I Want You Back Live on American Bandstand

There are many things I like about the J5's first appearance on American Bandstand but I especially love the performance of "I Want You Back."  Their dance moves look well-practiced and close to perfect but the song was still relatively new, and they hadn't yet toured so they hadn't already performed it hundreds of times. A year later, they'd be rushing through the first verse and the chorus as part of a medley they would go on to perform in every concert -- and Michael would continue to perform the snippet in concert for the rest of his career. Complete live versions of "I Want You Back" are rare.

Here Michael sings the lead vocals live over his brothers' prerecorded vocals and instrumentation.  He can barely stand still enough in front of the microphone to get all the words out -- he so obviously wants to break into dancing (and those of us watching him would like him to, too).  He makes two rare mistakes. The first occurs at the :50 mark -- he sings "Those pretty faces always treat you" instead of  "Those pretty faces always made you."  No big deal, really, and a few seconds later he even appears to be laughing at himself.

The second mistake is more obvious and it occurs at the end of the song. It looks like Michael forgot that they had prerecorded an extended ending, and that he thought the song would end like it did when they first performed it a few months earlier on The Ed Sullivan Show. At 2:55, he looks momentarily startled that the music didn't end on his "I want you back!" but then he picks up and just keeps singing, giving us the most soulful conclusion ever to the song.