Michael Jackson - Hello World: The Complete Motown Solo Collection Review
Posted by Lucas Wesley on 07.15.2009
Back before he was the king but after he promised he'd be there, Michael Jackson recorded four albums without his brothers that even some of his biggest fans have forgotten about. Finally, they are all available on CD, along with some Motown rarities. But does it live up to his later career? Short answer: no.
Right off that bat, let’s make something clear: this is not (strictly) a cash-in on his death. The release was planned before he died. It’s just a case of tragic timing. In fact, the liner notes (which are a little skimpy for a compilation like this, though I won’t fault them for it) make no mention of his death. Of course, his death will increase the chances of people being interested, but that’s not the fault of Hip-O Select Records. The Stripped Mixes, now that’s a cash-in. Farewell My Summer Love and Looking Back To Yesterday, both featured here, those were cash-ins, though on fame and not death. But this collection, from a fan and historian point of view, was a necessary addition to the Michael Jackson lexicon, long before his unfortunate death.
For you see, readers, this album, as the title implies, collects all of Michael’s solo recordings for Motown records—a collection of songs that has been out-of-print for as long as I can remember. Sure, you could pick up the hit singles (“Got To Be There,” “Rockin’ Robin,” “Music & Me,” “Ben”) on various hit collections, and there was Anthology, but at best that was only half of the story. There were still four official albums that were unavailable, along with two-plus albums of odds and sods. So, enter Hello World, a complete collection of young Michael Jackson’s Motown material. Appropriately, I’ll be splitting this into three sections, to represent the three discs.
Disc 1: Got To Be There and Ben
Tracks 1-10: Got To Be There, 1972
Tracks 11-20: Ben, 1972
1. Ain't No Sunshine
2. I Wanna Be Where You Are
3. Girl Don’t Take Your Love From Me
4. In Our Small Way
5. Got To Be There
6. Rockin' Robin
7. Wings Of My Love
8. Maria (You Were The Only One)
9. Love Is Here And Now You're Gone
10. You've Got A Friend
11. Ben
12. Greatest Show On Earth
13. People Make The World Go Round
14. We've Got A Good Thing Going
15. Everybody's Somebody's Fool
16. My Girl
17. What Goes Around Comes Around
18. In Our Small Way
19. Shoo Be Doo Be Doo Da Day
20. You Can Cry On My Shoulder
21. Don't Let It Get You Down (original mix)
22. You've Really Got A Hold on Me (original mix)
23. Melodie (original mix)
24. Touch The One You Love (original mix)
And so it began. There was success with The Jackson 5, and Motown knows how to milk it, so they had the boys release a few solo albums. Even at the young age, Michael’s were the most successful; Jermaine’s were the only ones that really even came close. Got To Be There is the debut, and the one that I argue as the best he released on Motown.
Listening to this album, I’m kind of surprised it hasn’t had any lasting camp appeal. There’s this video, I believe from The Diana Ross Show, or a similar such musician’s program CBS used to promote it’s artists, where young Michael, no older than 13, breaks up with Diana Ross, in the style of gangster films where the main character needs to leave his dame for work purposes. The crowd really digs it and it’s good comedy, because it’s silly (and all reverse prescient and weird) seeing hot, late 20’s Diana cooing over young Michael. The reason this ties into the album is the fact these are mostly love songs, and why not claim they’re too Diana Ross?
This is a concept album wherein he woos her and all the women in the world. In fact, I would argue this is a breakup album, after he broke up with her, or vice versa if we’re dropping the video’s pretense, and he’s trying to get back with her. The first three songs are obvious break up songs, as is “Love Is Here and Now You’re Gone.” “Rockin’ Robin” might be hard to fit into that context, but there’s always the one song that doesn’t fit. After all, that was just the hit single thrown on to appease the pop charts, concept albums always make excuses for that. The fitting finale, Carole King’s “You Got A Friend,” is as if to acknowledge that his attempt to win her back failed, but a love like his lasts forever, so he will always be her friend. And frankly, if someone tried to woo me with Maria (though it does fit the concept), I’d probably just stay friends, too, even if the other nine songs were great.
It’s easy to say that Motown just threw together singles and filler, because they usually did. But there’s actually a theme throughout here, and it surprisingly works quite well. Throw in the fact that the songs contain some of the best of his Motown career—“I Wanna Be Where You Are” is in the Spector school of so dumb it’s genius choruses, “Love Is Here” is a great lament on lost love, and hey, find me a better read on “Ain’t No Sunshine”—and we have a great album.
