Posts Tagged ‘I Want You Back’

By Joe Klein

For the last couple of months, I have been posting stories about the new JACKSON 5 album I WANT YOU BACK! UNRELEASED MASTERS and the role my long-time friend RUSS TERRANA played in the project. Well, now, as tough as it is to admit, I only got PART of the story right!

Since the new album was released last week, I learned that only three of Russ’ mixes were included on the new album, and that he hadn’t mixed the entire album as I had believed and wrote about. What I did write was what I believed to be true and accurate at the time, based on information received direct from the sources involved in the project, including Russ himself.

Our first story about the new J5 album broke online in mid-September, while Russ was still in the midst of his mixing chores. A little over a week after he was done mixing, UME issued their initial  press release about the release of the album, to occur on November 10. The story released by the company had information about the twelve songs that would be included in the new album.

But, in what is a good example of just how crazy things are (and always have been) in the music business, there were changes made and events that occurred up until the last minute that lead to the information posted on this blog and elsewhere that turned out to be not correct once the new Jackson 5 album was released last week.

Russ first told me about the project back in late August. He had been contacted by HARRRY WEINGER, the producer of the album for the company who distributes all the catalog product for Motown Records, UNIVERSAL MUSIC ENTERPRISES. Weinger recruited Russ to mix down several recently-discovered Jackson 5 tracks from the Motown vaults for an anticipated November release. Russ and fellow engineer RICK VIERRA worked for about a month on the project, finishing up around the end of September, and UME made the first official announcement about the new album in early October.

It wasn’t until after the release of the entire album, on November 10 that I, and Russ, first learned of the final track listings and the sound mixing credits. My own blog stories were written assuming that all but one of the tracks on the album would be the new mixes that Russ performed (except for one song, called “Buttercup” which was a collaboration between the J5 and STEVIE WONDER). But the credits listed on the new album only indicated that Russ had mixed three of the tracks contained on the release! So, as surprised as I was, I needed to set the record straight once and for all, and correct the misstatements that were inadvertently made by me online. Last weekend, I set out to research all the facts, in an effort to get the story as correct and complete as possible to post online. Of course I spoke with Russ once again and, for the first time, spoke with Rick Vierra, the owner of the studio where the mixing process took place. I also contacted Harry Weinger for a bit of additional information and comment for this story as well. I even spoke with Russ’ daughter, CHRISTI TERRANA-HUNZIKER about this story. I took all the new information, threw in into my “writer’s crock” and boiled it all down for this post. Here’s how it all shakes out…..

At the end of August, Weinger sent Russ the digitally-encoded multi-track masters for four songs. Then, over the next couple of weeks, Weinger sent the masters for seven more songs to Russ for him to review and start performing mixes on. According to Weinger, “These were songs that were being considered for this, and possibly future J5 projects, that Russ could consider mixing down. I sent Russ some tracks for him to listen; they were not necessarily tracks for something. They could be. They might not.”

The mixing process for a project of this nature is pretty complex in this day and age of digital audio and video. The procedure for each song begins with the digital audio pre-production, processing, and preliminary mixing of the individual tracks. Next, the tracks are converted from digital back to the analog audio realm, where the final adjustments, tweaks and detailed mixes are performed. At the end stage the tracks are converted back to digital audio again. Whew! If you understood all this, you are better reader than I am a writer!

Immediately after receiving the first four (digitally encoded) multi-track masters from Weinger, Russ and Rick dove right in, and began the preliminary steps of the process. Just after all the technical wizardry got underway, the additional seven tracks were received, and  things started heating up fast.

The usual chain of requests for changes and revisions from the producer followed.  Russ and Rick then found themselves in a dizzying frenzy of multi-tasking that lasted for weeks. Rick comments, “We were working our butts off. man! One day we’re doing preliminary production and pre-mixing on one set of tracks and then moving on to the final mixing of others. At the next session, we’re doing revisions to the final mixes of certain tracks while still working on the preliminary steps on other songs. It was just crazy!”

I received a more seasoned assessment from Russ himself, who has been through it all so many times before. “Yeah, it reminded me of the times working for Motown so many years ago. The company was cranking out so much music back then. I’d come into the studio day after day, and do mix after mix. Lots of times it got so busy that I lost track of what projects I was working on! I’d just try to concentrate on the session or mix I was doing at the moment.”

