"One Day in Your Life" by Michael Jackson

Song#:  0573
Date:  04/18/1981
Debut:  81
Peak:  55
Weeks:  7
Genre:  Pop, R&B



Pop Bits:  Back in 1975, The Jackson 5 left Motown (not very amicably) and moved over to Epic. Michael had done four solo LPs for Motown, but his next solo effort would be for Epic. That ended up being the hugely successful "Off the Wall" album. With Michael's popularity soaring, Motown decided to try and cash in on their previous property and slapped together a compilation of songs from his final Motown album "Forever, Michael" (1975), along with four Jackson 5 songs to pad the disc. The resulting "One Day in Your Life" was issued and this first single got a little bit of interest, but since it was nothing like his "Off the Wall" hits and already six-years old, not as many folks were interested. But oddly in the UK, this single became his first #1 in that country. That was fortunate for Motown as it allowed their ploy to work pretty well and the LP ended up selling around 2 million copies worldwide (with only minor sales in the US).

ReduxReview:  Oh man, just that teeny harmonica intro is enough to date this song. It sounds like a song that would have been featured in some schmaltzy 70s movie - like a romantic comedy or something sad with a small kid. It's a treacly confection that could maybe be tasty if redone, but with this big ol' fashioned arrangement, it just kind of sinks to the pit of your stomach and sits there like a lump.

ReduxRating:  3/10

Trivia:  Five years before they got everyone to do the "Conga," the Miami Sound Machine (with Gloria Estefan) covered this song for their self-titled 1980 album. Theirs was a Spanish language version titled "No Me Olvidaras."

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