Album Summary

Music & Me is the third studio album by American singer Michael Jackson, released on April 13, 1973 on the Motown label. The album was reissued in 2009 as part of the three-disc compilation Hello World: The Motown Solo Collection.

The album was released during a difficult period for Jackson, who was 14 years old at the time, as he had been experiencing vocal changes and facing a changing music landscape. Having been influenced by fellow Motown label mates Marvin Gaye and Stevie Wonder, Jackson wanted to include his own compositions on the album, but Motown refused to allow this. Jackson would later express his frustrations about this to his father, Joe Jackson, who would later work to terminate Michael's and his brothers' contract with Motown, and negotiate lucrative contracts for them with Epic Records.

Since Jackson was on a world tour with his brothers as a member of The Jackson 5, promotion on this album was limited. The Stevie Wonder cover, With A Child's Heart, was released as a single in the United States, where it reached No. 14 on the Billboard R&B Singles chart and No. 50 on the Billboard Pop Singles chart. Two additional songs (Music And Me and Morning Glow) were released as singles in the UK, but they failed to chart. Another track, Too Young, was released as a single in Italy, while the track Happy was a single in Australia and Doggin' Around was a limited-release single in the Netherlands. Ten years after this album's release, Happy was released as a single in the UK to promote Motown's 18 Greatest Hits compilation album. For the compact disc issues of the album, the text on the album was changed and the shade of green was darker.

After this release, it would take Motown two years to release another Jackson solo album, titled Forever, Michael. A solo album recorded by Jackson soon after Music & Me was shelved following the surprising smash success of the Dancing Machine single from the Jackson 5; the album would later be overdubbed and released in 1984 as Farewell My Summer Love, cashing in on the success of the Thriller album. The original mix of the album, along with its 1984 remixes, would be released as part of the Hello World: The Motown Solo Collection in 2009.