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Unreleased 1974 solo album

Fuzball

Fuzball

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I wonder what prevented Motown from releasing a Michael Jackson solo album in early 1974?

The album, titled "Farewell My Summer Love", would have contained 10 tracks.

  • Don't Let it Get You Down
  • Touch the One You Love
  • Here I Am
  • Call on Me
  • To Make My Father Proud
  • Farewell My Summer Love
  • You've Really Got a Hold on Me
  • Melodie [recorded for "Music & Me"]
  • I'll Come Home to You [released later on "Forver, Michael"]
  • Girl You're So Together
 
Fuzball said:
I wonder what prevented Motown from releasing a Michael Jackson solo album in early 1974?
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Spontaneously, I would say that the success of Dancing Machine in 1974 left no room for a solo album.
But you're right, a good solo album would of course have been possible.
 
Is that the final tracklist of the unreleased 1974 solo album?

My guess is because MUSIC and ME did not sell very well or have any substantial hits on it like "Ben" was from the previous album.
 
jaorecords said:
Is that the final tracklist of the unreleased 1974 solo album?
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I think so. An acetate has popped up some years ago. This was discussed back then at either J5abc forum or Motown forum.

I have a picture of the acetate saved on some of my harddrives. I'll search for it later and post it here when found.

If I'm not mixing this up with some other case, someone reached out to the guy at Universal who's in charge of Motown vault reissues (was Keith his name?), and it was kinda confirmed.


jaorecords said:
My guess is because MUSIC and ME did not sell very well or have any substantial hits on it like "Ben" was from the previous album.
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That's makes sense. Yet, I think it Farewell would have sold better than Music. Cotrary to the "usually" sequenced albums, Farewell has less to none filler material.

It's a mystery to me, why Motown didn't care much about album quality (and thus album sales, too). This is way too paradox considering the boys have recorded hundrets of songs, and yet some medicore songs were chosen over really good stuff.
 
Fuzball said:
I think so. An acetate has popped up some years ago. This was discussed back then at either J5abc forum or Motown forum.

I have a picture of the acetate saved on some of my harddrives. I'll search for it later and post it here when found.

If I'm not mixing this up with some other case, someone reached out to the guy at Universal who's in charge of Motown vault reissues (was Keith his name?), and it was kinda confirmed.



That's makes sense. Yet, I think it Farewell would have sold better than Music. Cotrary to the "usually" sequenced albums, Farewell has less to none filler material.

It's a mystery to me, why Motown didn't care much about album quality (and thus album sales, too). This is way too paradox considering the boys have recorded hundrets of songs, and yet some medicore songs were chosen over really good stuff.
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Yes, I remember you did provide that picture of the acetate a long time ago.

I do find it interesting that the only track they deemed strong enough to carry over to what became the official 4th album is "I'll Come Home To You" which was cut in December 1973. I always thought that track stood out as sounding dated on FOREVER, MICHAEL. Great track though!

I also find it interesting that some of the tracks from the cancelled 1974 FAREWELL MY SUMMER LOVE album were pulled out of the vault in 1978 while they were doing research and an A/R review of tracks for the BOOGIE project they were working on. I know "Here I Am" was in that batch which was under consideration for BOOGIE.
 
jaorecords said:
I also find it interesting that some of the tracks from the cancelled 1974 FAREWELL MY SUMMER LOVE album were pulled out of the vault in 1978 while they were doing research and an A/R review of tracks for the BOOGIE project they were working on. I know "Here I Am" was in that batch which was under consideration for BOOGIE.
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Do you recall any other songs that were considered for Boogie?

Some of those that find their on to Soulsation, perhaps?
 
Fuzball said:
Do you recall any other songs that were considered for Boogie?

Some of those that find their on to Soulsation, perhaps?
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The information is listed in the liner notes of the HELLO WORLD box set. I will have to look when I get a chance and post them.
 
Fuzball said:
Do you recall any other songs that were considered for Boogie?

Some of those that find their on to Soulsation, perhaps?
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According to the liner notes it's either only "Here I Am" that was pulled in 1978 or it's "Here I Am" and "To Make My Father Proud" that were pulled in 1978 for possible inclusion on BOOGIE. It's not clear. It does also mention that they were both pulled in November 1973 for A/R review to look for possible release.
 
Fuzball said:
It's a mystery to me, why Motown didn't care much about album quality (and thus album sales, too).
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Albums by Black artists generally did not sell well at the time (in the USA). Even Jimi Hendrix had to go over to Europe to become popular. R&B was considered a singles genre not an albums one. It was fairly common for record labels of that era to put white models on the covers of Black artists albums. Miles Davis hated this practice. There was also the case of white singers/bands remaking R&B songs and getting the pop airplay that the original versions didn't (Elvis Presley, Rolling Stones, Pat Boone, The Beatles, etc). Other than maybe with jazz records, albums as a concept didn't really begin until the Beatles psychedelic period. Most mainstream albums were just a collection of songs. That was not exclusive to Motown. Also teen idol acts like The Jackson 5 usually had a short shelf life. Teenage audiences were more likely to by a single, which was much cheaper than an album.
 
