Diana Ross Presents The Jackson 5

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Diana Ross Presents The Jackson 5 is the debut album from Gary, Indiana-based soul family band The Jackson 5, released on the Motown label in December 1969. The Jackson 5's lead singer, a preteenage boy named Michael Jackson, and his older brothers Marlon, Jermaine, Tito, and Jackie, became pop successes within months of this album's release. Diana Ross Presents the Jackson 5's only single, "I Want You Back", became a number-one hit on the Billboard Hot 100 within weeks of the album's release.

The album title suggested that Motown star Diana Ross had discovered the group, as do the Ross-penned liner notes on the back cover. Ross' alleged discovering of the Jackson 5 was in fact part of Motown's marketing and promotions plan for the Jackson 5; Motown artists Bobby Taylor and Gladys Knight were the ones who had actually discovered the Jacksons. Ross did, however, introduce the group to the public both in concert and on television.

Recording the album

Working with Bobby Taylor

After signing the Jackson 5 in March 1969, Motown CEO Berry Gordy, Jr. brought the group to Motown's Hitsville U.S. studio in Detroit, Michigan, and assigned them to work with Bobby Taylor as their producer. Taylor, who had personally brought the Jacksons to Motown, began having Michael, Jermaine, and Jackie record cover versions of current and past soul compositions, including many in the Motown catalog. Over two dozen of these recordings were done, including covers of songs by The Temptations ("(I Know) I'm Losing You", "Born to Love You"), Marvin Gaye ("Chained"), Stevie Wonder ("My Cherie Amour"), The Miracles ("Who's Lovin' You"), and the Four Tops ("Standing in the Shadows of Love"). Among the non-Motown covers done were versions of Sly & the Family Stone's "Stand!", The Delfonics' "Can You Remember", and "Zip-A-Dee-Doo-Dah" from the Walt Disney film Song of the South. The Jackson 5 also re-recorded "You've Changed", a song they'd recorded for Gordon Keith's small Steeltown label before joining the Motown roster.

All of the songs Taylor recorded with the group during these summer 1969 sessions held close to the group's traditional R&B/soul sound, a sound somewhat less pop-aware than Motown's signature "Motown Sound". Of these recordings, the most famous became the cover of "Who's Lovin' You", with Michael Jackson re-delivering Smokey Robinson's often-covered plea for the return of a long-gone lover. The Jackson 5 version of the song supplanted the Miracles' original as the definitive recording of the song, and many of the future covers of the song (for example, En Vogue's cover at the beginning of their 1990 single "Hold On"), are based upon this version.

The Jacksons recorded a number of songs with Bobby Taylor during these summer 1969 sessions that remained in the Motown vault for several years, including covers of Ray Charles' "A Fool for You", the Four Tops' "Reach Out I'll Be There", The Isley Brothers' "It's Your Thing", and a version of Bobby Taylor's own "Oh, I've Been Bless'd". These recordings would turn up on various Jackson 5 compilations, and virtually all of them were included on the boxed set Soulsation!.

Enter The Corporation

In August 1969, Berry Gordy decided to take a more direct role in the Jackson 5's career. He had the Jacksons and their father, Joseph, move from Detroit to Los Angeles, California, where Gordy had a satellite studio (the entire Motown operation would move to Los Angeles by 1972). Taylor followed the group, and continued to work on the cover songs.

In the meantime, however, Gordy came across "I Want to Be Free", a composition written by West Coast-based Motown producers Freddie Perren, Alphonzo Mizell, and Deke Richards for Gladys Knight. At first, Gordy wanted the three producers to instead record the song with Diana Ross, but soon decided to give the song "the Frankie Lymon treatment" and record it with the Jackson 5. Richards, Mizell, and Perren began re-working the song, and Gordy and Taylor also became involved in the revision process. The result was "I Want You Back", which became the Jackson 5's first Motown single, and the first of four Jackson 5 songs that went to number-one on the Billboard Hot 100 chart in 1970.

"I Want You Back" became the blueprint for future Jackson 5 recordings: there was now less of an emphasis on traditional soul, and more prominent elements of doo-wop and bubblegum pop music. In fact, Motown's publicity department dubbed the Jackson 5's sound "bubblegum soul". Gordy, Richards, Mizell, and Perren also contributed the album track "Nobody" to Diana Ross Presents the Jackson 5.

Gordy decided to form a group called The Corporation to handle future Jackson 5 recordings. The Corporation included Gordy, Perren, Mizell, and Richards; left out was Taylor, who also worked with the group on the second Jackson 5 album, ABC and its singles without credit. All of the songs produced and written by Gordy, Richards, Mizell, and Perren were billed under the Corporation name, to avoid a repeat of the issues that arose when former Motown producers Holland-Dozier-Holland were known by name and became as famous as the artists they produced for.

Track listing

All songs produced by Bobby Taylor except for "Nobody" and "I Want You Back", produced by The Corporation. Leads are denoted by superscripts: (a) Michael Jackson, (b) Jermaine Jackson, (c) Jackie Jackson, (d) Tito Jackson

Side A

1. "Zip-A-Dee-Doo-Dah" (Ray Gilbert, Allie Wrubel) - 3:17 ^{a, d}
2. "Nobody" (The Corporation) - 2:53 ^{a, b}
3. "I Want You Back" (The Corporation) - 3:03 ^{a, b, c, d}
4. "Can You Remember" (Thom Bell, William Hart) - 3:10 ^a
5. "Standing in the Shadows of Love" (Holland-Dozier-Holland) - 4:05 ^{a, b}
6. "You've Changed" (Gordon Keith) - 3:16 ^a

Side B

1. "My Cherie Amour" (Stevie Wonder, Sylvia Moy, Hank Cosby) - 3:44 ^b
2. "Who's Lovin' You" (Smokey Robinson) - 4:05 ^a
3. "Chained" (Frank Wilson) - 2:54 ^{a, b}
4. "(I Know) I'm Losing You" (Norman Whitfield, Eddie Holland, Cornelius Grant) - 2:16 ^b
5. "Stand!" (Sylvester Stewart) - 2:30 ^{a, b}
6. "Born to Love You" (Ivy Jo Hunter, William "Mickey" Stevenson) - 2:38 ^{a, b}

References

• Hamilton, Andrew (2003). "Bobby Taylor". Allmusic. Retrieved July 16 2006.
• Olsen, Eric (15 June 2005). "Michael Jackson and the Jackson 5 At Motown: A Long Long Time Ago". Blogcritics.org.. Retrieved July 16 2006.

External links

• Template:Fr icon Overview of album at www.jackson5abc.com