La Toya Jackson

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La Toya Yvonne Jackson (born May 29, 1956) is an American singer and the middle child of the Jackson family. Most notable for being featured on Playboy magazine and writing her memoirs on growing up in the Jackson family, she had a non-successful career as a singer during the 1980s and 1990s. She is the sister of the successful pop stars Michael and Janet Jackson. She released a comeback single called Just Wanna Dance in late 2004, which peaked at number 13 on the Billboard Hot Dance Music/Club Play chart.

Early life

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La Toya Jackson was born in Gary, Indiana to Joseph and Katherine Jackson, the fifth of nine children. After her mother became a devout Jehovah's Witness in 1966, Jackson, alongside her siblings, were doctrined to the religion. Jackson would spend most of her time alongside her mother practicing door-to-door evanglization as a result of her being a Witness. By 1974, Jackson was brought into the spotlight with her family after her father got the family to get together to perform several shows in Las Vegas and in other cities. By 1979, Jackson and her other sisters Rebbie and Janet formed a short-lived sister group though they never sung live together eventually breaking away after La Toya and Rebbie argued over the direction of the group. The next year, La Toya began work on her first solo album.

Music career

In 1980, Jackson released her self-titled debut. Besides the top 40 R&B and dance success of her first single, If You Feel The Funk, the album failed to generate an audience. Her three subsequent albums afterwards also showcased similar limited success, although she scored a Billboard Hot 100 hit with 1984's Heart Don't Lie, which peaked at #56.

In 1988, Jackson released the album La Toya, which featured the single, You're Gonna Get Rocked!. Neither the album nor the single managed to make an impact even though it was Jackson's first album without the leadership of her father, who was manager of her career until that year. The album also included a track called Just Say No, which was written for the "Just Say No" campaign.

In 1989, the Bad Girl album was released. Her poor management, headed by her abusive husband Jack Gordon, issued the album to countless record labels. To this day, the Bad Girl album is one of the few albums in her catalog that is still in print, and it can be found under various titles and covers.

Jackson constantly struggled to make a dent musically releasing several cover albums of country music and Motown standards in the mid-1990s. She plans to release her first album in over a decade with Startin' Over. The album had been pushed back several times; Her record label, Ja-Tail Records, distributed through Universal Music Group has issued various excuses but the release date has been moved several times and there has yet to be a concrete firm release date. The last official release date has been stated as Summer 2006. [link]

Playboy and the Jackson family estrangement

In 1989, Jackson ventured into nude modeling after her manager Jack Gordon coaxed her into posing nude for Playboy magazine. Her first cover and nude layout was one of the most successful issues in Playboy's storied history and generated a lot of buzz. She showed up again on Playboy in 1991 to promote her autobiography and later in a video for the magazine in 1994 becoming one of the first celebrities to have a Playboy video aired.

After marrying Jack Gordon in September of 1989, Jackson estranged herself from certain members of the family though she still spoke to her siblings, if often at rare occasions. In 1991, she was further estranged from the family after the book La Toya: Growing Up in the Jackson Family was released, which went into scathing details of the family, including one of Joseph reportedly committing sexual abuse among the female members of the family, notably herself and sister Rebbie. Rebbie defended her father denying the rumors while other members claimed Gordon had written in that part in the book.

In 1993, Jackson went to a press conference overseas and announced that she had believed rumors that brother Michael had sexually abused children. His initial accusations of child molestation came out that year, prompting members of the family to refute the charges, claiming that Jackson was "controlled and used" by Gordon; Jackson's father Joseph wrote about Gordon's control in his German book Die Jacksons. Two years later, she made headlines again for announcing the so-called "Jackson Family Secret Phone Number Line". By 1996, however, La Toya ran out on her manager after he forced her to dance at a strip joint in Cleveland. The former devout Jehovah's Witness (she was shunned in 1987) refused to do so and in return, was booed and heckled by the predominantly male crowd.

In 1997, she ended her estrangement with the entire Jackson family and returned home to Hayvenhurst. That year, she divorced from Jack Gordon. Jackson has no children and currently lives in Los Angeles and keeps close contact with her mother and siblings, especially Michael and Janet. The trio made headlines during Michael's child molestation, conspiracy and alcohol trial in 2005 when they walked together hand-in-hand prompting the tabloids to nickname them "Charlie's Angels".

Discography

Albums

• La Toya Jackson (1980, re-issued May 22, 2006)
• My Special Love (1981)
• Heart Don't Lie (1984)
• Imagination (1986)
• La Toya (1988) (also called You're Gonna Get Rocked)
• Bad Girl (1989) (also called Sexual Feeling, He's My Brother, Playboy, Be My Lover, et al)
• No Relations (1991)
• Formidable (1992) (a live album in French, performed at the Moulin Rouge)
• From Nashville To You (1993) (also called My Country Collection)
• Stop In The Name Of Love (1994) (also called The Dance Collection)
• Startin' Over (scheduled for a release in summer of 2006)

Singles

• 1980 If You Feel The Funk
• 1980 Night Time Lover (co-written by herself and Michael Jackson)
• 1981 Stay The Night (a cover version of Billy Ocean's 1980 single)
• 1981 I Don't Want You To Go
• 1983 Bet'cha Gonna Need My Lovin'
• 1984 Heart Don't Lie
• 1984 Hot Potato
• 1984 Private Joy (written by Prince)
• 1986 Baby Sister (only in Japan)''
• 1986 He's A Pretender (only in Europe)
• 1986 Imagination (Remix) (only in the US)
• 1986 Oops, Oh No! (duet with Cerrone)
• 1987 Yes, I'm Ready (duet with Jed) (only in Japan)

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