I Don’t Know Why I Love You
Jackson 5
ABC, 1970
This seems to be a very slept-on song from the Jackson 5 catalogue. As always seemed to be the case, Lil’ Mike had an ability to emote that was FAR beyond his years. As of this recording he was 12 years old and I would still swear he’d been through it.
I Don’t Know Why I Love You was actually co-written by Stevie Wonder. Stevie did a version of the song that came out on the B-Side of his My Cherie Amour 45 two years earlier (it’s not on the My Cherie Amour album for some reason). Stevie was, although a 6-year industry vet at that point, only the tender age of 18 himself. If you listen for it, you can pick up the Stevie influence immediately. When I first heard Michael drop his voice down the octave on the second “why i love you” (0:19) my eyebrow went up immediately (with S. Wonder recognition).
It’s very rare that anyone outperforms Stevie…especially on a song he wrote but Mike and crew take the prize on this one, hands down.
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April 15th, 2007 at 1:37 pm
[…] on this post of two years ago; as it turns out, Stevie’s version didn’t only appear on the b-side of […]
April 15th, 2007 at 2:17 pm
[…] for a larger view and check the songwriting credit. As previously touched on (while discussing this other hot song that he co-wrote from that period), 1968-71 was a transitional period for Stevie as he went from […]