Ben doesn’t fare quite as well. Of course, if we’re going to call any of these songs a hit single, “Ben” is that hit single. And deservedly so—the song is a very pretty ballad, delivered with emotion that only Michael could give to that scary rat. The album also continues the tradition of having a fantastic cover, this time being “My Girl.” It may not live up to the original, but Mike gives it his own tilt, and it works better than certain other versions I’ve heard. One thing I don’t understand is the inclusion of “In Our Small Way”—if the song is any different from the version on Got To Be There, I don’t notice it. It’s not a bad song, but it’s an odd move. Other songs, such as “Greatest Show On Earth,” show a little bit of experimentation in the background music, which is interesting to say the least.
On the other hand, a fair amount of Ben does sound like hits plus filler, due to the lack of album structure found on Got To Be There. No songs instantly strike me as turn-it-off-bad, but if someone started hitting skip while listening to this, I wouldn’t blame them.
1. With A Child's Heart
2. Up Again
3. All The Things You Are
4. Happy (Love Theme From Lady Sings The Blues)
5. Too Young
6. Doggin' Around
7. Euphoria
8. Morning Glow
9. Johnny Raven
10. Music And Me
11. Were Almost There
12. Take Me Back
13. One Day In Your Life
14. Cinderella Stay Awhile
15. We've Got Forever
16. Just A Little Bit Of You
17. You Are There
18. Dapper-Dan
19. Dear Michael
20. I'll Come Home To You
21. Girl You're So Together (original mix)
22. Farewell My Summer Love (original mix)
23. Call On Me (original mix)
This disc is all about one song: “Johnny Raven.” Well, no, it has several merits. Music & Me is typically considered the weakest album of Michael’s career, essentially standing a further rehash of the sounds on the first two albums, only without the hit singles. It does get a little bit funky, but there’s little to be reveled over. The title track is a beauty, to be sure, but a lot of it blends together, only to fade away shortly thereafter. There are a few standouts, of course: “Doggin’ Around” has a lifting quality, and “Euphoria,” while not quite euphoric, does have a consistently strong vocal performance. Then we have “With A Child’s Heart,” the best Stevie Wonder cover of the three that appear on this set.
At the same time, the album is a more of the same, really. However, it was an important time for Michael—his voice was starting to change, but more importantly, he wanted to make music his way. That explains why he’s strumming a guitar on the cover, even though he doesn’t strum it on the album. The scene was being set for his Epic career and his departure from Motown. Unfortunately for him, he had an album left on the contract, or at least that’s what I’m assuming happened, for there was one left.
Forever, Michael was his fourth and last Motown album, after a two year break. Some people see this as a transition between Music & Me and his renaissance period, but I don’t see it in quite that bright a light. I suppose vocally you could make that claim, but the song is the lightest of all lite-disco in the popular lexicon. Really, the closest it comes to the genre previous mega single “Dancing Machine” perfected is “Dapper-Dan.” It is more contemporary, though, and there are gains, I just argue they aren’t as blatant or strong as some may claim.
To support that argument, though, I will note stronger horns and more consistent strings throughout. The first two tracks are classic soul songs, with strong lasting appeal. Of course, “One Day In Your Life” is something of a masterpiece, staying in the popular world longer than any other song on the collection. The lack of catchiness is an interesting choice, although I’m not sure how well it works in the long wrong. I suppose that is an improvement from the attempted bubblegum of some of the earlier songs and singles—it isn’t trying to hard, it’s attempting to be relatively natural. In that sense, we can see the hints of songs like “The Lady in My Life,” “Human Nature” and even “She’s Out Of My Life,” but until his voice would develop, and he’d get producers in their prime instead of late-era Holland brothers, that wouldn’t be enough. Definite props to “Dear Michael,” though, if only due to its ability to lyrically predict “Billie Jean.”
Additionally, there are complaints that the album is relatively generic in the Motown canon, with nothing to separate the music from that of any other typical 60s or 70s soul singer. I don’t know if that’s entirely true, but sung by anyone else, I know that this album would disappear like most of the rest, maybe faster than the others due to the lack of truly interesting singles. Don’t get me wrong, it’s good and it’s consistent, but it’s nothing new. This is the first time a collection’s relevance would be saved by Michael’s voice (as opposed to his name), and his voice isn’t exactly in peak condition here, so it can only be saved so much. Without him, it would be a forgotten example of consistency quite a bit shy of brilliance. Of course, within two years he’d be writing songs miles ahead of anything Motown wrote for him, showing who the real brilliant one was. Even Berry Gordy admits it now.
