I need you

DISCOGRAPHIC

3T - I Need You (1996)

From the album Brotherhood

IT'S HARD NOT to think about 3T without also recalling their somewhat more famous uncle.

And equally hard not to wonder just what the Jackson family were thinking when they decided on the marketing strategy for 3T?

At a time when gangsta drag was the standard uniform issue for male singing groups - Jodeci were the boys you couldn't take home to Mama - 3T set their stall out as the go to guys for half naked, barely legal boy candy. No one embraced the brand more than lead singer TJ Jackson: he had the face of an angel and the body of a whore, coupled with a little boy lost Peter Pan routine (Uncle Michael must have been very impressed) that even put said uncle in the shade; barefoot in his pyjamas, with a see-through shirt hanging off his nubile frame, and apparently contemplating some deep loss (possibly his virginity - to whom, I couldn't possibly say...) But this performance is nothing compared to the lingering close-ups and exposed nipples we see in the video for Why.

This isn't the best 3T video. Why is luxurious, and quite beautiful; their debut Anything is a sweet, mid-90s joy. I'm told (by someone concerned with technique) that I Need You is badly sung. But it's got a choir, an orchestra and a beautiful fem boy. It's big and way over the top.

What more could you want?