The Jackson 5

Released: August 26, 1972

Songwriter: The Jackson 5

Producer: The Jackson 5

[Spoken Intro: Michael Jackson, Jackie Jackson, Jermaine Jackson, (Marlon Jackson)]
Tonight
Yeah
Say, why don't you tell our friends out there what you told me when heard that we were going back home
Go 'head, Mike
(Tell 'em about it, Mike)
Well, what did I tell 'em?
You know what you told the four of us backstage, man
You mean that?
Yeah, tell 'em about it
You want me to tell all of them about that?
(Yeah, Mike, tell 'em)
Yeah, Mike
Nah...
Come on, tell 'em about it, Mike
Nah...
Say, don't you wanna hear about it? Do you really wanna hear about it?
Nah
(Hold it, hold it, hold it, hold it, do you know what? Do you know what? Backstage, Michael told the four of us he was gonna tell you about it. Now when he comes up here, he's scared, chickened out, right, fellas? But you know what I'm gonna do? Do you know what I'm gonna do? I'm gonna tell you about it. A few months ago, we went back to our hometown to do a concert. So the fellas and I decided that we'll make that concert into a television special. The name of the television is called "The Jackson 5 Going Back to Chicago")
Chicago?
Chicago?
What you say, man?
Wait a minute, man, where you comin' from with this Chicago stuff? Don't you know where we was born, man? Gary, Indiana. Get your lines together
(Well, anyway, Michael said he wanted to do a song off the album. What did you say, Mike?)
I said...

The Jackson 5 were originally formed in 1963 under the name, The Jackson Brothers. The founding members were Jackie, Tito, Jermaine, and Marlon. Michael would join the group as the lead singer a year later, a move which pushed Jermaine to sing the backing vocals and play the lead guitar.

After participating in a series of talent shows, they entered the professional music scene in 1967, signing with Steeltown Records and releasing ten singles. In 1969, they left Steeltown Records in order to sign with Motown.

In 1975, most of the Jacksons had opted out of recording any more music for Motown, expressing desires to have creative control over their songs, as well as royalties. Learning that they were earning only 2.8% of royalties from Motown, Joe Jackson, the father and manager of the group, began to negotiate a lucrative contract with Epic records, which offered a royalty rate of 20% per record. The deal was completed in June 1975. As Motown owned the name The Jackson 5, the group simply renamed themselves The Jacksons.

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