{"id":10506,"date":"2026-04-25T13:00:00","date_gmt":"2026-04-25T13:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/musictechohio.online\/site\/michael-loved-all-that-going-to-hollywood-the-making-of-i-want-you-back-by-the-jackson-5-154372\/"},"modified":"2026-04-25T13:00:00","modified_gmt":"2026-04-25T13:00:00","slug":"michael-loved-all-that-going-to-hollywood-the-making-of-i-want-you-back-by-the-jackson-5-154372","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/musictechohio.online\/site\/michael-loved-all-that-going-to-hollywood-the-making-of-i-want-you-back-by-the-jackson-5-154372\/","title":{"rendered":"\u201cMichael loved all that, going to Hollywood\u2026\u201d \u2013 The Making Of \u201cI Want You Back\u201d, by The Jackson 5"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Originally published in Uncut Take 246 (November 2017 issue)…<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Originally published in Uncut Take 246 (November 2017 issue)\u2026<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

WHEN the Jackson brothers signed to Motown in 1969, they found themselves victims of a glorious culture shock: pulled from the amateurhour stages of the Midwest and the East Coast for a new life in the sun-drenched, star-studded El Dorado of Hollywood.<\/p>\n

\u201cRiding down the street, seeing movie stars,\u201d remembers Jackie Jackson. \u201cAt caf\u00e9s, sitting outside eating, we\u2019d say, \u2018Wow, look at that car, look at this car!\u2019 It was exciting to see for us, little boys from Gary, Indiana.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was nothing to go down on Sunset Boulevard,\u201d adds Tito Jackson, \u201cpassing the Whisky A Go Go, and see \u2018Jimi Hendrix tonight\u2019, or \u2018Tonight: Smokey Robinson\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n

Even more striking than the palm trees or the movie stars, however, was the influence on the brothers of Motown boss Berry Gordy, who shepherded the group to No 1 with their first single, \u201cI Want You Back\u201d. Co-written by Gordy himself, the cut was painstakingly recorded, and turned out to be the label\u2019s most expensive single to that point.<\/p>\n

\u201cBerry taught us about writing lyrics and producing a song,\u201d says Jackie. \u201cHe told us that whenever you write a song, you make sure you get their attention right away\u2026 [sings intro]. That makes you listen! If it\u2019s not exciting, they\u2019ll move onto the next song. That gliss on the piano?! I loved it!\u201d<\/p>\n

As Tito, Marlon and Jackie explain, their new-found success soon brought them a wealth of experiences \u2013 from near-riots at their schools and \u201ctearing up\u201d Diana Ross\u2019 house, to meeting Jimi Hendrix and hanging out with Bob Marley.<\/p>\n

Now detailed in the brothers\u2019 new book, The Jacksons: Legacy<\/em>, their journey from the backwaters of Indiana to Los Angeles and global stardom was quite the leap; especially so for a group who, when they recorded \u201cI Want You Back\u201d, ranged in age from Jackie, 18, to Michael, only just 10 when he recorded the song\u2019s lead vocal.<\/p>\n

\u201cPressure!\u201d laughs Marlon Jackson today. \u201cKids don\u2019t know anything about pressure \u2013 we were just excited to do it, and we had fun onstage. We didn\u2019t feel any pressure. Winning a lot of talent shows when we were young kids, I guess in those days we probably had pressure, but not after that \u2013 it\u2019s just magic.\u201d<\/p>\n

KEY PLAYERS<\/strong><\/p>\n

    \n
  • Jackie Jackson (Vocals)<\/li>\n
  • Marlon Jackson (Vocals)<\/li>\n
  • Tito Jackson (Vocals)<\/li>\n
  • Louie Shelton (Guitar)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
    \n
    \n
    <\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/figure>\n

    MARLON JACKSON:<\/strong> We used to do amateur hour at the Regal Theatre in Chicago, Illinois \u2013 the headliners would be people like Gladys Knight or James Brown.<\/p>\n

    JACKIE JACKSON:<\/strong> And then we did the same thing at the Apollo, in Harlem.<\/p>\n

    MARLON:<\/strong> Those days were magical days. Little Dion would come on, and Little Anthony And The Imperials. They were headliners, and we were just on amateur hour. And in between, we\u2019d go watch the Three Stooges on the big screen, then it was showtime again!<\/p>\n