Russ and Rick ended up doing the pre-production and preliminary mixing on all eleven tracks presented to them, and proceeded to work on “final mixes” on a total of nine of the tracks sent to them. “You know how it is, man,” Rick says. “The label wants changes to some mixes and then wants us to move on to new mixes. Certain tracks become priorities over others.” Some of the songs were, in fact, mixed several times, in attempts to get the mixes just right for Weinger. Russ performed eight final mixes on MAN’S TEMPTATION, one of the songs on the new J5 album. “They ended up using the fourth mix,” Rick recalls. “But you’ve got different people at the label with different ideas. So, it’s cool. All the tracks we worked on turned out really great, and I hope we have a chance to mix more.”

Of the nine completed mixes submitted to the label by Russ and Rick, three made the final cut to the new J5 album.The album included three other new mixes of old tracks, performed in by another very talented engineer named KEVIN REEVES, who currently works for Motown in New York City. Weinger remarks, “Kevin is the amazing Universal Mastering Studios engineer who studied the old mixes to get a handle on the three tracks he did (The Medley, and the alternates of Never Can Say Goodbye and Dancing Machine).”

The new Jackson 5 album has detailed credits listed on the insert to the CD package. Six of them were new mixes performed this year. Three of them were mixed by Russ, assisted by Rick. They are MAN’S TEMPTATION, LOVE COMES IN DIFFERENT FLAVORS and the lead single from the album, THAT’S HOW LOVE IS. The other three new mixes were done in Universal’s New York mastering studio by Kevin Reeves. Those tracks are NEVER CAN SAY GOODBYE, DANCIN’ MACHINE and the album’s opening track, a medley of I WANT YOU BACK/ABC/THE LOVE YOU SAVE. The remaining six tracks on the album are noted as being from the “original two-track masters.” But, what about the engineering credits for those mixes on the original maters? As Russ, himself, mixed most, if not all, of the early Jackson 5 hits, it’s likely that he mixed at least a few of these six original masters. But, as it turns out, detailed notes of recording session personnel were not always made at the old Motown sessions, and engineer notations were missing from all but one of the old masters included in the new J5 release.

“I was hoping to find evidence Russ did the other six originally, but the tapes don’t have the engineer notations.” says Weinger. “He did not do the original mix of LISTEN I’LL TELL YOU HOW back in 1969, as the engineer code on the tape box is not his. None of the other previously mixed tracks indicate a mix engineer.” Harry added, “I do recall that DEKE RICHARDS, the original head of The Corporation writing-producing team, mixed the version of ABC that’s on the album.”

I asked Russ about the other tracks, “Joe, I mixed thousands of songs for Motown! Probably hundreds of those were of the Jackson 5 and Michael. There’s no way I can remember the names of all the songs I mixed all those years ago.” Russ adds, “I usually do recall a song when I hear it and most of the time I’m able to tell if it is one of my mixes! But keep in mind that so much of the work was done thirty or even forty years ago, and memories do fade.”

Having known Russ for thirty-five of those years, I also know his children as well but lost touch with them many years ago. Recently, however, his daughter, Christi, and I reunited over the internet! Until this online reconnection, I never realized how proud Christi was of her father’s accomplishments. Christi and I have communicated quite a bit via email and phone over the last couple of months, and she chimed in on this story as follows: “Dad would be so into the project he was working on and like you said, he would not remember what he mixed the week before, because there was so much material plus A LOT of long hours….and that’s putting it mildly! That’s why I would spend so much time at the studio with him, just so I could learn from him.” She added, “Dad always did go from one project to the next and often felt that ‘daze,’ as you said, because he was always working in the studio! "

For Russ not to be able to remember all the titles of songs he worked on so many years later is certainly understandable. Still, there is a high probability that Russ mixed at least a couple of the other six songs on the new album. But I don’t want to go out on a limb again! Nor do I want to burden Russ with listening to the six tracks without engineer credits and then going on record stating that he did, or did not, mix them decades ago. (Russ had told me in a prior interview that he does remember working on the collaboration of the group with Stevie Wonder, but doesn’t remember the name of the song or songs.)

I previously posted stories about Russ and the new J5 album, including one on this blog on October 7, just after the official press release about the project was issued by UME and the first single from the album, which was mixed by Russ, became available online. That contained an exclusive interview with Russ, in which we talked about the mixing project for the first time.

In another article posted here, on October 22 (just after four additional tracks from the album were “previewed” online), I included my own first reaction to the just released tracks, assuming Russ had mixed all of them.

