Ain't No Sunshine/I Wanna Be Where You Are/Girl Don't Take Your Love From Me/In Our Small Way/Got To Be There/Rockin' Robin/Wings Of My Love/Maria (You Were The Only One)/Love Is Here & Now You're Gone/ You've Got A Friend
Got To Be There was the debut album from Michael Jackson, lead singer of the Motown child group The Jackson 5. The album is in much the same mould as the group efforts and features the US and UK top five hits Rockin’ Robin and the title track. (US:14 UK:37)
“This album is pretty much a typical, uninventive Motown product filled a bunch of mostly conservative and forgettable covers of popular songs. The only song that really sticks out to me is I Wanna Be Where You Are, which has a really solid melody and enjoyable mid-tempo vibe to it. Got To Be There is a solid track as well, though a little on the overly sentimental side.”
“Got To Be There seems to be an album more set on going by past formulaic methods of conformity than actually saying anything new or interesting. Not that all albums have to do this and that I really expected much from a thirteen year old solo artist's debut. With this crucial period in R & B/soul music in mind, this album just fails to do much that is notable at all. If you're looking into this kind of music from the early '70s, this probably wouldn't be a very good representation.”
“Much of this is the same sub-par soul fare many records at the time were but with a less than average vocalist. As a kid Michael was only showing potential at best and was often grating. That's my main flaw with this, aside from the unoriginal material.”
“There's some worthwhile stuff on here, but too little of it. The opener Ain't No Sunshine is a quite good vocal into which he puts a lot of effort and it shows. The title track is probably as good as anything he did with the Jackson 5, though you wouldn't know it wasn't a Jackson 5 track with his brothers on backing vocals.”
“Michael Jackson's first solo album, released at the peak of the Jackson 5's popularity, is a mixed bag of covers and originals. Surprisingly, the sound is vastly different than that of the group, although the brothers appear on a few tracks as background singers. This is very light, gentle fare that perfectly suits Michael's then-thirteen year old voice. Unfortunately, Motown's studio backup singers are much older than Michael and the blend is, at times, an odd one. On four tracks, Michael interjects much too-rehearsed spoken lyrics that ruin otherwise enjoyable songs. Cheesiness aside, this is a decent album which definitely rises above kiddie status.”
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