Come and Get It

If anything can take this blog off hiatus, it's a brand new cd by the Jackson 5. Come and Get It has just been released by Hip-o-Select, and it includes 32 great tracks, including 19 I've never even heard before.  The actual release date for the cd is Sept 18, but you can buy the mp3 versions now off Amazon or iTunes (the more affordable option). I got it the day it was available on iTunes for a mere $15.99 and it's been in constant rotation on my iPod ever since. It's like taking a time machine back to 1971 and hearing a new J5 album for the first time.

There are some inspired cover versions -- and, hey, "Mama Told Me Not to Come" actually works, sort of, for a young teen group the way it was produced, as well as some great original songs. Most of the songs were recorded in the J5's early years at Motown (1970-71), but there are a few later ones recorded after Michael's voice had changed.

Along with Soulsation and I Want You Back: Unreleased Masters, this is the third major offering of previously unreleased songs, and it is by far the best. I think what makes it so good is that most of the songs showcase the Jackson 5's talent as a group, instead of focusing mostly on Michael's vocals, as the previous releases did. There are more than a few songs here with Jermaine leads, for example, and Jackie gets a chance to actually sing some, too, instead of just supplying a backing warble. Even Tito and Marlon get their turns at the microphone. One of my favorite songs is their cover of The Drifters' "Up on the Roof," where the entire group sings together, sounding very much like a youthful Fifth Dimension.

I'll be blogging more about this amazing record and the individual songs on it over the next few weeks. In the meantime, if you haven't ordered it yet, don't delay! And if you have and you're waiting for the cd to arrive in your mailbox, prepare to have your socks knocked off.

And, of course, releases like this always make me wonder, what else do they have in those vaults?

Just How Rare is ABC on Gold Vinyl?

This eBay auction makes an interesting claim about the gold vinyl ABC promo with the original printed sleeve:

ABC GOLD VINYL PROMO w/CUSTOM SLEEVE~Michael Jackson 5
ONLY 150 PRODUCED ~ ONLY 26 IN EXISTENCE WORLDWIDE!!!!!

Really?? In my life as J5 collector, I have purchased two of these with the original printed sleeve for reasonable prices ( under $50), and I see it come up for sale on eBay several times a year -- including the custom sleeve that makes this item rare in the first place. In fact, there are currently two for sale on eBay right now.

It's not nearly so rare as, say, Rappin' with the Jackson Five or the Canadian promo single for I Hear a Symphony, which only come up for auction once in a blue moon. Not to mention the extremely rare U.S. promo for the canceled single "Boogie" with a picture sleeve, or the Brazilian pressing of Jackie's only known Motown single, "Thanks to You." Both of these are so rare I've never even seen either of them for sale, and have only seen a photocopy of each one from other collectors. I could actually believe that there are only 26 of them in existence.

And that's another thing. How did this seller ever arrive at the number 26? Maybe it was based on a count of the number that have been on eBay in the past year.

Feelin' Alright

One of the rarest Jackson 5 45s is a promo-only live version of "Feelin Alright," as they performed it on Diana Ross's first solo television special Diana!, which aired on April 18, 1971. Miss Ross joined them at the end of the song, so it is billed as a duet, even though the Jackson 5 sing 3/4 of the song without her. Oh, and because it's Miss Ross's show, she gets top billing on the 45 itself.


The flip side features Diana singing a novelty song with Bill Cosby, and it's more of a true duet. But "Feelin' Alright" was a complete musical performance, a cover version of a Dave Mason song that the Jackson 5 performed live in concert from 1971 on.

The 45 also came with a picture sleeve that shows it was released to promote the soundtrack album.

In the spring of 1971, the Diana! soundtrack is as close as most fans ever got to a live Jackson 5 performance and many of us wore the threads down on all the J5 tracks here -- in addition to "Feelin' Alright," we got "I'll Be There," "Mama's Pearl/Walk On/The Love You Save." The medley was a bit longer on the soundtrack album than it was in the televised appearance where "Walk On" was considerably edited.

I was lucky enough to get a copy of the soundtrack years ago when it was reissued on cd, and it sounds as fresh today as it did back in the spring of '71 when I had it in heavy rotation on my turntable.

I Want You Back Acetate

To record collectors, acetates are like gold. They are never easy to come by, and J5 acetates seem to be especially scarce. They are prized by collectors because they sometimes offer unreleased songs, or unreleased versions of familiar songs.

I took a chance on an eBay find several years ago -- an acetate of "I Want You Back." I had read that the Jackson 5 had been used as singers on the demo versions as the members of the Corporation were working out the tune and lyrics, meaning that the song was recorded in multiple alternate versions. I had hoped that this would be one of them but alas! it was not. It's still a nice little piece of music history.

Don't get me wrong -- I think the finished version of "I Want You Back" is about as close as one can get to a perfect song. I don't particularly want a different version as a replacement of the original. I'd just like to hear how they got there.

Love' s Gone Bad / I Hear a Symphony

One of the rarest Jackson 5 45s from Motown is this 1986 promo-only release from Canada of "Love's Gone Bad" backed with "I Hear a Symphony." It was issued to promote Looking Back to Yesterday: Never Before Released Masters, an LP credited only to Michael even though half the songs were Jackson 5 songs. Interestingly, the 45 lists "Love's Gone Bad" as a solo song by Michael, and "I Hear a Symphony" as a Jackson 5 song, and on the LP the credits are reversed. In actuality, both were recorded by the Jackson 5.

The A-side was originally recorded in 1972, and appeared on the 1979 LP Boogie, and the B-side was recorded in 1970, and also appeared in 1986 on the Jackson 5's second Anthology album.