Greatest Hits (Remastered) Jackson 5

• 1 I Want You Back 02:58
• 2 ABC 02:58
• 3 Never Can Say Goodbye (Single Version) 03:00
• 4 Sugar Daddy (Single Version) 02:32
• 5 I'll Be There 03:57
• 6 Maybe Tomorrow 04:44
• 7 The Love You Save 03:04
• 8 Who's Lovin' You 04:00
• 9 Mama's Pearl 03:12
• 10 Goin' Back To Indiana (Album Version) 03:29
• 11 I Found That Girl (Album Version) 03:09
• Total Runtime 37:03

Info for Greatest Hits (Remastered)

Greatest Hits is the first greatest hits compilation for the Jackson 5 released by Motown Records in late 1971, and selling over 5.6 million copies worldwide. The top 10 single "Sugar Daddy" is included as a new track alongside J5 hits such as "I Want You Back" and "I'll Be There".

The original release of the Jackson 5’s Greatest Hits LP in 1971 was cause for celebration, as it encapsulated an extraordinary 18-month strings of back-to-back-to-back-back-etc. Hits and was itself a hit souvenir of Jacksonmania. It featured eight smash records, led by the group’s phenomenal Motown debut, “I Want You Back,” plus two immensely popular B-sides – “I Found That Girl” and “Who’s Lovin’ You” – and something new: “Sugar Daddy,” a just-dropped single which went top 10 pop and no. 3 R&B; it was then not available on any other J5 LP.

"You could hardly get hotter than Michael Jackson in the summer of 1983. Thriller was an almost permanent fixture in the Top 10, Off the Wall was also hovering somewhere in the charts every week, and he had even charted with a storybook telling of the tale of E.T. the Extra Terrestrial. Single after single was being released from Thriller, which was on its way to becoming the biggest selling album of all time and even though an album of old Motown material had been released only two years previously, the relatively new specialist TV advertising company, Telstar Records licensed all the hits from the '70s Motown days and put together an album of songs featuring both Michael Jackson as a solo artist and the Jackson 5 with, of course, Michael taking lead singing duties. They mixed it up quite nicely as Michael's solo hits tended to be ballads (although "Rockin Robin" was the one exception) and the group hits tender to be dance numbers ("I'll Be There" being their exception). The album opened with Michael's solo number one hit from 1980 reissued when Off the Wall was already underway, "One Day in Your Life," and then continued with every single one of the U.K. hits singles for both group and solo, only missing the Jackson 5's minor Christmas hit from 1972, a version of "Santa Claus Is Coming to Town." They even found a place for the minor hits, "Mama's Pearl" and "Never Can Say Goodbye" (although these were both much bigger in the U.S.) and "Skywriter" which was the group's final hit for Motown before a gap of four years to their Epic days as the Jacksons. They also found space for "Happy," the love theme from Lady Sings the Blues and "We're Almost There" which failed to hit the Top 40, and "We've Got a Good Thing Going," which hadn't been a hit at all except as a soft reggae cover recently by Sugar Minott. The album started selling slowly, but as the TV advertising kicked in, it was thought of as an ideal companion to Thriller, which almost everybody seemed to buying and 18 Greatest Hits surged up the charts all the way to number one for three weeks at the end of August. At the time, Telstar released the album on vinyl and cassette only, CD being too new a format for a specialist company, although it did receive a belated release on CD, back on the Tamla Motown label itself several years later." (Sharon Mawer, AMG)

Michael Jackson, vocals
Jackie Jackson, vocals
Tito Jackson, vocals
Jermaine Jackson, vocals
Marlon Jackson, vocals

Digitally remastered

The Jackson 5
were one of the biggest phenomenons in pop music during the early '70s, and the last great group to come out of the Motown hitmaking machine before Marvin Gaye and Stevie Wonder shifted the label's focus to more individual visions. The Jackson 5's infectious brand of funky pop-soul was a definite departure from the typically smooth, elegant Motown sound, as befitting the group's youth and the dawn of a new decade. That youth, coupled with the merchandising juggernaut that sprang up behind them, inevitably got them tagged a bubblegum group. But they were far more talented musically than that label would suggest, especially lead singer Michael, and their material, while sunny and upbeat, didn't pander to its audience. Solo careers and overexposure gradually weakened the Jackson 5, but their best music still holds up surprisingly well as some of the most vibrant mainstream pop/R&B of its era.

