Song:Shake Your Body (Down To The Ground)
Album:Playlist: The Very Best Of The Jacksons
There's not much question that Berry Gordy's biggest mistake was letting the Jackson 5 leave Motown for Epic in 1975. This cost him untold millions of dollars. But despite the 1974 hit Dancing Machine, he obviously thought they were through. But the boys and their dad Joe Jackson rightfully thought that Gordy didn't want them to grow up. So they worked out a better deal with Epic that gave them a much higher royalty and they could write, produce and play on their own records. Motown sued and kept the rights to the Jackson 5 name. So the name was changed to The Jacksons. And Jermaine Jackson had to leave because he was married to Gordy's daughter. Randy Jackson officially replaced him though he had been part of the group for several years. Their first two Epic albums were produced by Philadelphia International Records owners Kenny Gamble & Leon Huff. And though they had a big hit with Enjoy Yourself, The Jacksons wanted to write and produce their own albums. The 1978 album Destiny was a big turning point and laid the groundwork for Michael Jackson's solo career. Michael & Randy wrote Shake Your Body and it reached #7 on the Billboard Hot 100. The Jacksons produced Destiny in Los Angeles with arrangements by veteran session keyboard player Greg Phillinganes who was a member of Stevie Wonder's Wonderlove. Though not known to most music fans, Phillinganes was one of the key figures in R & B in the 70s & 80s and went on to be Michael Jackson's musical director. The strings and horns were arranged by Tom Tom 84 and Seawind leader Jerry Hey. The version of Shake Your Body on Destiny is eight minutes long and the radio edit was about four minutes. Most comps including The Essential Michael Jackson have the radio edit. This 2009 budget comp Playlist has the full version of Shake Your Body. Of course it wasn't long before Michael Jackson recorded Off The Wall and The Jacksons as a group still recorded occasionally but they were never the same and we all know how big Michael became. Here's The Jacksons performing Shake Your Body (Down To The Ground) 1978.
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