The Long Goodbye

I was watching CNN last night, when renowned singer and record producer Smokey Robinson was asked which song he would like to present at the funeral of Michael Jackson, who died on Thursday at age 50. It didn’t take but a moment for Robinson to pick “Never Can Say Goodbye,” which The Jackson 5 released as a single in 1971. “Because I never can [say goodbye],” said Robinson, a longtime friend of The Gloved One.

I was never a big follower of Jackson as a solo singer, and some of his reported personal behavior disturbed me greatly. But The Jackson 5 provided much of the soundtrack for my growing up. In tribute to Jackson’s passing, I’ve embedded at the top of this post a video clip of him singing “Never Can Say Goodbye” on the Jackson 5’s CBS-TV variety show in the mid-1970s.

READ MORE: “The Day the ’70s Died,” by Linda L. Richards (January Magazine); “Michael Jackson 1958-2009,” by Dennis Cozallio (Sergio Leone and the Infield Fly Rule).