Disc 3: Looking Back To Yesterday and Farewell My Summer Love
Tracks 1-12: Looking Back To Yesterday, 1986 compilation
Tracks 16-24: Farewell My Summer Love, 1984 compilation
1. When I Come Of Age
2. Teenage Symphony
3. I Hear A Symphony
4. Give Me Half A Chance
5. Love's Gone Bad
6. Lonely Teardrops
7. You're Good For Me
8. That's What Love Is Made Of
9. I Like You The Way You Are (Don't Change Your Love On Me)
10. Who's Lookin' For A Lover
11. I Was Made To Love Her
12. If 'N I Was God
13. To Make My Father Proud (original mix)
14. Here I Am (Come And Take Me) (original mix)
15. Twenty-Five Miles (original mix)
16. Don't Let It Get You Down
17. You've Really Got A Hold on Me
18. Melodie
19. Touch The One You Love
20. Girl You're So Together
21. Farewell My Summer Love
22. Call On Me
23. Here I Am (Come And Take Me)
24. To Make My Father Proud
Those with memories stronger than mine will remember that this review started with the claim that these albums were cash-ins. Motown realized that Michael Jackson was the biggest thing in music, and darn it, they lost him. Or did they? Turns out there were a fair deal of old MJ material in their vaults that never got released. And Motown, sly devils that they were, decided after a little bit of tampering, these could make some brilliant releases.
Looking Back To Yesterday marks the only appearance of The Jackson 5 on this entire three disc compilation. They appear on half of the tracks, but of course, Michael is lead singer on all of them, and they appear mostly in name only. The compilation is most interesting for it’s covers, covering Jackie Wilson, The Supremes and Stevie Wonder. The former two covers are rather perfunctory and the latter is borderline bad. “I Was Made To Love Her” is an absolute classic track, and it just isn’t quite done justice here. The two “symphonies” are great songs, though, and it maintains the Jackson spirit throughout, so I’m not going to knock Motown too much for this. It was interesting for collectors, I suppose, and that’s exactly who this compilation is for, so we can’t knock its inclusion.
And then there was one. The last album on this set is Farewell My Summer Love, occasionally referenced as one of Motown’s lowest moments as a company. Not necessarily for quality, but rather for the business of it. The year was 1984, and Thriller and Michael Jackson were the biggest things in music, if not the world. But as was well documented, Michael was now signed to Colombia’s Epic Records! Throw in the fact that all of Michael’s old Motown recordings are so…well, old, and not at all in the spirit of his modern sound, and what option does that leaven Motown with? I mean, come on, most of these songs were recorded in 1973 for Pete’s sake! It’s 1984 now! If you’re Berry Gordy, the answer is simple: take all of Michael’s vocal tracks and create new music around them, modernizing his sound. Maybe put on the album cover that they’re new songs, or from a lost album or something. Get a single out of it. It’s Motown’s only hope.
I’m sounding kind of negative there, but it kind of was a dirty business practice. Michael went on record to say he didn’t like some of the songs on the album, and generally disowned it. But it was the 80’s, and Michael was in full king mode, so it sold moderately well (#46 Billboard albums, #9 UK). The business is the reason you haven’t heard of it, since it did get into the pop charts, with the title track reaching #38 on the Billboards (and #7 in the UK).
Enough of that, though, let’s talk about the music for a second. Honestly, I kind of want to hate it, but it isn’t that horrible. The cover of “You Really Got A Hold On Me” in particular is really strong, showing a transitional point in Michael’s vocals. In fact, the entire album reads as somewhat of a transitional point. In all reality, even if Michael was still on Motown at the time, the album probably would have been released anyway, with Michael receiving just as little say. That’s just how Motown worked at the time for most of its non-Stevie Wonder, non-Marvin Gaye artists. And if that were the case, it could have served as the transition that’s missing between Forever, Michael and Off The Wall. Honestly, I consider these nine tracks to be the apex of Michael’s vocals on Motown, and for that I’m glad the album exists. I have no idea how the same voice that recorded Music & Me (recorded in the same time period) can sound like this.
Finally, we have the bonus tracks, which I’ve ignored throughout this review. Many of them are the original versions of the songs remixed and modernized for Farewell, and to be honest, they sound better on that album, even if they technically shouldn’t. Most of these original versions are forgettable, and have a tendency to blend in with the rest of the tracks. I’m not going to complain about them being here, but they do feel somewhat unnecessary when the point of this album is simply to put Michael’s older albums back in print. If any of the bonus songs were exemplary, I’d understand, but it’s mostly just what could have been, and to put it bluntly, no one cares.
The 411: Make no mistake—this is a compilation (and rating) with fans and historians in mind. No one who hates Thriller is going to figure it out by listening to Hello World. The people who aren’t sure probably aren’t going to find answers here, either. Even diehard Jackson 5 fans probably won’t find many essential supplements to the band they love by listening to this. That said, this is by no means a bad collection. We have four good albums here, and one borderline great one. However, they can only be good or great when you don’t compare them to the future that would come, and far too many people fail to see that. I’ve listened to the main albums of the set at least three times each throughout the week, and there are still tracks on Ben and Music & Me that I can’t remember. Listen to Thriller or Off The Wall once and at the very least you’ll be singing each and every chorus for the rest of your life. But for the true believers and anyone who desperately needs to find context, this is where you should go for the whole story. The music is about a 7, the .5 is for importance.
