The Jackson 5 perform live on The Ed Sullivan Show in 1969. Michael takes the lead during the Jackson 5’s appearance at the London Palladium in 1972.SMOKEY ROBINSONAHEAD OF HIS TIMEI first saw Michael when Berry Gordy had invited a bunch of people to his house to see the Jackson 5 perform. And Michael was just like a little old man to me. He was a little boy but his talent and his charisma and his confidence was that of an older person, a seasoned entertainer.

We only worked together once. In the early days we appeared on the same Motown bill (in concert). I don’t recall where it was, but I remember that when he wasn’t on stage, Michael stood in the wings and watched everybody else who performed. He had that thirst for knowledge and wanted to see what everybody was doing. Most little kids would have been up in the dressing room or somewhere playing or doing something else. But he was watching. Absorbing.

When Bobby Taylor (who was instrumental in bringing the Jackson 5 to audition for Motown) and I used to played golf we would take Michael out there with us. Now Michael was 10 years old then, he had never played golf in his life. He didn’t know anything about it until he went out there with us. Yet he would be sitting in the golf cart watching us and when one of us would hit a bad shot or slice our ball into the woods, Michael would tell us exactly why. He would say: “Well, you were standing this way, you should be standing that way”, or, “You’re holding your club wrong”. He was something else.

He would ask me what I did for my voice; what I did to keep from being hoarse because I suffered so badly when I went on the road. He saw that I went through two voice changes. I had to explain to Michael that him being a young man he was going to go through that anyway because that’s what happens to men.

When I heard his recording of my song “Who’s Loving You”, I was amazed by how an 11-year-old kid could comprehend those lyrics, feel those emotions. After all, it’s a song about somebody who had somebody who loved them and they did the person so wrong the person left them. Then they’re sitting around feeling sorry that they drove the person away because they’re lonely now and they need that person back, but they’re wondering who loves that person now.

I sing part of it in my live concert and younger people have come up to me and asked why was I singing Michael’s song! I was in England years ago and saw Terence Trent D’Arby who’d also cut “Who’s Loving You”. He said to me, “Smokey, up until I recorded this song I didn’t know you wrote it. I thought Michael Jackson wrote it!” I yield because Michael absolutely kicked my butt on that song.

Michael Jackson was magical. He was born that way. Can’t be learned. Can’t be taught. I’m a firm believer that people are who they are in the womb and when Michael took his first breath, he already had that magic.
Michael with the great Smokey Robinson, who says Michael was mature beyond his years.Michael recording his first solo smash, “Ben”.Michael in the Motown recording studios in 1969, at the time of the brothers’ first big hit, “I Want You Back”.