- Included among the Record Descriptions of Favorite Albums (Part 1).
- The Jackson 5, featuring 10- or 11-year-old lead singer Michael Jackson, were an instant hit in R&B and in the rock world as well.
The Jackson 5 – Diana Ross Presents the Jackson 5 (1969): The Jackson 5, featuring 10- or 11-year-old lead singer Michael Jackson, were an instant hit in R&B and in the rock world as well. Michael Jackson started his unsurpassed solo career just two years later, with Jermaine Jackson also attempting to do the same (he was the original lead singer of the group), thus diluting the power of the Jackson 5 name, as well as that of their later incarnation as the Jacksons. Besides a string of hit singles, Jackson 5 albums were pumped out at a fast clip: Diana Ross Presents the Jackson 5 was released in December 1969, with three other albums following in 1970, including a Christmas disc. The careful wording in the title, “Diana Ross Presents” suggests that Diana Ross did not “discover” the Jackson 5, though she was involved in getting the group signed to Motown Records.
Turns out, Michael Jackson was practicing with his brothers beginning at age 5 (!); and the Jackson 5 won a local talent contest in 1966, plus another at the renowned Apollo Theatre in Harlem the following year. In August 1969, the Jackson 5 opened for Diana Ross at her concert at The Forum in L.A. Putting Diana Ross’s name on the cover was likely part of the hype surrounding the arrival of the Jackson 5, but things were different in the 1960’s. Music promotion was largely limited to AM radio in those days, except for displays in record stores, TV programs like American Bandstand and Soul Train, and also variety shows; but with the latter, there might be more than a half dozen acts on a program on any given night. This is the British release of Diana Ross Presents the Jackson 5, where the record label is shown as Tamla Motown Records. By the way, Motown’s earliest label Tamla Records (founded in 1959) is named after the Debbie Reynolds song “Tammy” (1957), and the label was almost called Tammy Records – needless to say, “Tammy” is not at all an R&B song.