Michael Monday: P.S. Do You Think 14 Is Too Young to Get Married?

Young Michael Jackson got plenty of fan mail throughout his Motown career. An early press photo shows Michael in his bedroom, next to bag of mail that's almost as big as he was. While it would have been impossible for any of the Jackson 5 to respond personally to even a portion of their weekly boatload of mail, fans who wrote them always had hope that their letter would miraculously slip through, be read, and that we'd get a response. [For the record, Jermaine never responded to any of my letters, but Edmund Sylvers did -- I caught him just as his star was rising.] This, of course, would lead to friendship, love, and a marriage proposal.

These aspirations on the part of the young fans who wrote to Michael were perfectly captured in "Dear Michael," a 1974 song especially written for Michael by Hal Davis and Elliott Willensky. The song was issued on his last Motown solo LP, Forever, Michael, and even inspired the album title, using the closing salutation for the letter he wrote in response. "Dear Michael" was used as the B-side on Michael's last single while at Motown, "Just a Little Bit of You" (M1349F), released on April 29, 1975.

In 1984 when Michael was at the height of his Thriller fame, Kim Fields, the young star of The Facts of Life, recorded a cover version of the song that was released that year on the Critique label. The B-side featured an instrumental version of the song, and the single was released with a picture sleeve showing Kim smiling through her braces.


Her record didn't exactly set the world on fire or launch a long career in music for her, but it did at least get her a guest appearance on Soul Train. Today it is one of the kitchy-est J5 collectibles.

Double Delight

When Jackson 5's third single, "The Love You Save," was issued on May 16, 1970, Motown found that it had two hits -- and two J5 lead singers -- on its hands. There was the upbeat A-side of the single, and the slow tempo, more mellow B-side "I Found That Girl," with lead vocals by Jermaine, the group's bass player. At 16, Jermaine was the right age to be a teen heart-throb. It didn't hurt that his good looks, shy demeanor, and sexy singing voice drove all the girls wild.

In the early years, Michael was the obvious stand-out in the group, with his talent and stage presence. Michael was entertaining, but Jermaine was the one we all wanted to go home with. The Corporation-penned song "I Found That Girl," seemed to be custom-made for Jermaine and his female fans, who could all fantasize that he was singing about them. When the single came out, it was issued as a double A-side, and color vinyl promo copies of "I Found That Girl" were sent to radio stations, along with "The Love You Save."



It climbed the charts throughout the summer of 1970 and Jet magazine's Soul Brothers Top 20 during that time showed it neck to neck with "The Love You Save."


One of the coolest things about the new Jackson 5 Live at the Forum cd is that we get to hear two different versions of "I Found That Girl," the first recorded on June 20, 1970, soon after the song had come out, and the second recorded two years later on August 26, 1972 when Jermaine's sex symbol status had been well established. It's fascinating to hear how he works the crowd, in the earlier version as the soft-spoken boy next door who, on Jackie's prodding, shyly points out the girl he's found ("She's the one over there in the yellow dress."), and two years later as the smooth superfly who teases the audience ("My rap is too heavy for them. They can't dig it.") Both songs end with Jermaine singing an extra song-within-the song that starts "Won't you take me with you?" Girls regularly fainted at J5 concerts when Jermaine sang that line. In some cases they even stormed the stage, trying to get to him. Just a few weeks before the 1972 concert at the Forum, Jermaine had been mobbed by 6,000 fans at Chicago's Midway airport.


And by then he was already secretly dating Hazel Gordy, so he had indeed found his girl. Perhaps that's why he could make the song sound so convincing.