It was Gladys Knight who first made a call to leg­endary Motown founder Berry Gordy to tell him about an excit­ing new act she had over­heard from her dress­ing room on the sec­ond floor of the Regal The­ater, Chica­go. Gordy nev­er returned that call but a short time late Motown was approached again, this time by Bob­by Tay­lor of Bob­by Tay­lor and the Van­cou­vers who told A&R Vice Pres­i­dent Ralph Seltzer about this sen­sa­tion­al act that had opened for them at the High Chap­ar­ral club. So it came to pass that the Jack­son Five – for it was they – went to Detroit to audi­tion for Motown, and Gordy signed them up right away.

In Octo­ber 1969, the Jack­son Five’s first nation­al sin­gle, I Want You Back, was released, and became their first num­ber one hit on 30ᵗʰ Jan­u­ary 1970. It was per­formed on the band’s first tele­vi­sion appear­ances on Diana Ross’s The Hol­ly­wood Palace and on their mile­stone per­for­mance of 14ᵗʰ Decem­ber 1969, on The Ed Sul­li­van Show.

The song was writ­ten and pro­duced by the pro­duc­tion team known as The Cor­po­ra­tion, com­pris­ing Motown chief Berry Gordy him­self, Fred­die Per­ren, Alphon­so Mizell, and Deke Richards. Orig­i­nal­ly con­sid­ered for Gladys Knight & the Pips and lat­er for Diana Ross, the song was re-worked to suit its main lead vocal being per­formed by a tween, the then-11-year-old Michael Jack­son. Here’s Jack­ie Jackson’s mem­o­ry of the event:

“I remem­ber going into the Motown stu­dio and hear­ing the track com­ing through the big stu­dio mon­i­tors right in our face,” says Jack­ie Jack­son. “It was slam­ming. The intro was so strong. Berry always taught us to have a strong intro to get people’s atten­tion right away. And I remem­ber the Cor­po­ra­tion teach­ing us the song. Michael picked it up so fast; it was easy to learn for all of us. They kept chang­ing it here and there for the bet­ter. We told them it was great, but the next day Fred­die and Fonce added more things to it. They want­ed to make it per­fect. Michael did these ad-libs at the end of the song. They didn’t teach him that; he just made up his own stuff.”

And “slam­ming”, it cer­tain­ly was: an exu­ber­ant pop mas­ter­piece that remains one of my favourite all-time songs. It’s joy­ful — even if it is about a lover who is ruing his hasti­ness in drop­ping his girl! Enjoy the whole pack­age here: the glo­ri­ous cos­tumes, the boys’ volu­mi­nous Afros, the well-rehearsed dance moves, and of course the genius of Michael Jack­son man­i­fest­ed at a pre­co­cious­ly young age. Record­ed in the Goin’ Back To Indi­ana TV spe­cial in 1971.