Everyone knew Michael Jackson as the little one out front of his brothers, singing his heart out. But 55 years ago this month, Motown let him step out on his own for the very first time.
The song was “Got to Be There.” It came out on October 7, 1971, when Michael was only 13 years old. His voice on it is sweet and high and full of feeling, and people fell for it right away.
It climbed to No. 4 on the Billboard chart here at home and reached No. 5 across the ocean in Britain. On another big American chart of the day, Cash Box, it did even better and hit the very top. A songwriter named Elliot Willensky wrote it, not one of Motown’s famous hitmakers, and it turned out to be a lovely fit for a boy that age.
Hear 13-year-old Michael sing “Got to Be There”
Close your eyes for a minute and just listen to how much warmth he packs into one short song. It is hard to believe he was still in grade school.
Now here is the twist that even longtime fans tend to miss.
One of the most famous women at Motown loved the song so much that she recorded her own version of it. She cut it for an album in the early 1970s. Then something odd happened. The whole album was shelved. Boxed up, set on a shelf and left there.
For more than 35 years, almost nobody heard a note of it.
So who was she?
It was Diana Ross. The album was called “To the Baby,” and for reasons tied up in the business of the day, it never came out when it was made. Her take on “Got to Be There” sat in the vault, finished but silent, year after year.
Then at last, in January 2010, it saw daylight. Her version finally reached fans as part of an expanded edition of her record “Touch Me in the Morning.” People who had followed Diana and Michael for decades got to hear something that had been hidden for most of their lives.
Think about that. A song a 13-year-old Michael made famous, sung by the woman who helped bring the Jackson 5 to the world, kept under wraps longer than many of us have had our grandchildren.
The two of them were close for years, and moments like this are a reminder of how tangled and sweet their Motown family really was.
Give young Michael’s original a spin above. Then picture Diana’s voice carrying the very same tune, locked away all that time, waiting for its turn.
It finally got one.