(September 17, 2024). A Prince fan website (of all places) once asked, “so when did it become cool to make fun of Tito?” Most responses pointed to Eddie Murphy’s hilarious early ‘80s sendup of Michael Jackson summoning his big brother with the line “Tito, get me some tissue.”
Of course, in this world where internet toxicity rules and online filters are few, another responder more cruelly deadpanned, “when Michael’s career blew up to unprecedented proportions and someone as unimportant to the industry as TITO (emphasis not added by this blogger) was his blood relative and also in the business.”
Indeed, while that was a widely held view that often fueled jokes at his expense, any such sentiment ignores the fact that Tito Jackson, who passed away suddenly at the age of 70 on Sunday, September 15, while on a road trip in New Mexico, was arguably the reason the world got to know a Michael Jackson in the first place.
The legend goes that it was Tito who was playing with his father Joe’s guitar when he broke a string, causing his dad to react by making his second son fix the string and play the instrument for him (and then buying the young lad a guitar of his own). It was then that Father Joe realized his older boys – including Jackie and Jermaine — had musical talent, something that, with mom Katherine’s help, Joe would realize about younger brothers Marlon and Michael as well.
Ultimately, it was Michael’s talent that shone brightest as the seventh of Joe and Katherine Jackson’s nine surviving children (Marlon’s twin brother Brandon died shortly after his birth). The King of Pop would forge the kind of once-in-a-lifetime career that no one coming from the same family could ever hope to achieve (although I’m told that baby sister Janet Jackson was no slouch).
Still, we knew Tito – and Jackie, and Jermaine, and Marlon and Randy… plus sisters Rebbie and La Toya. The whole family. Yet, it was Tito (and maybe La Toya for the women) who was the butt of most Jackson-related jokes… at least before Michael became tabloid fodder beginning with his post-Thriller days through his death in 2009 at age 50.
But why Tito? After all, we had him to thank for bringing his and his siblings’ talents to their father’s attention in the first place – an unwitting act that likely changed the course of music history forever. Was it the name, “Tito,” a built-in alliteration that made him an easier target? Did it sound too close to Toto, the famous dog in the Wizard of Oz?
Or was it the Jackson 5’s valiant but vain attempt at a democracy when Berry Gordy and Motown Records had Tito and his brothers all contribute vocals on their earlier recordings. Tito, Jackie and Marlon were largely relegated to backup singing duties, but they still sang… sometimes prominently. Tito was the guy providing bass vocals before his voice had any real bass in it. For the best example, listen to the song “To Know” from their 1972 Lookin’ Through the Windows album… he’s the guy that follows and repeats Jackie on the opening lines “To know of life”). Other examples where his “bass vocal” is more prominently featured included songs on their appropriately titled Third Album, including a remake of “Oh How Happy” and “How Funky is Your Chicken.”
But giving Tito vocal duties – however diminished – was the least Motown could do. This was the same label that insisted Tito’s guitar talents would not be featured on any of the Jackson 5’s recordings, even though it was his instrument that brought ‘em to the table in the first place. Instead, the company’s in-house band, the legendary Funk Brothers, played on the group’s most famous records, including their first four singles – “I Want You Back,” “ABC,” “The Love You Save” and “I’ll Be There” – all of which went to No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100, making J-5 the first act ever to accomplish that feat with their first four chart entries.
It’s no wonder then that Tito further retreated into the background while allowing his most famous sibling – and all the others for that matter – to shine. Tito said in recent interviews that he turned down offers to record his first solo album at a younger age because he was focused on family and raising his three sons, Taj, Taryll, and TJ (Tito Joe). Like Rebbie before him and like Jermaine, Marlon and Janet afterwards, Tito was married by the time he was 18 years old. To him, early marriage and fatherhood must have carried some implicit responsibility that didn’t involve pursuing stardom beyond his commitment to his brothers in the Jackson 5 and later the Jacksons, who were still having hits throughout the brothers’ 20s and early-30s.
But Tito also seemed to be the quiet Jackson – well, they’re all kind of reticent when you think about it, or at least very soft-spoken – who wouldn’t chase the spotlight no matter how alluring it was or how many of his siblings went after it.
Turns out they all would.
One-by-one as Michael’s popularity post-Thriller became too bountiful for anyone sharing his DNA to ignore, the brothers and sisters released solo albums. Jermaine had already been a solo star. Then La Toya, then Janet, followed by Rebbie, and later Marlon, Randy and Jackie. All would release at least one full-length solo or outside (non-Jacksons) project before the age of 40.