Then, on November 11, the day after the release of the new J5 album, I posted another article. This one was a story about the new Jackson 5 album, which included another short interview with Russ and more of my own feelings about all of the tracks on the new album. As the album had just been released on the day I wrote the post, I had not yet seen the physical CD package of the album (which includes detailed engineer credits on the insert inside CD case). Neither had Russ, for that matter. Harry Weinger states, “As you can imagine, and Russ will tell you, album track choices change all the time. This experience helped me to understand why the tracks were not on any any original J5 album to begin with. Plans, priorities, etc., change.”

So, as embarrassing as it is that I am now one more blogger who has posted inaccurate or erroneous information, I’ve reflected over the fact that this story now serves an apt example of the way events have transpired in the music business for decades. It’s always been very common for record labels to have artists record and mix more songs than are needed for an album. The extra tracks were then just put the on the shelf and held for a possible future release by the same act or, in some cases, included on a compilation package at some later date.

A few days ago I did ask Russ if Harry Weinger had told him which tracks that he had mixed made the final cut at any time before the new J5 album was released. He responded, “Around the time I was finishing up the whole batch of mixes, Harry sent me an email mentioning that he may be including some old, original J5 mixes on the new album, and wondered if they were mine. I don’t recall the names of the tracks he mentioned in that call.” Russ went on to say, “Once I finished the project a few days later, I moved on without giving it much more thought, just as I used to do at Motown a zillion times before.”

Russ and I laughed a bit (well, I was crying, actually) about me getting it all wrong, after being so careful to get it all RIGHT! “Don’t kick yourself over this one, Joe” Russ said, in an attempt to comfort me. “This kind of stuff happened all the time back in the day. Most times I never had a clue which tracks I recorded or mixed got included on albums or released as singles. It was only when they became big hits that I would realize I worked on them!”

I felt relieved and, at the same time, a bit grateful. Russ had just given me the hook line for the blog article I I had to post, for the sake of my own credibility. In the music business, SOME THINGS NEVER CHANGE, EXCEPT THE STORY!

The only remaining mystery is the status of those six other tracks Russ completed mixes on and delivered to Harry Weinger. Then there are the two additional songs still residing in the data files at Rick’s Scots Valley studio that are yet to be completed. Does this hint at the possibility of future Motown releases from the Jackson 5 or Michael Jackson? Russ himself wouldn’t utter a word on that, and, frankly, I don’t blame them! Weinger commented, “If something pops, we’ll let you know—and all the better if Russ is involved.”

So, there it is. All that is left now is to offer my most heartfelt apologies to all for posting stories that were somewhat “less than factual.” I promise never to do it again—if I can help it!

I confess that this really was a tough post to write, and it is a huge relief to now have it behind me! Next, I’ll be posting a comprehensive and in-depth look at Russ Terrana’s storied career as the most accomplished sound recoding engineer in pop music history. It will even include another quote or two from Russ’ adoring daughter! This one’s been in the works for many weeks now and I had originally planned to post it over a week ago. But, let’s just say that another story presented itself in the meantime.

The big story about Russ is coming soon, right here on the NEW MEDIA CREATIVE company blog, and promises to be a great read! Meanwhile, enjoy this cool little video of The Jackson 5 performing a medley of their first two #1 hits mixed by Russ, I WANT YOU BACK and ABC, on The Ed Sullivan Show in !970!

By Joe Klein

***UPDATE NOVEMBER 17, 2009—New information we received since last week’s release of the new J5 album necessitates a change to a portion of the information included in this post and will be updated once all of the details are sorted out and confirmed with all the sources involved. The revised facts and corrections to the story will be included in a new post to this blog which will appear within the next couple of days!***

All of us at New Media Creative are very excited for our good friend RUSS TERRANA, the legendary Motown Records sound recording engineer who recorded and mixed no less than 92 NUMBER ONE RECORDS during his illustrious and decades-long career!

Yesterday marked the release of the first “new” JACKSON 5 album in decades! The album, called I WANT YOU BACK! UNRELEASED MASTERS is a collection of a dozen previously unreleased tracks recorded by The J5 back in their early years at Motown Records (1969-1970) at the same time they were recording their early smash hits at the label. The entire album was mixed down by Russ in this past September!

