Chart entered : 13 May 1989
Chart peak : 33
A case of de ja vu here as we've said goodbye to most of these guys before but this time it was permanent.
The Jacksons re-boot received immediate vindication when their second single "Show You The Way To Go" reached number one in the UK and there were four more Top 10 hits to come but as Michael Jackson's career ballooned exponentially after Off The Wall in 1979 you always got the sense that recording music with his brothers would slip down his list of priorities. In 1983 they were boosted by the return of Jermaine Jackson who himself had established a viable solo career if not on the same scale as his younger brother. Their 1984 album "Victory" was a sham with all six brothers turning in essentially solo tracks and the tour to promote it was blighted by fraternal bickering, management disputes and injury, At the end of it, Michael made the long-expected announcement that he did't want to work with his brothers again and Marlon Jackson followed suit. It took the remaining quartet nearly five years to come up with a new album
"Nothin (That Compares 2 U ) " was written, played and produced by L. A. Reid and Babyface , the brothers just contributing vocals, and was the lead single for the album "2,300 Jackson Street". As you'd expect, the track falls firmly into the new jack swing mould and the brothers struggle to inject much of their own personality into a routine example of what their hired help did best. The roll-call in the middle eight suggests that the brothers were themselves aware of the problem. Randy and Jermaine share the lead vocals but it's instantly forgettable. It was a smaller hit in the US peaking at number 77 and is their only hit not to feature Michael.
The album soon followed. Michael and Marlon made vocal contributions ( as did Janet ) to the title track but otherwise did not feature. For the most part it's a so-so R & B album and its mediocre chart placings -39 here, 77 in the US - seem about right. That does ignore the extravagantly awful title track , a ghastly melange of kiddie vocals and cloying, self-mythologising, false ( Marlon couldn't be bothered to appear in the video ; Michael looks like he's singing his bit through gritted teeth ) sentiment. Released as the next single it failed on the cusp of the charts here and didn't register in the US. The only other vaguely interesting track, the overblown opener "Art of Madness" which has underlying similarities to Two Tribes was released as a third single but they were done by then. The brothers didn't like each other enough to properly tour the album and went their separate ways.
Jermaine released his next solo album "Don't Take It Personal" just three months after the group album. The title track was released as the first single. It's a classy R & B ballad that sounds like a rueful comment on his recent divorce from Hazel Gordy but he didn't have a hand in writing it. Ironically, Jermaine had much more creative input into "2300 Jackson Street" than his own album where he's only credited on one song. The single reached number 69 here becoming the last of his 7 UK hits and number 64 in the US. Despite employing a different producer on almost every track, the album is more coherent than the group effort as Jermaine largely sticks to the soft-centred R & B ballads that best suit his voice . The subsequent non-charting singles "I'd Like To Get To Know You" and "Two Ships" both fall into this category. The album reached number 115 in the US.
Eldest brother Jackie Jackson was hot on his heels with his second solo album "Be The One". It's a competent enough R & B set with Jackie a better vocalist than I expected given his lack of leads on the group's material but it didn't break out of the R & B charts. After its failure he dropped out of the public eye.
Randy Jackson became the third brother to release a solo LP in 1989 under the name "Randy and the Gypsys" on A & M . He largely stuck with the new jack swing sound on the singles "Perpetrators" and "Love You Honey" but he only had an average voice and it didn't sell. Randy too kept a low profile until he set up the Modern Records label in 1998.
Marlon's solo career had already stalled by the end of the eighties having released just one solo album "Baby Tonight " in 1987. He left the music business to become a real estate agent and part owner of the Black Family cable channel.
Big Tito Jackson is the only brother not to record any solo material. He concentrated on managing the career of his three sons who hit the big time as 3T in the mid-nineties.
Jermaine was one of the first artists to sign with the LaFace label set up by LA Reid and Babyface in 1989 and his next album, 1991's "You Said "was mostly written and produced by them. It's most notable for his last US hit ( number 78 ) "Word To The Badd " a fierce attack on his most famous brother set to a steamy funk groove. I note the line "Once you were made, you changed your shade , was your colour wrong ?" as Jermaine was back to peddling the skin complaint line when he appeared on Celebrity Big Brother. It's by far the best track on what's otherwise a routine R & B album. The subsequent singles "You Said, You Said" and "I Dream I Dream" made no impact and the album didn't chart. He too spent the rest of the nineties on the sidelines, consoling himself with Randy's girlfriend.
In 2001 the brothers reunited for two concerts at Madison Square Garden to mark the 30th anniversary of Michael's solo career. In 2003 Tito made a brief attempt at re-inventing himself as a blues man. The following year Jermaine remarried and became a Muslim. He became Michael's cheerleader during the 2005 sex abuse trial .
Two years after that Jermaine went on Celebrity Big Brother here and seemed like a nice guy. He came second behind Shilpa Shetty after the racism storm. During the series, he talked about a planned musical based on the Jacksons but this never materialised.
Nevertheless reality TV did seem to be the way forward for the brothers. Tito was a judge on the second series of the BBC1 singing competition Just The Two of Us later that year. A Sun feature claimed they were all pretty skint.
In 2009 the four eldest brothers started filming a one off programme about their plans to do a new album and tour. Michael and Randy did not want to be involved. This was ready to air when Michael died in June that year and so more footage was shot showing the family's reaction and the programme became a reality series, The Jacksons : A Family Dynasty. It was much criticised as exploitative and opportunistic.
In 2010 Jackie put out a new song "We Know What's Going On", on itunes , an Autotune - heavy electropop number. The following year, he and Jermaine contributed some backing vocals to a record made by Jackie's son Sigmund under the name Dealz. In 2011, Tito , Marlon and Jackie performed at a tribute concert at Cardiff's Millennium Stadium which Jermaine and Randy had wanted postponing while the manslaughter trial of Michael's doctor was ongoing.
In 2012 Jermaine released an album of jazz standards "I Wish You L.O.V.E." to predictably minimal interest. He then reconciled with his brothers and he, Jackie, Tito and Marlon went out on the Unity Tour for a year in 2012-13. They have talked about performing on the cabaret circuit but as usual solid plans are taking a while to emerge.
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