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"2300 Jackson Street"

Date range confirmed from the facts that Jermaine told “Jet” magazine that, at the time of the interview, “all the Jacksons were reuniting to sing the title song ‘2300 Jackson Street’ for an upcoming album”, when this interview took place “backstage at the Los Angeles Sports Arena, where their brother, Michael, was concluding his 18-month world concert tour.” These “Bad Tour” Los Angeles concert dates took place on January 16, 17, 18, 26, and 27, 1989. (“Jet” magazine [February 20, 1989])

Jackie: "We are all pretty vocal in the studio, you know. For example, the song "2300 Jackson Street came from an old tune of ours that Teddy Riley was just playing with on the piano. I think it was Randy who went over to him and suggested some chord changes and we worked on the melody and so on, until we had a brand new song. And after that, when Teddy first brought the music back to us, we didn't really like his "street" treatment of the song, and so, he flew out to California, so that we could get that "Human Nature" kind of softness and warmth that it has now. No, I'd say the album has come out of a series of marriages."

The title track in in fact the only one on which Michael appears—as a background vocalist. His absence, the brothers say, is due to the fact that the majority of the new album was recorded when the reshapen one was away on his interminable "Bad Tour". But, says Tito:

"Ask anyone of the family, and they'll tell you the same: once a Jackson, always a Jackson. Both Michael and Marlon, who's also working on a solo career, are still in the group, even if they took a rain check on this one."

...But if the media have at last let the Jacksons grow up and make records like anyone else in their mid 20s to 30s, they'll probably never allow any of the family to release an album, perform in concert or do anything, anywhere without reference to the Thriller.

Tito: "Of course it puts pressure on us. How couldn't it? Michael has reached levels that no other artist has reached. But he's always said that if anyone is going to break any of these records, then he wants it to be another Jackson. It's up to us to accept that responsibility and make each new project we try our very best."

Jermaine Jackson, "Record Mirror" (1989)

It wasn't that we didn't want [Michael] on anything else or that he didn't want to, we just didn't ask, and he didn't ask either. We just wanted him on that one song.

"Smash Hits" (1989)

Blitz: Why isn't Michael still a part of The Jacksons on your new LP? (He makes a brief appearance on the title track.)

Tito: Well... (explains at length how Michael has been too busy touring) and it was time for the brothers to really do their thing and let the public know they have something special. I'd rather have my brothers than anybody else in the world have the record for the best selling record ever, but as he says all the time to us, 'If anybody breaks my record I want it to be somebody in my family.'