Steve Manning, a friend of the Jacksons and president of their fan club publishes a book on the family titled The Jacksons.
January 15 : Michael and his brothers give sworn depositions in the Motown lawsuit.
January 21 : The Jackson 5 perform “Forever Came Today” and “Body Language” the Carol Burnett Show (taped at the Ed Sullivan Theater in New York City).
January 31 : Michael accepts an award on behalf of Gladys Knight & The Pips at the American Music Awards and he also presents an award to Aretha Franklin with David Soul.
February 10 : The Jackson 5 & Joe arrive in Manila, Philippines. They give a press conference and they stay at the Manilla Hilton Hotel.
To promote their concerts, they appear in the television show called Student Canteen presented on Channel 7 at noon by Eddie Ilarde, Bobby Ledesma and Coney Reye. Michael performs Ben on the TV show.
During his stay, Michael meets two actresses very famous in the Philippines, which will not fail to make the front page of the country’s magazines: Vilma Santos, also known at the time as “Queen of Philippine Movies”, “Queenstar” or “Star for All Seasons and the actress Nora Aunor.
Michael, aged 17, finds time to visit Laguna and Pagsanjan in order to have something new to submit to his teacher (Mrs Rose Fine)
February 13+14+15 : The Jackson 5 perform at the Folk Arts Theater in Manila, Philippines. Randy takes over Jermaine whose absence is justified by “sickness”.
February 16 : The Jackson 5 perform “Forever Came Today” on the Rich Little Show.
February 17+18+19 : The Jackson 5 perform their last concerts as “The Jackson Five” at the Araneta Coliseum in Quezon City, Philippines.
March 10 : The Motown contract with The Jackson 5 has expiered. CBS contract with The Jacksons is now effective. From 1969 to 1975, The Jackson 5 recorded 469 songs at Motown and only 174 have been officially released by 1975.
April 30 : Michael & his brothers give an interview to a local TV News station in Montgomery, Alabama.
May 10 : Michael is on the cover of Soul magazine with a interview by Walter Burrell and a photoshoot that took place in April at Hayvenhurst + exclusive pictures of Jackson 5’s recent tour in Manila, Philippines.
June 15 : Motown releases The Jackson 5 Anthology.
June 16 : Michael tapes a TV interview at Hayvenhurst.
The Jacksons perform on The Dinah Show (taped in Burbank). They perform “De De Doo” with Dinah Shore, the host of the show. She interviews the brothers, who talk about their recent trip to the Philippines. Michael sings “One Day In Your Life” and “We’re Almost There,” then he is interviewed alone. He talks about his songs and vacations. Katherine, Rebbie, LaToya and Janet are in the audience and make a quick appearance.
CBS airs the first episode of The Jacksons Variety Show. The show based on their Las Vegas set features The Jacksons + The Jackson Sisters (Rebbie, LaToya & Janet). Special guest star : Sonny Bono. Songs performed :”Forever Came Today”, “Love Will Keep Us Together”, “More Than You Know”/”Am I Blue?”/”For Once in My Life”/ “Try a Little Tenderness”, “Steppin’ Out with My Baby”, “Dancing Machine”.
June 21 : The Jacksons are guest on The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson taped in Burbank. The Jacksons are interviewed by Freddie Prinze, the host, and they sing a medley of “Without A Song/You’ve Got A Friend/Make It With You/Behind Closed Doors/You’ve Made Me So Very Happy/You Are The Sunshine Of My Life/You And Me Against The World.” Michael performs “Happy” in solo.
June 23 : CBS airs the 2nd episode of The Jacksons Variety Show. Special guest star : Mackenzie Phillips. Songs performed : “(You Were Made) Especially For Me”,
“Do The Fonz”, “A Little Bit Country, A Little Bit Rock and Roll”/”Deep Purple”Convoy”, “Junkfood Junkie”, “Ben”, “Goin’ Back to Indiana”.
June 24: The Jacksons are on the cover of Jet Magazine.
