The Downslide
Despite The Jackson 5's world-wide popularity with concert-goers, trouble was brewing where their record sales were concerned. In Europe, sales had always been uneven. However, record store performance in America had always been strong. By April 1972 though, whether from overexposure or lack of promotion, the group was losing steam. The April release of ‘Little Bitty Pretty One’, was a huge disappointment. Except for a seasonal release of ‘Santa Claus is Coming to Town’, it became the poorest-selling Jackson 5 single to date, netting only 590,629 copies, globally. Its follow-up, ‘Lookin' Through the Windows’, fared even worse: 581,426 copies. This was a terrible showing. (It is interesting, though, that this song marked a sudden sales resurgence in Britain – a Top 10 hit that was no doubt a consequence of their recent tour.) When ‘Corner of the Sky’, from the Broadway musical
Pippin
(which Gordy had financed), sold only a disappointing 381,426 copies worldwide, Joseph became irate.
‘What the hell is going on?’ he fumed. He began showing up at Motown, harassing the sales staff and badgering the promotion executives. The problem was that Berry Gordy was no longer personally involved in what was going on with the record company. Instead, he put in charge a man named Ewart Abner, a seasoned executive in the recording industry by the time he got to Motown. For his part, Berry now devoted most of his time to Diana Ross's film career, and to establishing Motown Productions in the movie business. Although still Motown's chairman of the board, he was interested only in filmmaking, not in record production. A star vehicle for Diana Ross called
Mahogany
was in the works, a venture that would monopolize most of Berry's time.
At the time, Motown was capitalizing on a more socially conscious sound with Marvin Gaye and Stevie Wonder. Perhaps The Jackson 5's audience had become hungry for a hipper sound than what they got with the group's next release, ‘Hallelujah Day’. It sold less than a quarter of a million discs; too bad, it was a terrific little record with leads shared by Michael, Marlon and Jackie.
In truth, Ewart Abner didn't care about The Jackson 5. He wasn't involved in signing them to the company, and he felt their best days were behind them. ‘They already had their own cartoon, for Christ's sake,’ he argued. ‘Why spend any more money on them?’ If sales figures were low and the group was losing its audience, it was the group's fault, not Motown's, he decided. With that point of view, it wasn't surprising that Joseph disliked Ewart Abner, and in an intense, passionate way.
When an album,
Skywriter,
was released in March and sold only 115,045 copies, it became the group's poorest-selling album. (It didn't even reach the Top 50 in Britain.) Joseph believed that all of the records which had been failures could have been more successful if Motown had simply promoted them properly.
There was a reprieve in the downward slide when producer Hal Davis put together a terrific track for the Jackson boys called ‘Get It Together’. The production was tight; the music, background vocals and Michael's maturing lead all blended nicely on this performance, a departure from the sweeter, pop music styles previously associated with the group. Released in August 1973, it sold over 700,000 copies. Though not a million-seller, it encouraged Joseph in his belief that his sons still had an audience. To his way of thinking, The Jackson 5 was not finished. If anything,
he
was finished… with Motown.