All of them did except Tito.
When he entered his 40s in 1993, nearly two decades had passed since the Jacksons had a top 40 pop hit (although they did score a comeback R&B hit in 1989 with “Nothin’ (That Compares 2 U)” – not to be confused with the similarly stylized, Prince-pinned Sinead O’Connor song – from their 2300 Jackson Street album). Instead, Tito was about to pass the torch on to his young sons, who were exiting their teens when they formed the trio 3T. To this day, the brothers remain the only next-generation Jacksons to achieve a Hot 100 hit with their 1995 gold-certified single, “Anything,” which peaked at No. 15 that year. That’s a legacy that has stood for nearly three decades and one that Tito can claim all his own.
| Sibling | No. of Children | No. of Children w/ Hot 100 hits |
| Tito | 3 | 3 |
| Rebbie, Jackie, Jermaine, La Toya, Marlon, Michael, Randy, Janet | 24 | 0 |
Eventually, Tito would create another legacy that was uniquely his. In 2016, after catching wind of yet another joke at his expense, the third-eldest Jackson decided to change the narrative in his favor. As Jackson explained in an interview with radio personality Sway during an appearance on Sway in the Morning, NBA commentator and former player Charles Barkley had referred to the underperforming Miami Heat (presumably led by either LeBron James or Dwyane Wade) as “Michael Jackson with a bunch of Titos.”
He laughed it off but that clearly didn’t sit well with Jackson who, months later, released his first solo album – at the age of 63 – called Tito Time. It included the upbeat single “Get It Baby,” featuring ‘80s rap legend Big Daddy Kane. The album featured Tito on vocals – not bass, but baritone/tenor – and included some assists from his sons 3T as well as past soul music names like Jocelyn (“Somebody Else’s Guy”) Brown and the late Betty (“Clean Up Woman”) Wright.
Five years later, in 2021, he released another album, Under Your Spell, which included the uplifting track “Love One Another,” featuring younger brother Marlon Jackson.
Those two releases – in 2016 and ’21 – made Tito the latest Jackson to release new material and, so far, the only one among his siblings to release an album in his 60s (Janet, 58, released her last album of new material in 2015 when she was 49).
| Siblings (in order of age) | No. of albums before age 50 | No. of albums after age 50 |
| Rebbie | 4 | 0 |
| Jackie | 2 | 0 |
| Tito | 0 | 2 (both after 60) |
| Jermaine | 13 | 1 (age 57) |
| La Toya | 10 | 1 (age 55, an EP) |
| Marlon | 1 | 0 |
| Michael | 9 | 0 (The album Michael, released posthumously in 2010 when MJ would’ve been 52, is considered a compilation) |
| Randy | 1 (as Randy & the Gypsies) | 0 |
| Janet | 11 | 0 |
Neither of Tito’s albums generated a hit single. But that likely wasn’t the point. By this time he had fashioned himself as a blues musician and, along with Jackie and Marlon, was carrying on the Jacksons’ legacy with international concert appearances, proudly accepting the challenge without either former lead singer — Michael or Jermaine — being there to do their original parts. As a musician fast approaching 70, Tito likely knew the allure of the Billboard charts was a thing of the past and the family’s name was more important.
Still, a month shy of his 71st birthday and just days after completing concert appearances in Europe, Tito Jackson left this world knowing that he had helped start something no one without the name Jackson could claim: co-founding one of the greatest musical groups in the history of recorded music… an achievement that ultimately led to three Rock Hall of Fame careers (for the Jackson 5/Jacksons, Michael Jackson solo and Janet Jackson solo).
In addition, only his offspring have a Billboard chart hit to their Jackson name. That’s got to count for something in the storied history of the most famous family in music history.
Tito also passed away knowing that he had finally recorded that elusive solo album – two of them – and that he was the last in his family to do so. At least in his lifetime.
RIP Toriano Adaryll “Tito” Jackson (October 15, 1951 – September 15, 2024)
DJRob
DJRob (he/him) is a freelance music blogger from the East Coast who covers R&B, hip-hop, disco, pop, rock and country genres – plus lots of music news and current stuff! You can follow him on X (formerly Twitter) at @djrobblog and on Meta’s Threads.
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