I Want You Back

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For other uses, see I Want You Back (disambiguation).

"I Want You Back"

Single by The Jackson 5
from the album Diana Ross Presents the Jackson 5
Released	October 7, 1969 (U.S.)
Format	Vinyl record (7" 45 RPM)
Recorded	Hitsville West, Los Angeles; September 1969
Genre	Bubblegum pop/Soul
Length	3:01
Label	Motown M 1157
Writer(s)	The Corporation™
Producer(s)	The Corporation™
Chart positions
#1 (U.S., U.S. R&B) #2 (UK)
The Jackson 5 singles chronology
"Big Boy" (1968)	"I Want You Back" (1969)	"ABC" (1970)

"I Want You Back" is a 1969 number-one single recorded by The Jackson 5 for the Motown label. It held the number-one position on the Billboard Hot 100 singles chart for one week, from January 23 to January 31, 1970, replacing "Raindrops Keep Fallin' On My Head" by B.J. Thomas, and replaced by "Venus" by The Shocking Blue.

The single was a notable first in many respects: it was the first Jackson 5 single to be released on Motown, the first of four Jackson 5 number-ones released in a row (the others are "ABC", "The Love You Save", and "I'll Be There"), and the first song written and produced by The Corporation™, a team compromised of Motown chief Berry Gordy, Freddie Perren, Alphonzo Mizell, and Deke Richards. "I Want You Back" was also the first Jackson 5 song recorded in Los Angeles, California; the quintet had previously been recording Bobby Taylor-produced covers, including "Who's Lovin' You", the b-side to "I Want You Back", at Hitsville U.S.A. in Detroit, Michigan.

Originally considered first for Gladys Knight & the Pips and later for Diana Ross, as "I Wanna Be Free", "I Want You Back" explores the familiar theme of a lover who decides that he was too hasty in dropping his partner. The unusual aspect about "I Want You Back" was that its main lead vocal was performed by an eleven-year-old preteen, Michael Jackson, who sings the song with the emotional weight of an adult.

The Jackson 5 performed "I Want You Back", along with Sly & the Family Stone's "Sing a Simple Song", The Delfonics' "Can You Remember", and James Brown's "There Was a Time", during their first television appearance on The Hollywood Palace as the special guests of Diana Ross & the Supremes. Although Gladys Knight and Bobby Taylor of the Vancouvers had been the ones to bring the Jackson brothers to Motown, the Motown publicity credited Ross with discovering them, not only to help promote the Jackson 5, but also to help ease Ross' transition into a solo career, which officially began in January 1970.

"I Want You Back", backed with a cover of Smokey Robinson & the Miracles' "Who's Lovin' You", was the only single from the first Jackson 5 album, Diana Ross Presents the Jackson 5. It is today considered one of the best songs ever released on Motown, and is one of the Jackson 5's signature songs. It was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 1999, and ranked number 120 on Rolling Stone's list of the 500 Greatest Songs of All Time. In 2006, Pitchfork Media named it the second best song of the 1960s.[1] It consistently features in best singles of all time lists, appreciated by both fans and music critics alike.

A "live" version by Graham Parker and The Rumour garnered mild success in 1979. The title of this version is sometimes shown as "I Want You Back (Alive)." Canadian female trio West End Girls covered the song as a single in 1991. Female singer-songwriter KT Tunstall often performs a cover version of the song live at her concerts. The song is one of the most sampled Motown songs, with notable uses by Kris Kross ("Jump", 1992), Tamia ("Imagination, 1998), Jay-Z ("Izzo (H.O.V.A.)", 2001), and Lil Romeo ("My Baby", 2001). The song was also interpolated by BLACKstreet and Mya featuring Ma$e and Blinky Blink for the remix of "Take Me There" from the Rugrats Movie soundtrack.

[edit] Credits

Lead vocals by Michael Jackson, Jermaine Jackson and Jackie Jackson
Background vocals by Michael Jackson, Jermaine Jackson, Tito Jackson, Jackie Jackson and Marlon Jackson
Written, produced and arranged by The Corporation™: Berry Gordy, Freddie Perren, Alphonzo Mizell and Deke Richards
Keyboards by Freddie Perren
Guitar by David T. Walker, Louis Shelton and Don Peake
Bass guitar by Wilton Felder
Drums by Gene Pello

Preceded by "Raindrops Keep Fallin' on My Head" by B.J. Thomas	Billboard Hot 100 number one single January 23, 1970	Succeeded by "Venus" by The Shocking Blue