Russ mixed all of the early Jackson 5 hits while still working for Motown in their Detroit studios. The first Motown Jackson 5 tracks were recorded in Detroit in the summer of 1969, with producer BOBBY TAYLOR. At that time, BERRY GORDY began to migrate Motown to Hollywood (where they ultimately totally relocated by 1972.) He moved his hot new “boy band” out to L.A. and finished recording the first Jackson 5 album in a small studio in the West Hollywood area of L.A. Taylor produced a few more songs, and a new production team, dubbed THE CORPORATION by Berry Gordy, which was comprised of Gordy, FREDDIE PERREN, DEKE RICHARDS and ALPHONZO MIZELL, produced the final two songs for the album, one of which was the #1 smash I WANT YOU BACK, which propelled the group to instant stardom after its release.

Gordy was not happy with the original mixes of the album made in L.A. and sent the tapes back to Detroit to have his resident “mix-master” Russ remix the the album

Berry loved Russ’ new mixes and released them as the debut Jackson 5 album, DIANA ROSS PRESENTS THE JACKSON 5 in December of 1969. The album quickly rocketed up the charts, hitting  #1 on the R&B charts and #5 on the pop charts in the months to follow. The only single from that first album, I WANT YOU BACK, was itself a #1 smash that set the tone for a string of #1 hit singles and albums to follow (all of which were also mixed by Russ) and, the rest is, as they say “music history!”

Early this year, just as the celebration of Motown’s Fiftieth Anniversary had begun” and preparations for the fortieth anniversary of the first Jackson 5 releases were getting underway, Universal Music Enterprises started searching the Motown vaults and unearthed a stash of old Michael Jackson and Jackson 5 master tapes with the hopes of unearthing a few hidden gems to release this year.

The company hit pay dirt in the spring and started reviewing the newly-found masters to determine which were good candidates for a release late this year. Then came the sudden, tragic death of Michael in late June which, naturally gave the “lost tracks” new historical significance.

HARRY WEINGER, vice president of A&R for UNIVERSAL MUSIC ENTERPRISES, the company responsible for the creation and packaging of the Motown Records catalog of hits, passed along this information to me last month. “I started looking through J5 and MJ Motown masters earlier this year in anticipation of the J5’s 40th anniversary. Obviously, when we heard the news of Michael’s death, what was there got a bigger spotlight.”

In August, Weinger contacted Russ and asked him if he would be interested in mixing eleven newly discovered J5 tracks from 1970. It took Russ all of a few seconds to reply and, within a couple of weeks, the digital files of eleven old Jackson 5 multi-track masters were delivered to Russ. Russ then proceeded to meticulously mix down the old recordings in a state-of-the art digital recording facility located in Scots Valley, California called ROCKER STUDIOS, owned by his good friend, RICK VIERRA.

It took Russ and Rick about a month to complete the eleven mixes, finishing the project at the end of September. Working with my partner Brett Bumeter, I first released the story online online about this exciting new release in mid-September, and UME made the “official “ announcement about the release of the new album three weeks later.

In a blog story we posted last month, Russ described the project as one of the most rewarding experiences of his professional life, and was moved by the process of mixing the tracks. “It really was a labor of love,” he remarked in the article.

The tracks sound great! Russ managed to capture and perfectly emulate the sounds he first molded and blended decades ago that sold tens of millions of singles and albums for the label. Listening to the just-released J5 tracks is, as Russ himself described the mixing process, “like stepping back in a time machine.”

The new J5 album, like all the projects Russ touched during his amazing career, is nothing short of a masterpiece, particularly from the standpoint of its impeccable vintage substance—and sound. It’s definitely worth a listen, and a purchase to complete any collection of early Jackson family classics!

I managed to reach Russ on the phone just as the album was becoming available yesterday and asked him about how he felt on this day of the release of the new Jackson 5 album

“It’s about time!” he quipped. “Seriously Joe, this really is exciting. I can’t remember the last time I was this excited about the release of an album I have mixed!”

I asked Russ if there were any other thoughts or feeling he’d like to share about the project.

“It really was a thrill to work on this album. Mixing those tracks stirred up so many memories and emotions about all the time I spent working with Michael and his brothers. It really was a rewarding experience I’ll never forget.”

Last night, Russ sent me an awesome and memorable photo he took at a Motown Records company picnic in the early seventies. It’s a photo of a beaming young MICHAEL JACKSON holding his baby niece, STACEE BROWN, the daughter of his oldest sister, MAUREEN REILETTE “REBBIE” JACKSON. This particular photo has never been published, and captures a rare moment with Michael and demonstrates just how much he always loved children, even as a young teenager himself!

Kudos to my long-time friend Russ Terrana for another job well done, and his own vital role in yet one more piece of pop music history……It’s great to see that those good old “ears” are still working great!