    JACKIE:<\/strong> I remember a couple of guys came on before us \u2013 and back then, if they didn\u2019t like you, they would throw eggs at you. Michael was on the side of the stage, he was crying like a baby, he was scared to go out, \u2018cos we were next, and he thought they were gonna do the same thing to us. I said, \u201cMan, just do what you do, Michael.\u201d We pulled it together, went out and they gave us a standing ovation.<\/p>\n

    MARLON:<\/strong> This is around \u201967. We used to go to the Apollo Theater every Sunday every summer. Our mother made our uniforms. She used to make all that stuff before Motown, in Gary, Indiana. We took these white boots to the store and they dyed them a green colour for us!<\/p>\n

    TITO JACKSON:<\/strong> It was Gladys Knight and Bobby Taylor who discovered us.<\/p>\n

    MARLON:<\/strong> Gladys Knight tried to bring us to Motown first, but for some reason my father didn\u2019t go. Then a few years later, Bobby Taylor talked him into bringing us to Motown.<\/p>\n

    LOUIE SHELTON:<\/strong> Motown had just moved out to LA from Detroit, and The Jackson 5 were one of the first signed after the move.<\/p>\n

    MARLON:<\/strong> When we got to LA, we stayed at Diana Ross\u2019 house. But first we stayed at a little place called the Tropicana, but we were tearing that place up, so they kicked us out. Little kids, running around making all kinds of noise. Then we went up to Berry\u2019s house, hung out there, and Diana Ross lived right below, so we just lived at her house for a while. We tore up her house too, but she helped us, she tore it up with us!<\/p>\n

    JACKIE:<\/strong> Coming from Gary, Indiana, a cold climate, you come into LA, the Hollywood Hills, you see all the beautiful homes, Rolls-Royces going down the street, things we\u2019d never seen before\u2026 all the palm trees and sunshine all the time. I couldn\u2019t believe people were living like this all this time! Michael loved all that, going to Hollywood, the palm trees\u2026<\/p>\n

    \n

    \u201cour mother made our uniforms. she used to make all that stuff before motown\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

    MARLON:<\/strong> We started going to Bancroft Junior High, myself and Jermaine, but Michael was still in elementary school. I had just gotten to middle school, and he and I went to Emerson for two weeks, then they had to take us out and put us in a private school.<\/p>\n

    JACKIE:<\/strong> Inglewood Forum was a big thing for us. My father told us that we\u2019d gotta do a concert with Diana Ross \u2013 we\u2019d never done a concert like that before, not that massive. She brought us out and introduced us to the whole world at that particular show, and she was one of the biggest superstars around, and Motown\u2019s biggest superstar. For her to introduce us to the world was very, very exciting for us. We did our thing, and people loved us, and after that our career started, really. I think we might have been still working on \u201cI Want You Back\u201d, because we were working on it a long time. I remember hearing the demo. I thought it was a very exciting song.<\/p>\n

    SHELTON:<\/strong> I had just played on The Monkees \u201cLast Train To Clarksville\u201d and several other hits, and I assume that\u2019s why the contractor for the Motown sessions called me to play on their first recordings. We recorded \u201cI Want You Back\u201d and all of the Jacksons\u2019 first LP at the Sound Factory studio in Hollywood. I believe we were still on 16-track recording at that time.<\/p>\n

    JACKIE:<\/strong> It was written and produced by Alphonso Mizell, Deke Richards, Freddie Perren and Berry Gordy, they called them the Corporation, all those guys together.<\/p>\n

    MARLON:<\/strong> Freddie was the score and Alphonso was the arrangements, and Deke was more the lyrics, and Berry with the melody.<\/p>\n

    TITO:<\/strong> Freddie was more musical with the scoring and arrangements. It was a great team.<\/p>\n

    SHELTON:<\/strong> As with most of the Motown sessions, the artists were not allowed at the session, so we didn\u2019t get to see the Jacksons at all at that point. The recording of \u201cI Want You Back\u201d was probably the most hands-on involvement of the Corporation that I experienced during all of my sessions with the Jacksons \u2013 they were in there with us musicians working out every note of the arrangement. We had three guitar players \u2013 myself, David T Walker and Don Peake \u2013 along with the bass, drums and piano. We pulled the arrangement together and recorded it in about an hour.<\/p>\n

