Originally Posted by
Quinn
I'm glad you desire this is cassette format because you coincidentally made a revelation emerge. I just recently did a little research on your behalf and found something interesting. 8 tracks and cassettes were manufactured for every J5 album except for "G.I.T" from the 70's into the 90's,even in other countries. Nothing like this would've occurred to me had you not wanted it as most than likely a collector's item. Cassettes are having a resurgence it seems,just not on the level of vinyl. The more I think of this as strange it makes sense more and more,here's why:
When this classic album was released J5 was not on the best terms with the company politically. They had an incredible run of hits from '69 to about '71, but sales had begun to slow by "Lookin Through The Windows". Their records seemed to sell less and less after that and Joe Jackson had begun to panic. Now remember, Berry Gordy was almost never around during this time and had given the day to day responsibilities to Ewart Abner. Abner was once president at Vee Jay records in Chicago and was employed by Motown in 1966 when the company closed. He was the reason the Tops left and why Jerry Butler joined in 1976 among other things.
After "Skywriter" was a commercial disappointment, Joe Jackson confronted Abner about his kids future. Despite the fact that the group had initial success, Ab felt that the kids had traveled the world, had their own merchandise as well as their own cartoon and didn't see the need for gobs of money to still be invested in the group. He also argued that their fans were getting older and the material was still immature. Joe then pestered Berry Gordy who was focused on the film division and couldn't be bothered. Hal Davis stepped in to update their sound and the single sold almost a million units, but the album didn't raise hell at all. So, maybe the disputes of Joe, Abner, and Gordy restricted it to vinyl. It was a known fact that B.G. was no record executive to mess with[[David Ruffin solo career) and probably didn't make cassettes to be vindictive. Afterward they were manufactured again...
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