Chart entered : 31 January 1970
Chart peak : 2 ( 8 in a re-mixed version in 1988 )
Number of hits : 11 ( The Jacksons will be getting separate posts )
The 1970s are here and the cast of my first encounter with the charts starts to assemble. Besides being the first boy band to chart , four-fifths of them were the first artists to be younger than the chart itself.
The group's back story is pretty well known. Their father Joe was a steel worker from Indiana who had played guitar in an unsuccesful band The Falcons. He switched his ambitions to his sons when he caught the second eldest Tito with his guitar and realised he could play. Jackie, the eldest and Jermaine the next after Tito came in to form The Jackson Brothers with two neighbourhood kids . The younger brothers Marlon and Michael were brought in as soon as they were old enough.
In August 1965 on Michael's seventh birthday they became The Jackson Five Singing Brothers losing the last two words shortly afterwards. They also lost the two non-Jacksons who were replaced by more competent musicians Johnny Jackson ( no relation ) on drums and Ronnie Rancifer on keyboards. They were always part of the studio band and falsely referred to as cousins but as far as the general public was concerned the band was presented as a five piece.
The band went on a blitz of talent shows in 1966-67 winning them all. They attracted the attention of Gladys Knight who took their demo tape to Motown but it was rejected so in November 1967 they signed with the local Steeltown Records instead. The first single in January 1968 "Big Boy" gives ample demonstration of why Motown initially rejected them; the vocals, including 9-year old Michael's , are so off-key it's hard to discern any melody in the song at all and it's physically painful to listen to it. The uptempo follow-up "We Don't Have To Be Over 21" is more presentable though very roughly produced.
In July 1968 they went to Detroit for another Motown audition arranged by the Singer Bobby Taylor who they had just supported. This time Berry Gordy liked them and wanted to sign them ; Joe haggled until the early part of 1969 when the deal was finally signed. They were sent to Hollywood to support Diana Ross. In the meantime Gordy assembled a team of writers including himself to work on material for them under the name The Corporation. The first song they came up with was "I Want You Back released in 1969. By January 1970 it was number one in America and crossed the pond to become a big hit here.
Here's Lena's take : jackson 5
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