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It was built by the eccentric theatre developer Horst Schmidt and had 1.7 acres of lush grounds graced by Spanish Mediterranean Revival architectural features.
At the time of his death, the collection had vanished. Valued now in excess of $1 billion by some, its whereabouts and ownership remain unknown. (Rapti Gupta, ‘Michael Jackson’s Vegas Rental Up for Grabs at $19.5 million’, Realty Today, 5 August 2014, www.realtytoday.com).
When Sony and ATV merged in 1995 they became the second largest music publisher in the world. As well as owning The Beatles’ catalogue and many Elvis Presley hits written by Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller, they also owned publishing rights to hits by The Searchers, The Kings, Donovan, The Moody Blues, Roy Orbison and over 55,000 country hits, as well as 125,000 songs owned by Famous Music, including ‘Footloose’ and ‘Moon River’. In 2012 Sony/ATV acquired EMI’s catalogue to become the largest music catalogue in the world with the copyright to over 2 million songs and annual revenues in excess of $1.26 billion.
Released in August 1979, Off The Wall sold in excess of 20 million copies worldwide and Michael Jackson received a Grammy Award for Best Male R&B Vocal Performance. In his book Michael Jackson: The Magic & The Madness, J. Randy Taraborrelli writes: ‘The album showcased an adult Michael Jackson, for the first time a real artist, not just someone’s vocal stylist. Michael Jackson had officially arrived.’
The video for ‘Thriller’ was directed by Hollywood director John Landis, who had recently seen success with his horror film, An American Werewolf in London.
rsiwebadmin, ‘Triumph & Tragedy: The Life of Michael Jackson’, Rolling Stone India, 25 August 2009, www.rollingstoneindia.com.
J. Randy Taraborrelli, Michael Jackson, The Magic & the Madness (Sidgwick & Jackson, 2003).
‘Billie Jean’ alone sold 5.25 million copies worldwide and Jackson received sole writing credit.
Jim Miller, ‘Is Rock On The Rocks?’, Newsweek, 19 April 1982.
Mark Ellen, ‘Are the Stars Out Tonight…’, Smash Hits, 6 January 1983.
This was the last British interview that Michael Jackson ever gave.
When the Los Angeles Police Department searched the property in November 1993 in relation to the Jordan Chandler case, they found that Michael’s private two-level suite, the only bedroom in the house with a private entrance, was full of his trademark clutter including framed pictures of toddlers that decorated the walls and a hanging poster of Peter Pan.
Katherine Esther Scruse was born in 1930 in Russell County, Alabama to Prince Scruse and Martha Upshaw.
The children were Maureen, Sigmund, Tariano, Jermaine, La Toya, Marlon, Michael, Stephen and Janet. Another child, Brandon, died within hours of birth (he was one of a set of premature twins with Marlon).
Randall Sullivan, Untouchable: The Strange Life & Tragic Death of Michael Jackson (Grove/Atlantic, 2012).
It was at The Regal Theatre in Chicago that The Jackson Five would open for established Motown acts Gladys Knight & The Pips and Bobby Taylor & The Vancouvers in August 1968.
They actually recorded four songs that were released on two 45rpm discs: ‘Big Boy’ was released with ‘You’ve Changed’ as the B-side and this was followed up with ‘We Don’t Have To Be Over 21’ with ‘Jam Session’ as the B-side.
At this point, Motown were already overseeing such talent as Stevie Wonder, The Supremes, Smokey Robinson, The Temptations and Diana Ross.
Berry Gordy had wanted Joe Jackson to sign a standard Motown contract, which would have tied The Jackson Five to the label for a minimum of seven years. Joe managed to convince Gordy to adjust the contract to a one-year obligation, which he signed but failed to read that The Jackson Five were prevented from recording for another label for five years from the expiration of the deal, that Motown were under no obligation to record or promote the group for five years, that they would only be paid upon release of a record – not simply the recording of a record – and, as it turned out, each member of The Jackson Five would only earn one per cent for every record actually sold. One year or seven, Gordy was going to be the major winner in this deal.
Michael Jackson was born on 29 August 1958 so he was actually only days away from his tenth birthday.
The new name was decided during a discussion between Berry Gordy and Motown producer/composer Deke Richards. Richards was also a co-writer and co-producer of ‘I Want You Back’.
‘500 Greatest Songs of All Time’, Rolling Stone, 7 April 2011.
For the first time Michael’s mother, Katherine, and his other siblings, La Toya, Janet and Randy, joined them. Katherine would later recall that she thought the size of the house was twice as large as the one they had left in Gary, Indiana.
During their touring, the boys would be accompanied by a tutor, Rose Fine, who ensured that they continued their schooling whilst travelling.
Michael performed the song at the Oscar ceremony but the song lost out to ‘The Morning After’ from The Poseidon Adventure.