    JACKIE:<\/strong> There were many variations of \u201cI Want You Back\u201d; it took a while to get that song right. It was the most expensive Motown single to that point\u2026<\/p>\n

    MARLON:<\/strong> Trust me, they got their money back!<\/p>\n

    JACKIE:<\/strong> We\u2019d leave school, walk not even a block, and go to the studio, and the kids had no idea that we were recording these songs. I remember being in the classroom, I was always kind of quiet, and this girl used to sit behind me, and she was always pinching my butt all the time, but during the whole time in school I wouldn\u2019t say anything. Screaming girls would come from other high schools, like LA High School, and they\u2019d scream and scream teacher didn\u2019t know what was going on, the kids didn\u2019t know who we were, because we kept it quiet. People were coming from other schools, cutting class, just to see us in the classroom. It was pandemonium.<\/p>\n

    SHELTON:<\/strong> The Jacksons didn\u2019t play on the first two albums. I think they started playing on the third album.<\/p>\n

    TITO:<\/strong> We didn\u2019t care that we didn\u2019t play on the recording \u2013 I mean, how can you argue with the guys that Motown had? They were pros. They had some of the most brilliant musicians in the business at the time. They just had it.<\/p>\n

    SHELTON:<\/strong> I was called back later that night to do a guitar overdub. When I arrived, Michael was doing his lead vocal. That was the first time I\u2019d seen him and I couldn\u2019t believe what I was seeing. I\u2019m very grateful to have been one of three people that witnessed that vocal go down. He put 1,000 per cent into that vocal.<\/p>\n

    \n

    \u201cPeople hear it and they feel the same way I do. They hear it and they know what that is. It\u2019s a classic\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

    JACKIE:<\/strong> Michael pretty much ad-libbed himself. We\u2019d record the song, then come back the next day and make another change \u2013 it was like four weeks of doing that stuff! Because it was our first song coming out and they wanted to leave an impression\u2026 There was a lot of stiff competition out there \u2013 Stevie Wonder, The Temptations, The Mamas & The Papas\u2026<\/p>\n

    MARLON:<\/strong> The Carpenters\u2026<\/p>\n

    TITO:<\/strong> The Beatles\u2026<\/p>\n

    JACKIE:<\/strong> After hearing \u201cI Want You Back\u201d so many times in the studio, especially mixing the song, it was time to release it. But hearing it on the radio was a different feeling. I remember my first time hearing it, I pulled over to the side of the road and started hollering! Then I turned to another station and they were playing it. And another! It was just blasting all over.<\/p>\n

    MARLON:<\/strong> Back in those days, the acts used to try and find out, \u201cWhen are you dropping your record?\u201d Because they didn\u2019t wanna drop them at the same time, try and stay out of each other\u2019s way. We played \u201cI Want You Back\u201d first on \u2026Hollywood Palace \u2013 that show was magical, because I think Sammy Davis Jr was on it. That introduced us to the world.<\/p>\n

    Were we happy with the live versions in those days? Man, we were kids, we were happy with whatever Motown did.<\/p>\n

    TITO:<\/strong> What did we have, a three-piece, four-piece band?<\/p>\n

    MARLON:<\/strong> They did a great job. One keyboard player, a guitar player, a bass player and a drummer. Ha ha! Michael, myself and Jackie, we did our choreography. People think Cholly Atkins did our choreography, because he did a lot of Motown acts, but we actually did our own. Susanne [De Passe] was in charge of us, and she was only 21 at the time! Damn, Susanne!<\/p>\n

    JACKIE:<\/strong> We were all in love with her.<\/p>\n

    MARLON:<\/strong> We used to go to rehearsal after school, every day, for our first tour. We\u2019d get out of school around 2.30pm, run into the house, grab something to eat, then go to the studio. We get there one day, and the rehearsal hall is not empty. Three o\u2019clock passed, 3.15 passed, and then finally around 3.30, the door opened up and Jimi Hendrix walked out.<\/p>\n

    JACKIE:<\/strong> He said, \u201cHey guys, how you doin\u2019?\u201d He had a girl on this hand, another woman on this hand, and two weeks after that, he passed.<\/p>\n

