16. Michael's First Solo Record
 
Joseph Jackson always had his eye on the competition, namely the
Osmond Brothers, a family group from Salt Lake City, Utah. In
June 1971, MGM Records released ‘Sweet and Innocent’ by the
youngest member of the group, Donny Osmond, as a solo act.

That record's success all but guaranteed him teen-star status in the
predominantly white teenybopper magazines. Because of their
colour, The Jackson 5 could never be perceived as teen idols in
those magazines, desp...
Continue reading ...

14. It just kept gettin' better…
 
The Jackson 5 made their first concert appearance as a Motown
attraction at the Philadelphia Convention Center on Saturday
evening, 2 May 1970. Despite their terrific record sales, no one
could have guessed how popular they had become in barely five
months. More than thirty-five hundred screaming fans mobbed
Philadelphia International Airport hoping to catch a glimpse of the
young brothers. Only a huge force of Philadelphia's finest and
airport security offi...
Continue reading ...

13. ‘ABC’ and ‘The Love You Save’

 
By the end of 1969, Michael Jackson, now eleven years old and reunited with his mother, was a bubbly, energetic and happy youngster. ‘All I want now is to see how far we can go as a family,’ he told Soul magazine reporter Judy Spiegelman. ‘I like show business, Hollywood, and all that stuff, the things people like Berry Gordy do to make you look good. I'm real excited about things.’

In December, Motown Records released the brothers' first alb...
Continue reading ...

12. Success!

 

Stardom for The Jackson 5 was just around the corner, but with a detour or two along the way. When ‘I Want You Back’ was released in October 1969, it wasn't an immediate hit. The song entered  Billboard's Top 100 at number 90. Motown's promotion and sales department had to continually encourage disc jockeys to play it and record stores to stock it. Then, finally, ten weeks la...

Continue reading ...

11. Michael Moves in with Diana

On 1 October 1969, as his father and brothers were being shuffled from one hotel to another by the Motown brass, it was decided that Michael Jackson would move in with Diana Ross in her Hollywood Hills home. ‘It was a calculated thing. I wanted him to be around her,’ Berry Gordy explained. ‘People think it was an accident that he stayed there. It wasn't. I wanted ...

Continue reading ...

10. 'I WANT YOU BACK' - THE JACKSON 5’S FIRST HIT

Creating The Jackson 5's First Hit

The early 1970s were the most significant transitional years

Motown Records had undergone since shoring itself up as a major musical force. By that time, although the company was still producing superb pop and rhythm-and-blues music, some of its biggest stars had begun grumbling about Motown's conveyor-belt me...

Continue reading ...

9. MOVED TO HOLLYWOOD
Hollywood Livin'
 
On 27 September 1968, Motown Records booked The Jackson 5 to
appear in a benefit concert at Gilroy Stadium in Gary, Indiana, the
purpose of which was to defray the costs of Richard Hatcher's
mayoral campaign. On the bill that day were Motown recording
artists Gladys Knight and the Pips, Shorty Long, and Bobby Taylor
and the Vancouvers. The Jackson 5 opened the show. In years to
come, the official Motown story would be that this  was where
Diana Ross saw t...
Continue reading ...

8. MOTOWN'S BOSS: 'YOUNG MICHAEL HAD A DEPTH THAT WAS SO VAST'
The Jacksons Sign with Motown
[Part One]

It was quarter to ten in the morning on 23 July 1968 when the
Jackson family's Volkswagen minibus eased into a parking space
in front of a cluster of small white bungalows at 2648 West Grand
Boulevard, Detroit. The sign above one of the structures said it all:
Hitsville U.S.A. This was Motown Records, the place from which
had sprung forth so many memorable, chart-topping hit records.
By 1968...
Continue reading ...

Continue reading ...

Continue reading ...

 
[PART ONE]]
 

Continue reading ...

4. JOSEPH HITS MICHAEL

[Part One]
 
Continue reading ...