B-Side Bangers: The Jackson 5 (The Jacksons)
How can we even begin to explain the greatness of The Jackson 5 — also just The Jacksons, as they’ve professionally been known as since 1976 — that isn’t already universally understood amongst our culture?
These six Black blood brothers from Gary, Indiana set forth on a journey in the 1960s to be stars of the burgeoning music scene being shaped at the time by icons like James Brown, Marvin Gaye, The Temptations, Aretha Franklin and The Supremes, just to name a few. What resulted was not only them joining their idols on the charts but also reshaping the standard altogether. Accolades like four consecutive number ones out the gate, 17 singles to reach Top 40 in a five-year span and 150 million records sold worldwide don’t even scratch the surface of their overall influence on pop music.
This month, the world will once again get a chance to see how their story of success came to be through the lens of the group’s lead singer-turned-King Of Pop, the late Michael Jackson, in his latest biographical film, Michael.
The movie’s recent world premiere in Berlin, Germany reunited Marlon, Jackie and Jermaine as they stood strong on the red carpet for fallen brothers Michael and Tito, also joined by MJ’s sons Bigi and Prince, Jermaine’s youngest Jermajesty and Randy Jr. — we won’t get into why Randy isn’t in attendance.
RELATED: B-Side Bangers – Michael Jackson
The Jackson 5 prototype was one that proved to be a winning formula from jump. At their start, all five original members represented a different age group that catered to the ever-growing demographic of swooning teenage girls and young women keeping Motown afloat. Michael’s serenading voice of course helped steer the records to the top of the charts, but Jackie, Marlon, Tito and Jermaine were all stars in their own right as well. Randy followed suit in the later years and fit in to his own fanfare.
Even as they began to go solo throughout the 1970s and 1980s, with “Jacksonmania” quickly converting to “Michaelmania,” The Jacksons undoubtedly shaped a lane that would make way for later chart-topping boy bands like New Edition, Boyz II Men and even *NSYNC to shine.
We don’t need to start listing the “A, B, C’s” of it all to make our point clear, do we?
Keep scrolling for another Michael Mondays edition of “B-Side Bangers,” this time with deep cuts from MJ’s start with The Jackson 5, later simply known as The Jacksons. Be sure to see how it all began on the big screen when Michael hits theaters on April 24:
1. “You’ve Changed” (1969)
Album: Diana Ross Presents The Jackson 5
