Michael Jackson: The Life of an Icon Page #5

Jimmy Ruffin ARTIST, MOTOWN RECORDS.

He studied me, he studied Marvin Gaye,

he studied Stevie Wonder.

He studied everybody.

We were the best in the country at the time.

The first time I saw them perform

was in San Francisco

and I was like, "Wow."

It was like, "There's nobody that good."

Berry Gordy was like,

"Keep your cards close to your chest.

"Don't let people know what you're thinking.

"Don't let the artists Know

how much people like 'em."

He was a shrewd guy.

Berry looked after every aspect

of an artist's career.

Now, some may complain today

that they didn't get paid enough royalties

and they never received

a lot of their publishing.

But I 'll tell you something.

Berry Gordy made these artists.

Everybody, I think,

had different relationships with Berry.

Abdul 'Duke' Fakir

ARTIST, 'THE FOUR TOPS'.

We had a great relationship with Berry

and we still do.

He gave us... He promised us things

that he made come true,

that he couldn't put in the contract.

But he promised them and kept his word.

What he saw in the Jackson 5

was a children's group that could transcend

every age group.

And he nurtured their talents.

He knew he had something special.

I made him sit in while I was doing the music.

Bobby Taylor

ARTIST, GORDY / MOTOWN RECORDS

that they had to work with.

They were with me 20 hours a day.

Being attentive, if I sew somebody sleeping,

then I would send them back to the house

and tell them,

"l don't wanna see you for a week."

They worked hard, they really worked hard.

Michael now would stay

over at Diana Ross's house and rehearse.

He really liked Diana Ross

and she liked him.

HOLLOWAY:
Diana Ross was

showing him off.

She just like...

She was the one that discovered him

and later on I found out that Bobby Taylor

actually discovered him.

TITO:
I think we were just kids.

We didn't realise

all the great accomplishments

that we had achieved.

Seeing Hollywood and playing

with Diana Ross. I mean, we were in heaven.

Just those things alone was priceless to us.

Michael told me when he came to LA,

it was like his whole world had changed.

He could buy as much candy as he wanted

because nobody would say no to him.

(R&B SONG PLAYING)

Michael and I went to see the Four Tops,

it was around 1 971 or '72.

Michael and David just came

to the dressing room

and in the dressing room

was also Stevie Wonder.

GEST:
I said to Levi Stubbs,

You're brilliant. I love your voice..

And Michael looked at him and said,

"l learned everything from you."

And he was out off. Stevie said, "What?"

And he grabbed Michael

and flung him up against the wall...

And said,

"You learned everything from who?"

And he goes, "You, Stevie, you."

(LAUGHS) It was so funny. It was so funny.

Levi and I, we never forgot that.

Bobby Taylor and I would take

Michael to the golf course with us.

He had never even picked up

a golf club in his life.

Yet, he was our greatest golf critic.

"Well, Smokey, you know,

you hit your ball over in the woods

"because you didn't have your foot

standing right here..."

"Bobby, see, your club was not, you Know..."

He's gonna tell us why we had a bad shot.

But it was fun. He was a great, fun kid.

RANCIFER:
The first time I heard

I Want You Back in the studio,

I noticed a different kind of brightness

to the movement,

Ronnie Rancifer

KEYBOARDIST, 'JACKSON 5' 1967-77

other than normal Motown brightness.

It was going in a different direction,

which was good

because Motown's sound was diversified.

GEST:
When you listened to I Want You Back,

you knew Berry had a knack to get

the best commercial record out of these kids

and make them a worldwide success.

(SINGING)

When my sister and my mom first heard

our first hit record, I Want You Back,

my father had sent it over,

they didn't care for it.

I didn't like it at all.

Because the songs that the children sang

was more like the, I should say, soul music.

And to me, I Want You Back

didn't sound that way.

All the songs that was out then

sound so different,

so I guess Berry wanted

to bring out a different style.

Little did they know it was a very big song,

number one.

(SINGING)

It was just an unbelievable track.

It just came out of the radio like lightning.

Oh, them Jackson 5, that is a kickin' group.

"Wow, that's them?"

And I had to get used to the song

because even though it was a very big hit,

your brothers singing on a record,

on vinyl, and you hearing it

is something totally different.

MICHAEL:
We just don't have songs

that come and go,

Voice of Michael Jackson

Interview courtesy of J. Randy Taraborrelli

we have songs that'll be around all the time.

Like, you'll hear 'em

on the FM classical stations,

by the Philharmonic Orchestra,

things like that.

So it's just not what people call it,

kiddie rock. It's not that.

And a million sellers, a million selling.

J. Randy Taraborrelli

JACKSON'S FRIEND AND BIOGRAPHER.

It was difficult to believe

that they were Motown artists,

because they were just kids.

It was as if they had some

kind of stardust rub off on them

because, you know, they were

becoming close to Berry Gordy,

Diana Ross, and to all of my idols.

When I wrote Who's Lovin' You,

I was, you Know, in my early 20s.

Smokey Robinson ARTIST, MOTOWN RECORDS.

But at least, at that point,

I had had a chance to experience

some life and some love.

I was married. I got married when I was 19.

The subject matter

of the song is like a person

who has somebody who really loves them.

And yet they don't appreciate it.

They do the person wrong.

The first time I heard Smokey's

Who's Lovin' You,

my assistant was playing it

and it's one of those,

oh, party, red-light, basement-type,

you know, up on it.

But when Michael got ahold to it,

and Bobby Taylor infused him up

with that funk,

men, Michael put that soul

in that song so deep, it was soulful.

(SOULFUL SONG PLAYING)

How could he possibly know

what that song meant?

He sang it like he had written it.

I sing Who's Lovin' You, or part of it,

in my live concerts

and many times, young people have

come up to me after the concert and said,

"Oh, I didn't know

you sang Michael Jackson's song."

A kid, 11 years old, singing that song

with that muon emotion? It was incredible.

Unbelievable.

He seemed as if he was an old soul,

that he could take a song like

Who's Lovin' You

and he could actually interpret those lyrics

in a way that made you believe

that he had those experiences,

when actually he was 10 years old.

If you didn't know he was a kid,

you'd have thought he was an old man.

(LAUGHS)

But he was singing it from his heart.

You know, Michael's life

was kind of paradoxical to me,

because when he was a child, he was a man.

So when he was a man, he got the chance

to be a child and he took it.

He had a way of interpreting a lyric,

even as a very young boy,

that made you believe the song.

He knew how to perform.

This was, I think, something

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