Most people who grew up loving the Jackson family can rattle off all the brothers. Jackie, Tito, Jermaine, Marlon, Michael. And then there’s Randy, the youngest of the boys, who turns 65 today.
Here’s the funny part. If someone had called out “Randy” on the day he was born, nobody would have answered to it. That name wasn’t written on his birth certificate at all.
Randy Jackson came into the world on October 29, 1961, at St. Mary’s Mercy Hospital in Gary, Indiana. He’s the ninth of Katherine and Joe Jackson’s children and the youngest of all the boys. Only his little sister Janet arrived after him.
One quick thing to clear up before we go on. This is Randy Jackson of the Jackson family, not the Randy Jackson who sat at the judges’ table on “American Idol” for all those years. Two different men who happen to share a name.
So what did his parents actually write down that day in 1961?
Steven.
He was born Steven Randall Jackson. At home the family started calling him “Little Randy,” pulling it from his middle name, and it simply stuck. For more than 50 years now the whole world has known him as Randy. A lot of longtime fans have never once heard the Steven part, and that’s exactly why it catches people off guard.
Randy wasn’t just the baby of the house, either. When Jermaine chose to stay with Motown Records in 1975, it was Randy who stepped in and joined his brothers in the group they had renamed the Jacksons. He played congas and percussion and found his place fast. By the 1980 album “Triumph” he was writing songs and sharing in a Grammy nomination with the rest of them.
He also knew how to come back from a rough stretch. After a serious car accident in early 1980, Jet magazine ran a cover that summer carrying one hopeful line, “Randy Jackson Walks Again.” And he did.
Through all of it, he stayed the little brother. He and Michael were close in age and close as friends, two of the youngest voices in a very full and very busy home.
Think about how often you’ve said his name over the years. On the radio, in a magazine, talking with friends about the Jacksons. Randy, Randy, Randy. And the whole time, the name his mother and father picked for him first was sitting quietly underneath it.
Sixty-five years old today, and the man the world calls Randy is still carrying a first name most of his fans never knew he had. Happy birthday to Steven Randall Jackson.