Originally, the Jackson 5 were composed of brothers Jackie (born Sigmund Jackson, May 4, 1951), Tito (guitar, born Toriano Jackson, October 15, 1953), Jermaine (bass, lead vocals, born December 11, 1954), Marlon (born March 12, 1957), and Michael (lead vocals, born August 29, 1958). By all accounts, the Jackson family's upbringing in Gary, IN, was strict; their mother Katherine was a devout Jehovah's Witness, and their father Joe was a stern, temperamental disciplinarian. Allowed few outside interests, the boys gravitated to music, which was in their blood -- prior to his job as a crane operator for a steel company, Joe had played guitar in an R&B group called the Falcons (not the same group that launched Wilson Pickett's career). One night, Joe discovered that Jackie, Tito, and Jermaine had been playing his treasured old guitar without permission; though initially furious, he quickly discovered that his sons had genuine talent, and began to conceive of a family singing group that might eventually get them out of their tough working-class life in Gary. The eldest three sons began performing around the area together in 1962, teamed with two cousins (Johnny Jackson and Ronnie Rancifer), who were replaced by Marlon and five-year-old Michael. Supervised by Joe, who became their manager and began working only part-time, the group practiced and rehearsed often, and improved as dancers, singers, and instrumentalists at a rapid rate. In particular, Michael proved himself a dynamic performer, soon replacing Jermaine as the featured lead vocalist, and establishing himself as a nimble dancer able to mimic talents like James Brown. At first, the group was known as Ripples & Waves Plus Michael, then the Jackson Brothers, and finally the Jackson 5.

In 1966, the Jackson 5 won an important local talent competition with a Michael-led rendition of the Temptations' "My Girl." Their father, who had been chauffeuring them to out-of-state performances, also booked their first paid professional gigs that year. In 1967, the group won an amateur talent competition at Harlem's legendary Apollo Theater, where they earned an influential fan in Gladys Knight (probably the first person to recommend the group to Motown). At the end of the year, the Jackson 5 made their first studio recordings for the small Gary-based Steeltown label, and their single "Big Boy" became something of a local hit. Championed again to Motown by Bobby Taylor, a member of the Vancouvers who'd seen the group in Chicago, and Diana Ross, the Jackson 5 finally got a chance to audition for the label in the summer of 1968. Desperately needing new blood, an impressed Berry Gordy signed the group and flew them out to his new headquarters in Los Angeles, where he and his assistants groomed them to be the label's next breakout stars. Having lost his famed Holland-Dozier-Holland songwriting team, Gordy formed a new partnership with Freddie Perren, Fonce Mizell, and Deke Richards dubbed the Corporation, which set about crafting material for the group.

In August 1969, shortly before Michael turned 11, the Jackson 5 opened for Diana Ross at the L.A. Forum, and in December, they issued their debut album, Diana Ross Presents the Jackson 5. On October 7, 1969, the Jackson 5 released their first single, "I Want You Back," a Corporation composition that had originally been intended for Gladys Knight. It was an instant smash, hitting number one on both the pop and R&B charts. So did their next two singles, "ABC" and "The Love You Save" (both from their second album, ABC), which solidified the group's so-called bubblegum-soul sound and certified them as pop sensations. Third Album was released before year's end, spawning the hit ballad "I'll Be There," which not only proved that the group (and lead singer Michael) were more mature and versatile than their bright, bouncy initial singles let on, but also made them the first group in pop history to have their first four singles hit number one. It also became the best-selling single in Motown history, spending a stellar five weeks at number one. And it had still been less than a year since the group's national debut.

This album contains no booklet.