It is not known exactly why Katherine Jackson didn’t follow through with her divorce of Joe in 1973. There are rumours that representatives of the Jehovah’s Witnesses intervened, although divorce is permitted amongst Jehovah’s Witnesses if sexual relations outside marriage had taken place. Another theory is that Katherine feared bad press if she divorced Joe. In her 1990 autobiography, My Family, the Jacksons, Katherine wrote, ‘I didn’t think I could forgive him for what he’d done. I remained in this muddled state for longer than I’d care to admit: seven years. During this period I heard rumours of other affairs. But I still couldn’t bring myself to file for divorce, even though a couple of times I came close.’
‘Music & Me’ only sold 2 million copies worldwide and reached a lowly 92 on the US Billboard 200 Album Chart while ‘Forever Michael’ only reached Number 101.
Michael Jackson, Moonwalk (Arrow Books, 1988).
‘Show You The Way To Go’ reached Number 28 on the US Billboard Hot 100 and Number 1 in the UK charts.
Goin’ Places only sold 500,000 copies worldwide and is considered their lowest-selling album.
Sidney Lumet was a respected Hollywood film director who had overseen a string of classic films from the 1950s onwards including 12 Angry Men, Serpico and Dog Day Afternoon. Following Michael Jackson’s death, Lumet was quoted: ‘Michael Jackson is the most gifted entertainer to come down the pike since, I guess, James Dean. He’s a brilliant actor and dancer, probably one of the rarest entertainers I have ever worked with. His talent is awesome.’
Astoria Studios was originally built in 1920 and opened by Adolph Zukor. Between 1920 and 28, New York was the centre of the fledgling film industry and all the greats of the silent era worked here from Valentino to Swanson to Gish. The first two Marx Brothers films were made at Astoria and Paramount Pictures based their studio filming there until they moved to California in 1932. From 1942 to 70 the US Army used the studio for their productions and it wasn’t until 1971 that commercial film and TV production returned to the studio.
The film only took $13.1 million at the box office and led to Hollywood steering away from all-black productions for a number of years. It did receive four Academy Award nominations, though, for Best Art Direction, Best Costume Design, Best Original Movie Score and Best Cinematography. It failed to win in any category.
Legendary film critic Roger Ebert said that, ‘Michael Jackson fills the role with humour and warmth’.
They were overseen throughout the whole process by CBS executive producers Bobby Colomby and Mike Atkinson.
‘Blame It On The Boogie’ was actually written by English singer-songwriter Mick Jackson in 1977 with the hope of it being sold to Stevie Wonder. Mick Jackson had a minor hit with it himself, reaching Number 61 in the USA, but when The Jacksons released their version it returned them to the USA charts after five flop singles.
The song was edited from its eight-minute album version to a three-minute radio version, which was released as the single version.
‘Shake Your Body…’ was co-written with his brother, Randy.
The Pawnbroker was directed by Sidney Lumet, who would also later work with Michael Jackson on The Wiz.
Co-written with Louis Johnson.
‘This Place Hotel’ was originally called ‘Heartbreak Hotel’ but the record company changed the title to avoid confusion with the Elvis Presley song. Michael Jackson wasn’t influenced by Presley in any way and in his 1988 autobiography Moonwalk Jackson wrote, ‘People thought if I kept living in seclusion the way I was, I might die the way he did. The parallels aren’t there as far as I’m concerned and I was never much for scare tactics. Still, the way Elvis destroyed himself interests me, because I don’t ever want to walk those grounds myself.’
La Toya contributed the scream to the beginning of ‘This Place Hotel’.
Michael had the original Hayvenhurst house demolished and rebuilt as a Tudor mansion, his family living in his apartment while the work was being completed. In the grounds Jackson assembled a collection of birds and animals, including a giraffe named Jabbar.
‘Billie Jean’ was almost called ‘Not My Lover’ as Quincy Jones felt listeners might immediately think of the tennis player, Billie Jean King.
Rod Temperton’s third song on the album was provisionally titled ‘Starlight’ also.
The two Number 1 songs from the album were ‘Billie Jean’ and ‘Beat It’.
He had recorded only one Top 10 record in his time at Motown: ‘Let’s Get Serious’, produced by Stevie Wonder.
Co-written with Marlon Jackson.
Co-written with Randy Hansen.
The song was originally intended for the Thriller album, and was planned to be a duet with Freddie Mercury.
The tour was going to be called ‘The Final Curtain’ as it was considered to be the last tour the brothers would undertake together.
The original tour was set to run for 40 shows and the projected gross revenue was $30 million. After expenses the group would receive 85 per cent, roughly $3.4 million for each Jackson group member.
Darvocet was a narcotic pain reliever that was withdrawn from the USA market in November 2010 as it was proved that the drug resulted in adverse heart side effects. Prior to these findings, it was known that the drug was habit-forming. Percocet was used to relieve moderate to severe pain and is also known to be habit-forming.