 Soul Singles Chart
[edit] Miscellanea
- "One Day In Your Life", ironically, would find success six years after its original issue on this album, in 1981 when the song and some other lesser known Jackson singles around the time of the song's recording was issued in an album that year. The song charted at #55 Pop and #47 R&B; also in another ironic twist, the song became Jackson's first solo #1 in England, a big feat considering the song had been initially cancelled as a single during the promotion of Forever, Michael.
- Child and "Facts of Life" sitcom star Kim Fields recorded a cover of "Dear Michael" in 1984 as a tribute to the now-superstar pop icon.
