Michael Jackson: The Life of an Icon Page #7

he sees it in his bedroom.

But it was a lovely little mousey kind of rat.

And he befriends him.

And it makes the boy so much better,

it lifts his spirits up.

And that's how I wrote the song,

about friendship.

It can be about a rat.

The two of us need look no more.

You're always running here and there. .

But it could be about a best friend.

When Michael recorded Ben,

I remember going to the studio

and it was just magical. I just loved it.

I always remember Michael

getting very emotional about that song.

His eyes welled up a bit,

particularly at the middle bit.

I'll never forget that image.

The middle bit was,

"I used to say 'I' and 'me, '

"now it's 'us, ' now it's 'we."'.

Michael just loved those lines.

In fact, that's why, I think,

we repeat them in the song.

We do it again. (CHUCKLES)

There was a longing, I think,

for love and acceptance,

going all the way back

to when he was a little kid.

And you were able to hear that longing

in his voice.

Singing is passion.

Bobby Taylor

ARTIST, GORDY / MOTOWN RECORDS.

You have to do it from inside of you.

It has to come from your soul, your heart.

And Michael Jackson had that.

It wasn't done for the posture of "I did this."

Dionne Warwick SINGER.

It was done because his heart said,

"This is what I need to do," and he did it.

Michael sings like an angel.

He has the voice of an angel and he does...

Kenny Gamble & Leon Huff.

PRODUCERS/ SONGWRITERS,

PHILADELPHIA INT. RECORDS

Every note is right on it and he was doing

that at nine years old.

MICHAEL:
I recorded Ben

I don't know how long ego.

I mean, I hear it all the time still,

you know, go on and on and on.

Voice of Michael Jackson

Interview courtesy of J. Randy Taraborrelli.

Yeah, it's selling more now.

So, it's what you leave behind, I think.

BLACK:
There are people who come along

once in a lifetime.

Michael Jackson, he only happens once.

(SLOW SONG CONTINUES PLAYING)

When you think about Michael Jackson,

you think about him as a kid.

Freda Payne SINGER.

Like when he did some

of those earlier songs, like Ben.

And then as he grew and evolved

and became a young man,

I saw the metamorphosis

of a beautiful, beautiful flower,

just blooming and unfolding.

Michael enjoyed what he was doing.

Mickey & Jan Rooney JACKSON'S FRIENDS.

That's why, transition from very young

to getting older,

it's just one year after another,

but doing what the good Lord let us do.

GEST:
When Michael became e teenager;

His voice changed.

He realised that he would be singing

different types of music,

David G-est

MICHAEL'S CLOSE FRIEND

not kiddie pop songs

like he had been most of his career.

EDDIE HOLLAND:
The first time we worked

with the Jackson 5 was very exciting.

Because the one thing I noticed

about the group,

Brian & Eddie Holland.

SONGWRITERS,

HOLLAND-DOZIER-HOLLAND

that they were extremely down to earth,

very mannerable,

very, very polite.

Michael recorded several songs

of mine and the Hollands'.

Lamont Dozier

SONGWRITER, HOLLAND-DOZIER-HOLLAND

and Forever Came Today

was one of my favourites.

(SINGING)

He had such pipes and drama in his voice

to be so young.

He was just one of a kind in that respect.

He really did the songs justice.

I think Michael knew now important lyric

was to the song.

Valerie Simpson & Nickolas Ashford.

SINGERS / SONGWRITERS,

'ASHFORD & SIMPSON'

And it had to reach, touch something,

I think, for him to really wanna sing it.

And, you know,

he'd dance and sing at the same time

so it had to correspond with his body, too.

So it all had to be one piece for him.

He didn't want fluff.

He wanted something with legs on it,

something that was gonna last through time

and that's actually

what he ended up creating.

The bigger he became as an artist,

the more enamoured he seemed

to be over songwriters.

A lot of people have done those songs

and couldn't get a handle on 'em

like the Levi Stubbs or Diana Ross,

but he just had a knack, a gift.

He already had a cake

but then he put icing all on top of it.

TARABORRELLI:
Around 1974,

they started doing product at Motown

that perhaps wasn't the best.

J. Randy Taraborrelli

JACKSON FRIEND AND BIOGRAPHER.

As a fan, I loved songs

like The Boogie Man is gonna get you,

and Lookin' through the Windows,

and Skywriter,

but these songs weren't hits.

MCDOUGAL:
Joe mentioned to me

several times that he felt like

Motown was taking the group over,

taking them away from his direction.

What happened was that.

Marvin Gaye and Stevie Wonder

and Smokey Robinson

were writing and producing

and doing a lot of things at Motown

that the Jacksons had begun

to want to do for themselves.

And to see how Motown treated other artists

and how the other artists was making it,

it was kind of disillusion.

TARABORRELLI:
The company was being

run at that time by Ewart Abner,

Berry Gordy was making movies

with Diana Ross.

And Abner felt pretty strongly

that they should not be writing

and producing their own music,

that they should just

accept the material that came their way

and just do a good job with it in the studio.

GEST:
Michael was very disillusioned.

He wanted to not only write his own material

but produce it as well.

He realised

if he was to reach these goals,

he would have to go somewhere else.

KENNY GAMBLE:

Joe Jackson called me and told me

that they were looking for a place to go.

Kenny Gamble & Leon Huff.

PRODUCERS/ SONGWRITERS,

PHILADELPHIA INT. RECORDS

And of course, Huff and myself,

we tried to get them

for Philly International Records.

But at the same time, CBS

was negotiating with them also.

I wanted to know

if there was a shot, a chance,

Ron Alexenburg

SNR. VICE PRESIDENT CBS / EPIC RECORDS

of being able to get involved.

And I was told there was.

The next is, we sat down

and we started to negotiate.

They wanted a million dollars.

And I figured,

"Okay, that's all I could approve up to."

That was my approval level.

I had to go through the ranks

and I said,

We have a chance of signing the Jackson 5

and they said, They're done.

I said, "No, I'm sorry.

"l believe in them,

I believe that there's a big future,

"l believe that Michael Jackson

"could be one of the biggest stars even ."

That took care of that.

I was handed the letter and they said,

"There's your deal memo, go sign 'em."

In order to move on and progress,

Katherine Jackson MICHAEL'S MOTHER.

Joseph said he had to do it

because he wanted the children

to get credit for their writings and all of that,

and they couldn't do that at Motown.

CBS offered them movies,

they offered 'em a TV show,

cartoons and everything.

And of course Gamble and Huff you know,

we couldn't offer them all those things.

So they decided to go with CBS.

Probably the most important signing

of my career.

TARABORRELLI:
The Jackson 5

left Motown Records and went to CBS.

Jermaine stayed behind

because he was married to Hazel

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