Michael meets Paul McCartney during an event in Beverly Hills.
June 30 : CBS airs the 3rd episode of The Jacksons Variety Show. Special guest star : Ed McMahon. Songs performed :”Rockin’ Robin”, “Flat Foot Floogie”, “World of Sunshine”, “Save The Bones for Henry Jones”, “The Love You Save”.
July : The Jacksons record their first album for CBS Epic Records at Sigma Sound Studios in Philadelphia. The album is produced by Kenny Gamble & Leon Huff.
July 15 : In the middle of a recording session, Kenny Gamble and Leon Huff decide to give the group a break and take them to spend a few hours at Valley Forge National Park at Chester County, Pennsylvania, about 45 minutes from the studio. Dexter Wansel, a keyboardist working with Gamble and Huff, reached out to a couple of friends, the Nash family, who lived in Wayne, a suburb of Radnor just a few kilometers from the park: “Dexter was a personal friend. Everything was arranged very discreetly. No one mentioned it to the press,” explained Toni Nash, the mother, who was a presenter for a local TV station at the time and is now a sculptor and documentary producer. The Nash family—Toni and Leslie Nash, along with their three children, Larry, Suzi, and Michael—owned three horses. They borrowed additional ones and took the Jacksons to a friend’s property in Ivy Hollow (likely the site of what is now the Montessori School, opened in 2011 in the national park and formerly known as Ivy Hollow Farm), where the brothers spent their time playing basketball and horseback riding.
July 7 : CBS airs the 4th episode of The Jacksons Variety Show. Special guest star : Joey Bishop. Songs performed :”ABC” “Fever”, “I Got You Babe”,”Down by the Old Mill Stream”, “Never Can Say Goodbye”.
October 10 : On the Sonny & Cher Show – Bozo Awards, The Jackssons participate in the Bozo Awards segment with Sonny & Cher and Bob Hope, and they perform “Enjoy Yourself” taped at CBS Television City in Los Angeles.
October 22 : The Jacksons’ first single for Epic “Enjoy Yourself” is released (it will peak at 6 on Hot 100 Billboard).
October 26 : Motown releases “Joyful Jukebox Music” , a compilation album by the Jackson 5. Released after the band had left the label. This is the third compilation released by the group, after Greatest Hits (1971) and Anthology (1976), yet the first to be entirely composed of previously unreleased material, recorded between 1972 and 1975. The compilation is released less than two weeks before the group’s debut on their new label Epic Records.
November 05 : The Jacksons’ first album for Epic titled “The Jacksons” is released. The album features for the first time two songs produced by The Jacksons : “Style Of Life” & “Blues Away” (written by Michael). The album is 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”.
November 12 : The Jacksons perform “Enjoy Yourself” and “Dreamer” on Dinah TV show (taped in Burbank). Michael talks to Fred Astaire on the show.
November 27 : The Jacksons are on the cover of Rock & Soul Magazine.
December : The Jacksons are on the cover of Jet & Soul Magazine.
The Jacksons + Rebbie, LaToya & Janet give an interview at Hayvenhurst. This rare interview is aired in 2009 on the Swedish tribute program “As we remember Michael Jackson” (original title “Så minns vi Michael Jackson”).
December 18 : Birth of Valencia Jackson, first child of Marlon & Valencia.
While on a promo tour in San Francisco, The Jacksons go to local music store “Jax Records” where fans swarm the place and break the windows causing chaos and injuries. They also give an interview for KPIX-TV with Ben Fong-Torres as the host.
December 31 : Spanish TV channel TVE airs The Jacksons performances on Nochevieja. The performances were taped earlier in Las Vegas. Valerio Lazarov, the producer of the show, had sent a team. The brothers performed “Good Times”, “Enjoy Yourself”, Dreamer, Keep On Dancing & “Think Happy” with an introduction and a “Happy Birthday” sung in Spanish, alongside the presenter Didi Sherman, Lazarov’s wife.
Jackson Dynasty 