Elly Roberts reviews
The Very Best of The Jacksons
Distributed by
Sony Music
- Year: 2004
- Rating: 7/10
- Cat. No: 5163669
Track listing:
Disc 1:
1. I Want You Back
2. ABC
3. The Love You Save
4. I'll Be There
5. Mama's Pearl
6. Never Can Say Goodbye
7. Sugar Daddy
8. Dancing Machine
9. Lookin' Through the Windows
10. Doctor My Eyes
11. Ain't No Sunshine
12. Got To Be There
13. Rockin' Robin
14. Ben
15. One Day In Your Life
16. Farewell My Summer Love
Disc 2:
1. Can You Feel It
2. Blame it on the Boogie
3. Enjoy Yourself
4. Show You the Way To Go
5. Dreamer
6. Even Though You're Gone
7. Goin' Places
8. Torture
9. Shake Your Body (Down to the Ground)
10. Lovely One
11. This Place Hotel
12. Walk Right Now
13. State of Shock
14. 2300 Jackson Street
15. Nothing (The Compares 2 U) (Video)
16. Don't Stop Til You Get Enough (Live from 1981 US Tour)
Eight years in the making,
this comprehensive chronology charts the Jackson family’s prolific hits.
A brand new double CD set comprising 32 tracks it covers their progression
from ‘ teeny – boppers ‘ into world – wide sellers as a group and individuals.
It brings together for the first time all the Jackson brothers’ greatest hits
in the same collection. Having reportedly sold over 100 million records since
1970, as their reign began with I Want You Back (UK No.2) – which opens CD 1,
with an 11-year-old Michael Jackson singing his heart out. They were
undoubtedly the first ‘ Boy Band ‘, and it seems almost inconceivable that
Motown would have taken such a risk on teenagers, but it paid off.
Eventually, their radio - friendly catchy hooks and funky beats swept across
the globe and rejuvenated Tamla Motown’s repertoire with an un – stoppable
sequence of anthemic dance tracks - ABC, Can You Feel It, Shake Your Body
and Doctor My Eyes, as they paraded their wares in neatly choreographed
routines, along with some outlandish stage costumes. Tender ballads like Ben
(apparently about a pet rat), Ain’t No Sunshine and Got To Be There
complimented their disco repertoire.
Early songs were penned by luminaries such as Berry Gordy Jnr, Freddie Perrin,
Hal Davies, Bill Withers and Don Black. The brothers came into their own later
on, as did Michael himself, but failed to capture the public’s imagination without
him. You’ll immediately recognise most of them, with most of their work being
a staple diet of wedding parties. Some of these songs are still in demand in
selective nightclubs around the nation. They’ve stood the test of time beautifully,
which rubber stamps the golden age of Motown and beyond, as they developed their
own identities and voices.
Listening to Michael’s voice 30 years on, it does grate quite a bit. Thankfully,
by the end of disc one, it starts to mature. Weakest tracks - Enjoy Yourself, Dreamer, Even Though You’re Gone, Torture and an over-zealous
live Don’t Stop ‘Til You Get Evough from 1981.
Doesn’t include Michael’s latter-day hits: Billie Jean, Beat It, Thriller etc.
Review & concert pics copyright © Elly Roberts, 2004-2010.
