Michael Jackson-Got To Be There (1972)

 


Artist: Michael Jackson

Title: Got To Be There

Label: Motown

Format: LP

Catalog Number: M 747L

Year of Release: 1972

Country and Year of Edition: US 1972

Sell Price: $7.63

Sell Date: 7/31/26

Condition: F/F

Discogs Last Sold:  7/2/26 G+/VG $6.99

Low: $4.22

Median: $15.49

Average: $20.22

High: $65.00

Current low price: $4.61 (Germany) F/VG, $11,00 G+/F (US)

Curren Number on Sale at Discogs: 4

Have/Want: 656/366

Where Sold: Omaha, NE

Time It Took To Sell:  2 years

Where and When Bought: Whatnot lot

Gwiz-gau Letter Grade: B+

Sad To See It Go: No

With Motown's heavy hitters Stevie, Marvin and Smokey moving on to Tamala and taking a less communal approach to artistry, Motown needed some new solo stars in 1972.  Enter 12 year old Michael Jackson, who already had a Greatest Hits album under his belt as child leader of the Jackson Five.  Got To Be There was Michael's solo debut dated 1971 on the cover and issued in January 1972.  It peaked at #14 Billboard and spawned two massive singles.  The #4 title track and the #2 "Rockin' Robin."

What makes "Rockin' Robin" a great single is it really has nothing to do with "Soul" or "Adulthood" and it's concerts.  That rockin' robin goes tweet-tweet-tweet and that's it!  Simple and great.  Heck, it doesn't even sound rooted in 60's Motown, it sounds more like a nod to 50's R&B.  Michael's voice hadn't changed yet, but he could belt those ballads out and hold those notes in such a way that be the time side one closes with the title track all you can say is Damn.  He is good.

"The Corporation" that made it all happen in 1971 was 4 people: Berry Gordy,  Alphonso "Fonce" Mizell, Freddie Peren and Deke Richards.   After Holland-Dozier-Holland, Gordy didn't want any more back room superstars.  This was the team behind the Jackson Five and continued on with Michael.  There's quite a bit going on with the instrumentation.  You get a psychedelic guitar here and a harpsichord  on "I Wanna Be Where You Are," "Maria" and "Love Is Here And Now You're Gone"  in addition to the standard early 70's Soul sound.  The only things that aren't that great are the opening and closing then-modern pop standard: "Ain't No Sunshine" and "You've Got  A Friend" are better off in the hands of adults.

I don't know how this took until 2013 to go Gold even though it was so successful in it's day.  Chalk that up to Motown's accounting practices and RIAA reporting.  Still, Got To Be There seems to be a bit underrated in the general scheme of things;  The Quincy Jones era was a different thing, and the brothers departure to Epic in the mid-70's left Jermaine not Michael for Motown to work with.

Better as a whole than time treated it.

FOR FURTHER REVIEW:

Michael Jackson-Thriller (1982)

The Jacksons-Destiny (1978)

Soundtrack-The Wiz (1978)

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