The Jacksons

The Jacksons is the 10th album by The Jacksons, the band's first for CBS, following their seven-year tenure on Motown as "The Jackson 5". Jackson 5 member Jermaine Jackson stayed with Motown when his brothers broke their contracts and defected to CBS; he was replaced by youngest Jackson brother Randy. The album was released in 1976 for Epic Records and Philadelphia International Records as a joint venture. Philadelphia International heads Kenneth Gamble and Leon Huff produced and executive produced the album, including their first top ten hit in two years "Enjoy Yourself", but had a difficult time focusing on a sound for the now-grown-up boy band. However, the group was able for the first time to write their own material, something that had been denied to them at Motown. The Jacksons composed "Style of Life" and "Blues Away" on their own. "Blues Away" was the first published song written by lead singer Michael Jackson, who began to take a more percussive vocal approach beginning with this album. This album also spawned the second R&B single "Show You the Way to Go". The album itself placed #36 and #6 on the pop and R&B album charts respectively. The album was the Jacksons' first gold album, despite their having sold more than 10 million albums while at Motown. (Motown's sales and financial records were never presented for auditing by the RIAA until 1976).