Can You Remember? — A Serious Look At Child Prodigy Michael Jackson Before His Grotesque Fall As An Adult
Before Michael Jackson Descended Into Tragic Spectacle, He Was A Fresh-Faced Musical Child Prodigy That Wowed America’s Music Elite.
Published January 26, 2014
The world loves child prodigies. In terms of musical prodigies in the late 20th century, there is one that stands out. In the summer of 1969, Motown Records began promotoing a little afro-haired black kid who fronted the Jackson 5 named Michael Jackson. Jackson’s fame as a young adult would later eclipse his fame as a child and make him a global brand on a scale seldom seen.
Jackson’s eventual metamorphasis all but buried the collective memory of his child prodigy years from 1969 to the early-1970s. These days we still hear the occasional Jackson 5 song during Christmastime, but Jackson’s childhood hit performances – over 40 years ago now – have faded into deep background.
We are fortunate though because for anyone with an appreciation of music, dance and or even just a morbid curiosity in fallen idols, YouTube gives us a comprehensive and close up look at little Michael Jackson as child prodigy. We can watch his development from wunderkind to world megastar in the mid-1970s through the early-1980s.
Here is The Jackson 5’s introduction on the Ed Sullivan Show. It gets removed from Youtube from time to time, so apologies if this video is down [The LBT cannot vouch for copyright] Wear decent earphones. You will be blown away:
Here is the raw, early Michael Jackson doing his James Brown routine on American Bandstand. At this point he was a recently signed Motown artist, but his stunningly skillful James Brown-style singing and dancing pre-dated The Jackson 5’s Motown deal.
No matter how big Michael became as a solo artist in the 1980s, The Jackson 5 were no small affair in the 1970s. Their first four singles released starting in 1969 all hit number one on the Hot 100 chart. With the help of their Motown team, they continued cranking out accessible but critically praised Top 5 hits through the early-1970s.