Maps of Music

Forever, Michael (1975)

Where the lyrics of Forever, Michael take you, and where it was really made.

Michael Jackson's last album for Motown sold a million copies worldwide, yet it charted only in the United States. Its best-known single came six years later, when the 1981 compilation One Day in Your Life reached number one in the UK.

Key places

Where the Motown sessions were recorded (1975)

Recording site Motown Recording Studios — Most tracks were recorded in 1974 at Motown's studio in Los Angeles. The pin marks the city centre, not the exact studio building. Google Maps · Apple Maps

How to get there: See the map for directions.

Album story

Overview

• Forever, Michael: fourth studio album by Michael Jackson
• Released 16 January 1975 by Motown Records, his final album with the label
• Credited with funk and soul material
• Producers: Eddie Holland, Brian Holland, Hal Davis, Freddie Perren, Sam Brown III
• Final album before Off the Wall (1979), his solo breakthrough
• Has sold one million copies worldwide

Background

• Jackson's fourth album as a solo artist and his last for Motown
• The Jackson 5 left for CBS Records after the album Moving Violation; Jermaine stayed with Motown until 1983
• Marked a change in style: a smoother soul sound that Jackson kept developing on his later Epic Records albums
• Voice already changing on the earlier album Music & Me two years before
• First album to feature Jackson as a tenor rather than a boy soprano

Recording

• Most tracks were recorded in 1974
• Release was first planned for 1974 but delayed because of the demand created by the Jackson 5 hit Dancing Machine
• In 1975 Motown ran a joint promotional campaign with Forever, Michael and Moving Violation

Sources: en.wikipedia.org

Tracklist

Sources: musicbrainz.org

Artist

Career

• Born August 29, 1958 in Gary, Indiana; eighth of ten children in the Jackson family.
• Debuted at age six as lead singer of the Jackson 5; the group signed with Motown in 1968 and had early number-one hits such as "I Want You Back".
• Moved to Epic Records in 1975 as the Jacksons, and began a solo career with Off the Wall (1979).
• Thriller (1982) became the best-selling album of all time, with an estimated 70 million copies sold.
• Bad (1987) was the first album to produce five US Billboard Hot 100 number-one singles.
• Known as the "King of Pop"; credited with transforming music videos and popularizing the moonwalk.
• Died June 25, 2009 from a propofol overdose; a posthumous catalog continued to sell strongly.

Philanthropy

• Founded the Heal the World Foundation in 1992.
• Estimated to have donated over $500 million to charities over his life.

Sources: en.wikipedia.org

Reception

At release

• Tom Hull: called it transitional, as expected from a 16-year-old artist, and gave it B+
• Robert Christgau (The Village Voice): praised Jackson's voice for combining autonomy and helpless innocence
• Christgau: noted Brian Holland's production help and the romantic ballads as credible as the rockers
• Leah Greenblatt (Entertainment Weekly): said the comparatively adult soul sound showed Jackson was ready to leave his days as Gordy's bubblegum boy wonder

Reappraisal

• William Ruhlmann (AllMusic, retrospective): called it a more mature effort for the 16-year-old singer
• Ruhlmann: said it lacked the contemporary dance style that had revived Jackson's career with Dancing Machine
• Ruhlmann: said the arrangements resembled many older Motown charts and hinted little at Off the Wall four years later

Records

• US Billboard 200: number 101
• US Top Soul Albums: number 10
• Charted only in the United States; failed to chart outside the US
• Three singles each had moderate success on the US Billboard Hot 100 and other charts
• Has sold one million copies worldwide

Sources: en.wikipedia.org

Trivia

• In 1981 Motown released the compilation One Day in Your Life, named after the third track, and its title track reached number one in the UK and several other countries.
• The 1981 compilation was released to capitalize on the success of Jackson's Off the Wall on Epic.
• In 1984 the song Dear Michael was covered by Kim Fields.
• The album was reissued in 2009 after Jackson's death as part of the three-disc compilation Hello World: The Motown Solo Collection.
• Both singles We're Almost There and Just a Little Bit of You were written by the Holland Brothers of Holland–Dozier–Holland.

Sources: en.wikipedia.org

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