Next week, we’ll be posting an article that is an extensive and comprehensive look at the career, accomplishments and techniques of the humble genius with more number one records to his credit than any other sound engineer in music history. It’s a story you won’t want to miss!

Russ added one last comment at the end of our phone call yesterday, a heartfelt message from one of the people so responsible for the creation of the early Jackson 5 and Michael Jackson solo hits. “This one’s from me to Michael, and, now, for the world.”

Well said,old friend!

By Joe Klein

Three weeks ago, New Media Creative associate BRETT BUMETER and I broke an exclusive story online about the upcoming release of a collection of never-before-heard recordings of MICHAEL JACKSON and THE JACKSON 5 that were being mixed down by my close friend, RUSS TERRANA. Early this morning, Universal Music Enterprises put out the “official” press release about the tracks and the mainstream media stories about the release of the new Jackson 5 album hit the wires almost immediately. “I WANT YOU BACK! UNRELASED MASTERS” is set for release on November 10 and the first single from the album, “THAT’S HOW LOVE IS” was released for download today on iTunes.

I received an email from Russ just as the “official” story was about to break worldwide. The email simply said, “It’s done!!” I wasn’t the least bit surprised that Russ was very excited with the release of the first new MOTOWN tracks he’s mixed in decades!

In fact, these Jackson family tracks are the first major releases that Russ has mixed since working his magic on WHITNEY HOUSTON’S 1990 album, “I’M YOUR BABY TONIGHT.” (Russ also recorded vocals for and mixed several earlier Whitney Houston hits, including the smash “DIDN’T WE ALMOST HAVE IT ALL.”)

Upon reading the email (a couple hours after he sent it), I grabbed the phone and immediately punched in Russ’ cell number. As soon as he answered I could hear the happiness in his voice. After congratulating him on completing this monumental project, I instinctively switched to my blogger/reporter mode to get a cool “behind the scenes” story about the mixing of these historic Jackson family tracks and, hopefully, a few exclusive quotes from my friend, the legendary Motown engineer!

Russ was recruited to mix the long lost Motown gems by Universal Music Enterprises director of A&R, HARRY WEINGER, who has known Russ for years and consulted with him on previous compilations of Motown catalog material. Russ started mixing the first of eleven multi-track masters he was sent by Weinger about a week before Labor Day. The 16-track analog tapes, discovered in the Motown Records vaults shortly after Michael’s sudden passing, had been converted by UME engineers to digital audio for the mixing process.

(***UPDATED ON OCTOBER 26, 2009*** UME’s Harry Weinger contacted me with a clarification of facts in this post. it was actually early this year that the additional masters were first found, as UME, already in the midst of the year-long 50th anniversary celebration of Motown Records, was preparing for the 40th anniversary of the Jackson 5 this fall. Of course, the untimely passing of Michael put the newly-discovered J5 tracks into a “bigger spotlight,” according to Weinger. We appreciate this updated information!)

I started our little impromptu interview by asking Russ how long it took to complete all the mixes. “Well, the final mixes were approved ten days ago,” he said. “So, I guess the whole process of preparing the tracks and doing all the mixing took about four weeks to get done. But we did a lot of stopping and starting, waiting for approvals of the mixes or comments from Harry about changes he wanted made.” This lead to my next question. I asked Russ how many mixes he did on each of the eleven tracks. “Wow, I can’t remember exactly,” he said. “Some of them we mixed twice or three times, others four. We mixed one of the tracks eight times, trying to get it right for Harry, but he ended up using the fourth mix. This kind of thing used to happen all the time with Berry (Gordy) and the different producers back at Motown.”

I had noticed that the new Jackson 5 album listed twelve tracks, but Russ had only told me about mixing eleven songs over the last month. So I asked him about that. Russ said that the twelfth song, called “Buttercup,”was a collaboration with Stevie Wonder, who wrote the song. This track was recorded and mixed back in 1974, but never released until now. “But I’m pretty sure I mixed that one too, back then!” Russ quipped with a laugh.

As a producer and sound engineer myself, I wanted to know how difficult the mixing process was, and how it compared to mixing the original tracks. “Of course there were challenges, and some of the tracks were definitely more difficult than others.” Russ told me. “Probably the biggest issue was that these tracks are forty years old and the sound quality wasn’t anywhere near as clean and pristine as the digital tracks recorded today. But, now, we have all sorts of digital tools to clean up the sound, so we used lots of them to enhance the audio." I asked Russ which particular track, if any, was the most difficult to mix and get to sound right. He answered that the song “Man’s Temptation,” the track that he mixed eight times, was the biggest challenge, because of the sound and other complexities of that particular multi-track recording. Interestingly, the first published track listings of the new Jackson 5 album list the song as the first cut on the CD.

