Michael Jackson was 11 years old when the Jackson 5 brought their act to “The Ed Sullivan Show.” For five brothers from a small house in Gary, Indiana, TV didn’t get any bigger than that. Michael described it as the Sunday night show “where America first saw the Beatles.”
The brothers played the show twice. On December 14, 1969, they opened with “Stand!” and then let Michael step out front for “Who’s Loving You,” a slow, grown-up love song that sounded far too sad for a boy his age. They closed with “I Want You Back.” The show’s official website says the host praised him after that night: “The little fella in front is incredible.”
Michael sings “Who’s Loving You” on The Ed Sullivan Show, 1969
That’s the part millions of people saw at home. The part they didn’t see happened backstage, and Michael told it himself in “Moonwalk,” the memoir he published in 1988.
Before the show, Michael was wandering around behind the stage when he ran into Mr. Sullivan. This was the man who’d put Elvis and the Beatles in front of America, and now he was face to face with the smallest Jackson. “He seemed glad to see me and shook my hand, but before he let it go he had a special message for me,” Michael wrote.
Michael dated the meeting to 1970. He wrote that it was a hard year for some of rock’s brightest young stars, and he thought Sullivan “may have been thinking of all this” when he spoke up.
Here’s what Ed Sullivan told him: “Never forget where your talent came from, that your talent is a gift from God.” One of the most famous men in show business had stopped, in the middle of a busy TV night, to say that to an 11-year-old.
The show went on, and the host made a point of thanking the whole family. “Mr. Sullivan complimented and thanked each of us,” Michael remembered, “but I was thinking about what he had said to me before the show.”
There’s a sweet twist, though. The advice wasn’t exactly news to him, because his mother, Katherine, had already taught him that lesson at home. “I was grateful for his kindness, but I could have told him that my mother had never let me forget,” he wrote.
The Jackson 5 went back on the show on May 10, 1970, the year Michael gave for that backstage handshake. They sang “I Want You Back” and “ABC,” then closed the night with their brand new single.
The Jackson 5 sing “The Love You Save” on The Ed Sullivan Show, 1970
That’s Michael out front again, a few months older, singing lead with his brothers right behind him. By the time he wrote “Moonwalk,” he’d made “Thriller,” the best-selling album of all time. He still quoted Ed Sullivan’s advice word for word, and he still made sure his mother got the credit for teaching it to him first.