Looks Like the 16 Magazine Staff Writers Have Been Hitting the Egg Nog Again

Hope you all are having holidays as fantastic as the one they describe here. --J5Collector

Song Fragments

I've played the Jackson 5 Christmas Album countless times over the years and it never struck me until this year just how many pieces of other songs are embedded int he songs they sing. I know fans always hope for Christmas Album outtakes, and hearing these little fragments of songs within songs makes me wonder if there were longer versions recorded of all of them.

Here are the ones I've noticed:

1. Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas -- "We Wish You a Merry Christmas" in the fade out at the end
2. The Christmas Song -- "Jingle Bells" in the fade out at end
3. Up on the Housetop -- "Here Comes Santa Claus" is sung at the beginning, and at the middle. (Also, while it's not a song, a verse from "The Night Before Christmas" is rapped before Jermaine's verse)
4. Someday at Christmas -- "White Christmas" played at the beginning and again at the end
   

Have I missed any song fragments?

Secret Santas

I have two press photos in my collection that show the Jackson 5 dressed up in Santa suits, posing with Mary Wilson of the Supremes.



The caption on the back of the photos from Motown's publicity department indicate that they were taken at a party thrown by Motown on December 23, 1971, where the J5 and Mary Wilson passed out presents to 600 underprivileged children. Beyond that, I have only come across a couple of mentions of the event. The Los Angeles Times had some fun with it in a social news column:
There was a first-person report (as well as a third photo from the event) in the May 1972 issue of 16 magazine. I love the reference here to Michael's Santa belly. I had never before noticed that he was the only one who added the appropriate amount of stuffing.

A J5 Christmas Portrait

Although Motown used photos from the Third Album's photo session on the Christmas Album, it's likely that the latter had its own photo session. I have in my collection three original 8 x 10 glossies that show the J5 posing around a Christmas tree, surrounded by gifts, that were obviously taken in 1970.




A fourth shot from this session appeared in the 2009 cd release, Jackson 5 Ultimate Christmas Collection. (If you don't have this, by the way, I highly recommend it, just for the a Capella version of "Give Love on Christmas Day.") It gives us a shot in full color, and I do mean full. You might want to put your sunglasses on before you look at Michael's outfit.

The photos were never used and, so far as I know, the only time one of them appeared in print prior to 2008 was in the December 31, 1970, issue of Jet magazine to accompany the Jackson 5's Holiday Tour schedule.

A Christmas Memory

Jackie shares his holiday memories of Michael in this recent interview from USA Today. Among other things, he explains the family's holiday traditions (their mom doesn't celebrate because she's JW but everyone else does), and says what some of us have been saying for years: the Jackson 5 Christmas Album is one of their best albums of all time.

Purely Made in Indonesia

When you're a collector, you have to be willing to take a risk with eBay items. Every once in a while, an item comes up that you've never heard of and you're perhaps even 95% sure is a fake, but you have to take a leap of faith for that 5% possibility.

That's what happened to me about ten years ago when I saw an eBay auction for this Indonesian cassette of the Jackson 5's Christmas Album that oddly had an Off the Wall-era photo of Michael superimposed over his 1970 self.

But it wasn't the strange photo choice that made me leap -- it was the track listing. As you'll see from the scan of the back, it includes six songs that were not on the original LP.


For years there have been rumors swirling around that there are unreleased J5 Christmas songs floating around out there among European collectors. One fellow in France even posted a list of his bootleg J5 Christmas songs for a few months before constant haranguing from fellow collectors drove him to take the list down. And those of us who are Motown fans in general know that there were more than likely outtakes from the Christmas Album sessions -- other songs recorded that didn't make the cut, or different versions of the songs that did. (A complete list of Christmas Album outtakes that are rumored to exist can be found in For the Record by Chris Cadman and Craig Halstead.)

This cassette, with a sticker on the box that reads "Purely Made in Indonesia," has all the hallmarks of a bootleg, so I had to bid on it, on the off-chance the six additional songs were recorded by the Jackson 5.

Sadly enough, they weren't. They were all songs by other artists, most of whom didn't even sound like the Jackson 5. But it was worth a shot, and I'd do it all over again if another opportunity were to present itself because there are just so many Christmas songs I'd love to hear the Jackson 5 sing.

Now That's What I Call a Christmas Feast

A double-centerfold from the February 1973 issue of 16 magazine

Let It Rain, Let It Snow, Let It Get Dark at Night...

I knew the U.S. Post Office was operating under a massive deficit but... a holiday compilation cd? At least they included a J5 song. "I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus" is the last cut on the cd. And it usually ships in one business day. That's because they don't have to take it to the post office to mail it.

Whoah yeah!

Many of my earliest J5 memories involve being awakened by my clock radio on a school day to the sounds of a brand new release from the Jackson 5. In the days before internet, we never really had any idea when a new song was scheduled to be released, so most singles we heard for the first time on the radio came as a complete surprise.

I remember being jolted from my sleep one morning in late November by the a tripped-up version of "Santa Claus Is Coming to Town," a popular kids' Christmas song that I was used to hearing droned out off-key by a fifth-grade chorus at a school holiday program. I had never heard the song sung with such vigor and soul, and I was pretty sure from the first few measures that it was being sung by the Jackson 5. But by that time there were so many J5 imitators you couldn't always be sure. It wasn't until I heard Michael belt out the first "Whoah yeah!" that I knew for certain it was the Jackson 5.

A new single from the J5, and a Christmas single to boot! As soon as school was out that day, I rushed to my neighborhood dime store to buy it. Luckily, they had it in stock, so I plunked down my 49 cents and ran the two blocks home to play it.


I must have played it four or five times before I tried out the flip side. I had never heard of the song "Christmas Won't Be the Same This Year" but then I had never heard most of the songs the Jackson 5 sang before I played their new releases, not even the cover versions of Motown standards. Of course, I loved the B-side even more, since it was a soulful slow-tempo song with Jermaine singing lead. And I loved, loved, LOVED the spoken-word intro, with the other brothers chiding Jermaine for not feeling the Christmas spirit. It felt like they were in the room with me, talking to me.

I didn't know then -- or even suspect -- that within the week I'd have an entire LP of Jackson 5 Christmas songs to enjoy. If I'd looked closely at the label, I would have gotten a major clue that there was a Jackson 5 Christmas Album out there, but I was just a clueless kid who didn't read boring record labels. For the time being, I was happy playing both sides of that Christmas single, over and over again.

It was only later when I became a serious adult collector that I acquired a copy of the white label promo, the sort of record the A.M. radio d.j. woke me up with all those years ago. This promo is distinctive because it's marked "Audition Copy." It's a designation Motown frequently used on their promo releases, but I believe "Santa Claus Is Comin' to Town" is the only J5 promo so marked.



In my next post I'll write about the first time I saw the Jackson 5 Christmas Album. Whoah yeah!