Some choices only a family man would make. Michael Jackson had two brand new songs in his hands, both of them special, and he decided he could only hold on to one. What he did with the other says a lot about the uncle he was behind the music.
The story comes from TJ Jackson, one of Michael’s nephews. TJ and his two brothers, Taj and Taryll, were a group called 3T. They were young, they could sing, and their famous uncle had taken them under his wing and signed them to his own label, MJJ Music.
It happened at The Hit Factory, a recording studio in New York. Michael was in town working on music for his 1995 album “HIStory,” including a song called “Childhood,” and there was a string session going on. That’s when he sat his nephews down and played them the two songs.
TJ says Michael looked at them and told them the truth. He loved both, but he could only keep one for himself. The other he wanted to hand over to the boys.
So which one did he keep?
He kept “You Are Not Alone.” That song went all the way to No. 1 in America in 1995, one of the biggest hits of his later years. Michael knew it was the one. TJ remembers that when their uncle spoke, nobody argued.
“Whenever our uncle Michael said ‘This is the one’, we listened,” TJ says.
The song he gave away was called “Why.” It was written by Babyface, the hitmaker behind so many classics, and produced by Michael himself. 3T recorded it, and Michael didn’t just hand it over and walk off. He sang on it with them. You can hear him right there alongside his nephews.
TJ put it simply. Michael “could only keep one, and he wanted to give the other to us.”
“Why” came out in 1996 and climbed to No. 2 on the charts in Britain. It landed on 3T’s first album, “Brotherhood,” which Michael released on MJJ Music. For three young men just starting out, having their uncle write them into a song like that was the kind of gift money can’t buy.
Here’s “Why,” the song Michael handed his nephews and then sang on himself.
3T performing “Why” with Michael Jackson singing alongside them
And here’s the one Michael kept for himself, the song that went to No. 1.
Michael Jackson’s official video for the song he decided to keep
Watch the two back to back and you can feel what he was doing. He was building his own record, sure, but he was also building his nephews up right beside him. That was Michael with family. He shared the spotlight when he could have kept all of it, and he made sure the people he loved had something of their own.