    MARLON:<\/strong> Later, when we played Jamaica and Panama, Bob Marley & The Wailers opened up for us. When we were in Jamaica, he said, \u201cCome on up to the house.\u201d So we go to Bob\u2019s house, all of us, hanging out, and he\u2019s smoking a joint that\u2019s about this big and about that long\u2026<\/p>\n

    JACKIE:<\/strong> Yeah, and Marlon took a puff on it!<\/p>\n

    MARLON:<\/strong> I was a kid! No\u2026 you didn\u2019t believe him, did you?<\/p>\n

    JACKIE:<\/strong> You didn\u2019t have to, it was in the air! But he was the coolest guy. Food laid out everywhere.<\/p>\n

    MARLON:<\/strong> We still have the same work ethic, to make sure we get it right. Kids today don\u2019t know nothing about that, and the analogue sound, they don\u2019t know how to get all the meat out of a track. They created a Jacksons sound, which still you hear today. When you hear \u201cI Want You Back\u201d, \u201cABC\u201d, \u201cSugar Daddy\u201d, they were written by the same people, they\u2019ve got that same energy, that same sound.<\/p>\n

    MARLON:<\/strong> It was a new feel, it was new music, and the kids were gravitating towards it. And it was amazing, because they\u2019d never seen young guys, young boys, perform this new kind of music, and they had some choreographing too, they were able to move and dance at the same time.<\/p>\n

    SHELTON:<\/strong> To this day, \u201cI Want You Back\u201d remains to me one of the best tracks I ever played on, an amazing tight arrangement.<\/p>\n

    JACKIE: <\/strong>Every time I hear \u201cI Want You Back\u201d, I enjoy it. I\u2019ll never get tired of listening to it [sings the intro].<\/p>\n

    MARLON:<\/strong> Great music don\u2019t die.<\/p>\n

    JACKIE:<\/strong> People hear it and they feel the same way I do. They hear it and they know what that is. It\u2019s a classic.<\/p>\n

    FACTFILE<\/strong><\/p>\n

    Written by:<\/strong> The Corporation \u2013 Berry Gordy, Freddie Perren, Alphonso Mizell, Deke Richards
    Recorded at:<\/strong> Los Angeles, California
    Producer:<\/strong> The Corporation
    Performers:<\/strong> Michael Jackson (lead vocals), Tito Jackson (vocals), Jackie Jackson (vocals), Jermaine Jackson (vocals), Marlon Jackson (vocals), Gene Pello (drums). Freddie Perren (piano), Alphonso Mizell (piano), Loule Shelton (guitar), David T Walker (guitar), Wilton Felder (bass guitar). Don Peake (bass guitar)
    Released:<\/strong> October 1969
    UK\/US chart position:<\/strong> 2\/1<\/p>\n

    TIMELINE<\/strong><\/p>\n

    1964<\/strong>
    Encouraged by their father, The Jackson Brothers form in Gary, Indiana<\/p>\n

    August 1967<\/strong>
    Now with Marlon and Michael in the ranks, The Jackson 5 win the Harlem Apollo Theater\u2019s talent contest<\/p>\n

    Summer 1969<\/strong>
    The group record their Motown debut, \u201cI Want You Back\u201d, in Los Angeles<\/p>\n

    Early 1970<\/strong>
    The single tops the charts in the United States and reached No 2 in the UK<\/p>\n<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

    The post \u201cMichael loved all that, going to Hollywood\u2026\u201d \u2013 The Making Of \u201cI Want You Back\u201d, by The Jackson 5<\/a> appeared first on UNCUT<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

    <\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    Originally published in Uncut Take 246 (November 2017 issue)… Originally published in Uncut Take 246 (November 2017 issue)\u2026 WHEN the Jackson brothers signed to Motown in 1969, they found themselves…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31,35,1437,5951],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10506","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-features","category-interviews","category-michael-jackson","category-the-jacksons"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/musictechohio.online\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10506","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/musictechohio.online\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/musictechohio.online\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/musictechohio.online\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/musictechohio.online\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10506"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/musictechohio.online\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10506\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/musictechohio.online\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10506"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/musictechohio.online\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10506"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/musictechohio.online\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10506"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}