45s.com -- Recording Artist Information: Jackson 5 / Jacksons

Date Formed	1966
Location	Gary, Indiana
Music	R&B group
Charted Pop/Rock Hits	33
Period Active	November 15, 1969 to 1989
Biggest Hits	I'll Be There; ABC; The Love You Save; Want You Back; Never Can Say Goodbye.
Music List and Data	Search Music List
Notable Information	The Jackson 5 was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1997.
Original Members	Sigmond "Jackie" Jackson, Toriano "Tito" Jackson, Jermaine Jackson, Marlon Jackson, and Michael Jackson.
Other Names	None
Other Web Sites

The Jackson 5 was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1997.  The following information was obtained from the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame:

In the words of Berry Gordy, founder and driving force behind Motown, the Jackson Five were "the last big stars to come rolling off my assembly line." The Jackson Five found their way to Motown at the end of the Sixties. Led by 11-year-old Michael Jackson - who was joined by brothers Jermaine, Tito, Marlon and Jackie - the Jackson Five were young, fresh and full of energy. The group made music-business history when their first four singles shot to Number One in 1970. That record-breaking string of 45s - "I Want You Back," "ABC," "The Love You Save" and "I'll Be There" - endeared the hard-working Jacksons to a public that found their soulful singing and tight choreography an entertaining diversion from all the social and political cataclysms weighing upon the country. Like all of Motown's acts, the Jackson Five's popularity transcended race. Everyone loved the Jackson Five, especially the cherubic, charismatic Michael.

The Jackson Five rose from humble circumstances in Gary, Indiana. They were the eldest sons in a family of nine children born to steelworker Joe Jackson and his wife Katherine. When Joe saw that his charges had talent, he devoted himself to molding them into a well-rehearsed group that covered Motown and other soul/R&B hits of the day. They performed at talent shows and as opening acts on bills that took them to places like Harlem's Apollo Theater. All the while, Michael Jackson studied the moves of the masters: their onstage choreography, how they phrased a song, the way they worked a crowd. His heroes and tutors included James Brown, Sam and Dave, Jackie Wilson, Etta James and his older brother, Jermaine, who himself was a disciple of Marvin Gaye.

The Jackson Five wound up at Motown via Bobby Taylor, a performer and producer who caught their act at Chicago's Regal nightclub. At Motown, Berry Gordy took a hands-on interest in the group. Gordy had relocated from Detroit to Los Angeles, and much of the Jackson Five's early repertoire was written, rehearsed and recorded in California under Gordy's tutelage. They were matched with "the Corporation," a Motown production team groomed to replace the recently departed Holland-Dozier-Holland. In January 1970, their first production for the Jackson Five, "I Want You Back," reached #1 on the pop and R&B charts. Its follow-up, "ABC," unseated the Beatles' "Let It Be" from the top position that April. By the summer of 1970, the Jackson Five was headlining 20,000-seat venues, and Jacksonmania was in full swing.

Their tenure at Motown continued until 1975, by which time they'd turned their attention to the emerging disco movement with hits like "Dancing Machine" (#2, 1974). Moving to Epic, the Jackson Five amended their name to the Jacksons and began writing and producing their own material. During this chapter in their career, the Jacksons staked their claim with a trio of dance/R&B albums - titled Destiny, Triumph and Victory - released in the late Seventies and early Eighties. Their highly publicized Victory tour in 1984 turned out to be the last Jacksons project to include brother Michael, who was by then a superstar in his own right.