Forever, Michael

Forever, Michael is the fourth studio album by American singer Michael Jackson, released by Motown Records on January 16, 1975. The album is credited as having songs with funk and soul material. Eddie Holland, Brian Holland, Hal Davis, Freddie Perren, and Sam Brown III served as producers on Forever, Michael. It is the final album before Jackson's solo breakthrough with his next album, Off the Wall (1979) and has sold 1 million copies worldwide.

The album charted only in the United States, hitting number 101 on the Billboard Top LPs & Tape chart and number 10 on the Billboard Top Soul Albums chart. Forever, Michael failed to chart in other countries. Unlike Jackson's previous studio albums, the album was not commercially successful worldwide. However, Forever, Michael was generally well received by contemporary music critics. As part of promotion for the album, three singles were released from Forever, Michael, all of which were moderate commercial successes on the US Billboard Hot 100 and other music charts worldwide.

In 1981, Motown released the compilation album, One Day in Your Life, named after the third track from Forever, Michael. "One Day in Your Life" was released as a single and reached number one in the UK and several other countries. Songs from the album were reissued in 2009 after Jackson's death in June of the same year as part of the 3-disc compilation album Hello World: The Motown Solo Collection.

Background
The album was Jackson's fourth as a solo artist and would end up being his final album released with Motown before he and his brothers, the Jackson 5 (save for Jermaine, who would remain with Motown until 1983) left for CBS Records after the release of their tenth album, Moving Violation. This album displayed a change in musical style for the 16-year-old, who adopted a smoother soul sound that he would continue to develop on his later solo albums for Epic Records, the label he would record on for the rest of his life. The album is also credited as having songs with funk elements.

Although his voice was already showing signs of changing on his previous album Music & Me two years earlier, this was also the first album to feature Jackson as a tenor rather than a boy soprano. Most of the tracks were recorded in 1974, and the album was originally set to be released that year but because of demand from the Jackson 5's huge hit "Dancing Machine", production on Jackson's album was delayed until the hype from that song died down. In 1975, Motown launched a joint promotional campaign with Forever, Michael and Moving Violation.

Promotion
The album helped return Jackson to the top 40, aided by the singles "We're Almost There" and "Just a Little Bit of You", both written by the Holland Brothers (Eddie and Brian) of Holland–Dozier–Holland. In 1981, Motown released the compilation album One Day in Your Life to capitalize on the success of Jackson's Off the Wall on Epic. It included most of the tracks from Forever, Michael and the title track went to number one in the UK and several other countries.

Critical reception
Forever, Michael was generally well-received by music critics. Robert Christgau from The Village Voice gave the album an A− rating. He found that "at 16, Michael's voice combines autonomy and helpless innocence in effective proportions. He also gets production help from Brian Holland (who begins one side like Barry White and the other like the Ohio Players) and a few romantic ballads (sure hit: "One Day in Your Life") that are as credible on their own terms as the rockers." Tom Hull described it as "transitional as you'd expect from the 16-year-old artist" and gave it a B+ rating.

In a retrospective review, AllMusic editor William Ruhlmann called Forever, Michael a "more mature effort for the 16-year-old singer but lacked the contemporary dance style that had given Jackson and his brothers a career rebirth with "Dancing Machine" the year before." While "Jackson sang appealingly, the arrangements were noticeably similar to many older Motown charts, and there was little here to hint that, four years hence, on his next solo album, Off the Wall, Jackson would emerge as a major star." Leah Greenblatt from Entertainment Weekly remarked that the album's "comparatively adult soul sound confirms he was ready to move on from his days as Gordy's bubblegum boy wonder. Still, the fairly standard midtempo grooves do little to foreshadow the sonic revelations that were soon to come."

Personnel
Adapted from AllMusic.
 * Michael Jackson – lead and background vocals
 * David Blumberg - arranger
 * Jim Britt – photography
 * Hal Davis – producer
 * L.T. Horn – engineer, mixing
 * Eddy Manson – arranger, producer
 * Freddie Perren – arranger, producer
 * Sam Brown III – arranger, producer
 * Russ Terrana – mixing
 * Arthur G. Wright – arranger