My first reaction was to say it isn't grammatical, strictly speaking. After seeing jutfrank's post, I'm not so sure. It works in a song of course and in very casual speech, but not in regular speech, as the post above says.
In linguistics, this type of fronting is known as
topicalization. It often occurs with direct objects, adverbial prepositional phrases, and subordinate clauses:
That book, I probably won't read anytime soon. (--> I probably won't read that book anytime soon.)
In the cupboard, you will not find those glasses. (-->
You will not find those glasses in the cupboard.)
Because it is raining, I brought my umbrella. (-->
I brought my umbrella because it is raining.)
How many there are, I could not say. (-->
I could not say how many there are.)
It is definitely a bit unusual to see it in causative construction with "make," and perhaps the "something"-phrase makes it a bit awkward. These are more natural:
One can never please everyone. John, I tend to make happy. Sally, I tend to make sad. (--> . . .
I tend to make John happy. I tend to make Sally sad.)
We can even have topicalization of noun phrase following the main verb in special sensation-verb constructions:
Michael Jordan, I have seen make dozens of baskets. (-->
I have seen Michael Jordan make dozens of baskets.)
I find it interesting that some native speakers find this construction unnatural. To me, it's natural and useful, in conversation and writing, formal and informal.
It also has a very long history. High literary examples down through the centuries could easily be produced. The list would be massive (book-length).
I have come across one example of topicalization that I find ungrammatical in modern English. It is in the poem by John Milton that bears my username.
From stanza 6 of "
Lycidas":
"But the fair guerdon when we hope to find, (= when we hope to find the fair guerdon)
And think to burst out into sudden blaze,
Comes the blind Fury with th'abhorred shears,
And slits the thin-spun life."
It appears to be ungrammatical, at least in modern English, to topicalize out of a dependent clause, i.e., to move a phrase from within a dependent clause to the front of a sentence. I actually had to start a grammar thread somewhere to even be sure I was interpreting that sentence of Milton's correctly when I memorized it.
*Niagara Falls when I visit, I think I will have a good time.
(--> When I visit Niagara Falls, I think I will have a good time.)
The same poem has a much more natural example of topicalization (long-distance topicalization of the direct object of "mourn") in the third stanza.
"Thee, Shepherd, thee the woods and desert caves,
With wild thyme and the gadding vine o'ergrown,
And all their echoes mourn."
John Milton was aware that the subjective second person pronoun was
thou, not
thee. He knew very well that he was fronting the object of
mourn: "The woods and desert caves, with wild thyme and the gadding vine o'ergrown, and all their echoes mourn thee."