I always thought it was "due to the success of Dancing Machine (I guess the song and the then-forthcoming album).

Also are you sure about the tracklist? I had heard that some other tracks such as If I Don't Love You This Way may have been recorded for this album.
 
1974 Michael / Jacksons is interesting because this is the second of three/four albums that never came out, if I recall correctly. I actually hadn't heard of this one before, but it makes complete sense with how "Farewell My Summer Love" was released in 1984. T

his also might be the only album from this period that was completed. "Dancing Machine" was originally supposed to be the Stevie Wonder-produced album before that got aborted ("Do Unto Others", you can hear remnants with "Buttercup" & some Jermaine demos from the time, including "Let's Get Serious"), and there's the Marlon/Tito album that was going to start at that point?
 
Found it. Unfortunately, there's no picture of the first acetate.


adv6YbP.jpeg
 
Forever, Michael was planned for 1974.
The album was recorded in late 1974 except I'll Come Home to You, which was recorded in December of 1973, almost a year before the album's recording sessions started. The album was planned to release that year. However, production had to be delayed after "Dancing Machine" became a success. A joint promo campaign with Forever, Michael and Moving Violation was launched by Motown in 1975.
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michael-jackson.fandom.com

Forever, Michael

Forever, Michael is the fourth studio album by American singer-songwriter Michael Jackson, released through Motown on January 16, 1975. It became the final record released by Jackson under said label. The album displayed a change in musical style for the 16-year-old Jackson, who adopted a...
michael-jackson.fandom.com michael-jackson.fandom.com
 
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Maxym said:
I always thought it was "due to the success of Dancing Machine (I guess the song and the then-forthcoming album).
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Dancing Machine was released in February '74 as a single. By that time Farewell would have been already released.

Something musst have happened close to the scheduled release date (late 12/73 or early 01/74).
 
This unreleased album from 1974 would certainly be closer to the contemporary disco-influenced music trend than the ballad-heavy Forever, Michael.
 
Maxym said:
I always thought it was "due to the success of Dancing Machine (I guess the song and the then-forthcoming album).

Also are you sure about the tracklist? I had heard that some other tracks such as If I Don't Love You This Way may have been recorded for this album.
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If I don't love you this way, What you don't know and Whatever you got I want were originally solo tracks for Michael before being put onto the Dancing Machine album to capitalise off the success of the single.
 
jaorecords said:
Based on all the information I have seen I would say either "Forever Came Today" or "Body Language" would be the last actual recordings the brothers made for Motown
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I always thought "We're Here To Entertain You" sounded like the last song.
 
Derek1984 said:
I always thought "We're Here To Entertain You" sounded like the last song.
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Slightly OT: the short edit of "We're the Music Makers", is it an actuall song or was it recorded as some kind of skit?
 
Fuzball said:
Slightly OT: the short edit of "We're the Music Makers", is it an actuall song or was it recorded as some kind of skit?
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Harry Weigner mentioned that track in a 2010 interview:
" There’s a lot more in the vault – even after Motown seemed to clean it out when MJ was hot with Thriller, and then in 1995 with Soulsation!, there are plenty of quality recordings left. A few titles include a studio version of “Feelin’ Alright”; the Beatles’ “Yesterday,” which was also part of their first live sets and then dropped; a great cover of “Up On The Roof”; some cool funk tracks; Corporation outtakes that I hope to have Deke Richards put back together; and a song called “We’re The Music Makers,” a fun up-tempo song that is similar in subject matter to “We’re Here To Entertain You.” Man, for all that hysteria and the crazy schedule they were on, the boys recorded like crazy. There are also things that aren’t finished and in my opinion are not great, but that’s to be expected from so much volume."
 
jaorecords said:
Harry Weigner mentioned that track in a 2010 interview:
" There’s a lot more in the vault – even after Motown seemed to clean it out when MJ was hot with Thriller, and then in 1995 with Soulsation!, there are plenty of quality recordings left. A few titles include a studio version of “Feelin’ Alright”; the Beatles’ “Yesterday,” which was also part of their first live sets and then dropped; a great cover of “Up On The Roof”; some cool funk tracks; Corporation outtakes that I hope to have Deke Richards put back together; and a song called “We’re The Music Makers,” a fun up-tempo song that is similar in subject matter to “We’re Here To Entertain You.” Man, for all that hysteria and the crazy schedule they were on, the boys recorded like crazy. There are also things that aren’t finished and in my opinion are not great, but that’s to be expected from so much volume."
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Most of that material was released in 2012 on the Rare Pearls boxset. He was able to have Deke complete the Corporation tracks like "If The Shoe Don't Fit". The only thing mentioned here that has not seen the light of day is "Yesterday" (studio version).
 
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