The Jackson 5: Michael Jackson, Jackie Jackson, Jermaine Jackson, Tito Jackson, Marlon Jackson.
Producers: Berry Gordy Jr., Alphonso Mizell, Freddie Perren, Deke Richards, Hal Davis, Bobby Taylor.
Originally released on Motown (0910) on December 9, 1971 as GREATEST HITS.
All tracks have been digitally remastered.
This is part of MCA's 20th Century Masters: The Millennium Collection series.
Michael Jackson was 11 years old when he and his four older brothers scored their first No. 1 hit, "I Want You Back." They had two more before he turned 12, and they were selling this, their first greatest hits collection, when he was 13.
It smacks of bubblegum novelty, but it's not. "I Want You Back," "ABC" and "The Love You Save," bubbling with great soul-guitar hooks, perfectly placed piano accents, Michael's precocious soul shouting and his brothers' complicated and vivacious harmonies, are among the greatest AM pop tunes ever made. Credit can be shared by the brothers, by Motown head Berry Gordy and his staff, who wrote and produced most of these singles under the name The Corporation, and by Michael, who had fully absorbed the vocal stylings of Jackie Wilson, Little Willie John and many of the early Motown greats into his own style by the time he hit puberty. The harpsichord-driven ballad "I'll Be There," the Jacksons' fourth single and fourth No. 1, features a lead vocal of such assurance that 12-year-old Michael could have probably earned a college degree with it.
"I'll Be There" was also the end of the Jacksons' streak of number ones. They would never have another, not as a group anyway. So in just 37 minutes, GREATEST HITS gets to the heart of a great soul band, and to the roots of the greatest family dynasty in pop-music history. They would, as everybody knows, rise again.
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