I wanted to talk with Russ more about some of the technical details of the processes he used to mix these vintage old tracks, but he was already into his work-day at his current “day job” (he now directs and produces advertising for an online job site based in Santa Cruz, CA). I knew his time was limited and he may want to end the conversation at any time, so I decided to hold off on the technical questions and move on to a few more questions about the overall experience of mixing the resurrected recordings. Russ had mixed all the original Jackson 5 and Michael Jackson solo hits and recorded the vocal and instrumental tracks for many of them as well. Knowing that my friend had spent, literally, hundreds of hours in the Motown Hollywood Studios with Michael and his brothers recording and mixing the songs, I just had to know what he must have been thinking when he went back into a digital studio forty years later with some of the same tracks he may have actually recorded way back when.

I posed the question to Russ, “What went through your mind when you hit the “play” button on the software and heard these old tracks for the first time in decades?”

“Joe, it was like stepping back in a time machine,” he told me. “All I could think was, ‘OH MY GOD! This is Michael and his brothers. These guys were SO talented. How did this kid Michael have so much talent to be able to do all this?’ Hearing the tracks was like being in the control room with them again, sitting around me goofing off while I did my thing. Except this time they weren’t here. It was just their voices coming out of the monitors, kind of like they were coming from heaven.”

All I could say was, “Wow.” Russ went on. “It was a very emotional experience for me, but, at the same time, very rewarding to be working with these tracks, because of my past relationship with Michael and his brothers. We spent a lot of time in the studio together for all those years and became very close.” I detected a few cracks in my old friend’s voice as he uttered his words.

I have to admit that I never really heard Russ get emotional about anything before. In all the years we hung out at the Hollywood Motown studios and my (two different) studios, it was all good times, recording hit records, partying and loving life back in the seventies and eighties. So, hearing Russ speak, almost reverently and with such respect and even gratitude about his involvement in this project, was making me a little misty-eyed myself.

I asked Russ what was the best thing about working on this latest piece of pop music history and, just as he has been so many times before, being such an integral part of the finished project. Always the modest and humble master, Russ replied, “What can I say? It really was a labor of love…..I did this for Michael. Anyone who worked with him knew he was more than just a recording artist. He was one of a kind, truly special and a very special friend to me.”

I wanted to know if anyone in the Jackson family had contacted Russ recently. Russ said that he couldn’t even remember the last time he spoke with any Jackson family member, but then said that JERMAINE JACKSON recently requested that Russ confirm him as a friend on Facebook!

Knowing it was about time to end our call, I still had one last question for my old friend who is, himself, a living legend in the world of recorded popular music. (Lest we not forget that this is a man who has mixed at least 89 number one records and hundreds of other hit singles and albums!) I asked Russ to tell me what, personally, was his own “take-away” from getting this awesome gig and working on this historic project. Russ paused for a moment and then replied, “I’ve worked on SO many albums and with SO many artists. But this project was a once-in-a-lifetime experience and, you know, I’d like to be doing more.”

Something tells me that there will be much more for Russ Terrana.

But wait, there IS more! A new collection of Jackson 5 Christmas songs, called THE JACKSON 5 ULTIMATE CHRISTMAS ALBUM will be released next week, on October 13. Of course, most, if not all, of the tracks on this new album were recorded and mixed by Russ. This new compilation features 18 holiday songs performed by the group, including a great song called LITTLE CHRISTMAS TREE, written by our good friend ARTIE WAYNE and George Clinton, Jr. The track features a twelve year-old Michael and was supposed to be the follow-up single to the smash hit “BEN.” You can read Artie’s story about the song here.

I didn’t even listen to “That’s How Love Is,” the first of the new mixes, just released today as a single, until after speaking with Russ on the phone. The track sounded so strikingly similar to the original Jackson 5 hits we all remember so well, that I just had to smile. Russ still has the magic touch and those solid gold ears!

All of us here at New Media Creative consider Russ to be a good and valued friend and we’re happy to have broken the story about this project and his involvement in it. Stand by. There will be much more in the weeks to come! You can listen to the first single from the new Jackson 5 album, mixed by Russ, in its entirety here.

RUSS TERRANA IN ROCKER STUDIOS MIXING THE NEW JACKSON 5 TRACKS

Copyright 2009 New Media Creative