The Ultimate Collection
Motown - Motown
The Jackson 5
Release date: 1996-01-23
Audio CD
AM Pop, Bubblegum, Motown, Philly Soul, Pop, Pop-Soul, R&B, Rock, Soul, Soul/R & B, Soul/R&B, Soul/Reggae/Rhythm & Blues, Teen Idol, Urban
1. I Want You Back - The Jackson 5, Gordy, Berry Jr.
2. ABC - The Jackson 5, Gordy, Berry Jr.
3. The Love You Save - The Jackson 5, Corporation [1]
4. I'll Be There - The Jackson 5, Davis, Hal
5. It's Your Thing - The Jackson 5, Isley, OKelly
6. Who's Lovin' You - The Jackson 5, Robinson, Smokey
7. Mama's Pearl - The Jackson 5, Gordy, Berry Jr.
8. Never Can Say Goodbye - The Jackson 5, Davis, Clifton
9. Maybe Tomorrow - The Jackson 5, Gordy, Berry Jr.
10. Got to Be There - The Jackson 5, Willensky, Elliot
11. Sugar Daddy - The Jackson 5, Gordy, Berry Jr.
12. Rockin' Robin - The Jackson 5, Thomas, Jimmy [1]
13. Daddy's Home - The Jackson 5, Miller, William
14. Lookin' Through the Windows - The Jackson 5, Davis, Clifton
15. I Wanna Be Where You Are - The Jackson 5, Ross, T-Boy
16. Get It Together - The Jackson 5, Davis, Hal
17. Dancing Machine - The Jackson 5, Davis, Hal
18. The Life of the Party - The Jackson 5, Davis, Hal
19. I Am Love, Pts. 1 & 2 - The Jackson 5, Fenceton, Don
20. Just a Little Bit of You - The Jackson 5, Holland, Brian
21. It's Your Thing - The Jackson 5, Isley, OKelly
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The Ultimate Collection
Date undefinedThere are some good songs on here, but not enough of them to make it worthwhile. I was just a kid when many of these songs were released, and at the time this was ground-breaking. I didn't remember Michael Jackson's voice being so high-pitched (gets grating after awhile), or so many of the songs sounding alike. My 4YO really likes it, though, and requests "her song" (ABC).
The Ultimate Collection
Date undefinedA search in Music under the heading Ultimate Collection will garner you over 2,000 hits, ranging from Benny Hill and George Formby to 10cc and The Who, and just about everyone in between. Even Motown uses Ultimate Collection on a number of their CDs, but the best of the lot where they are concerned is the series with similar cover art by David Irvin and involving Diana Ross & The Supremes, The Four Tops, Smokey Robinson & The Miracles, The Marvelettes, Martha (Reeves) & The Vandellas, Jr. Walker & The All Stars, Gladys Knight & The Pips, and Mary Wells. Each has a comprehensive series of background notes and discographies of the contents and usually 25 tracks.
This one, also from Motown, is not part of that series, but it's still a pretty decent compilation of the 20 Motown hits registered by The Jackson 5 from late 1969 to 1975, with 3 pages of informative notes written by David Ritz, author of Divided Soul: The Life Of Marvin Gaye (among other works), several more nice shots of the boys, and a discography of the contents. The sound quality is excellent.
If there's a fault to be found, it's the inclusion of four solo hits by Michael (tracks 10, 12, 15 and 20) and one by Jermaine (track 13) - all hits to be sure, but their inclusion came at the expense of these legitimate Jackson 5 charters: I Found That Girl, the B-side to the 1970 # 1 Billboard Pop Hot 100/R&B The Love You Save, and considered a "follow-along" hit on both charts; Little Bitty Pretty One, a # 8 R&B and # 13 Hot 100 in May 1972; Corner Of The Sky, a # 9 R&B/# 19 Hot 100 in late 1972 from the Broadway musical Pippin; Hallelujah Day, a # 10 R&B/# 28 Hot 100 in April 1973; Whatever You Got, I Want, a # 3 R&B/# 38 Hot 100 in late 1974; and their final hits at Motown, the two-sided Forever Came Today (# 6 R&B/# 60 Hot 100 in July 1975 and its flip-side, All I Do Is Think Of You, a # 50 R&B on its own.
You do get their very first hit for Motown, after coming over from Steeltown Records (no hits there), the two-sided I Want You Back (# 1 R&B for 4 weeks/# 1 Hot 100 for a week in late 1969/early 1970) and its B-side, Who's Loving You?, an R&B "follow-along" hit. Four of their next five were also R&B # 1 hits, starting with ABC, which also spent 4 weeks at the top of the R&B charts and two on the Hot 100 in spring 1970, then followed that summer by the above-mentioned The Love You Save, and in the early fall by I'll Be There (6 weeks at # 1 Hot 100 and 6 R&B, as well as # 24 on the Adult Contemporary charts. In early 1971, Mama's Pearl reached # 2 on both the Hot 100 and R&B charts, and a couple of months later they hit # 1 R&B again with Never Can Say Goodbye (as well as # 2 Hot 100).
In late summer 1971, Maybe Tomorrow peaked at # 3 R&B/# 20 Hot 100, and they then closed out a very successful year with Sugar Daddy, which rosew to # 3 R&B/# 10 Hot 100 early in 1972. Summer of that year saw Lookin' Through The Windows top out at # 5 R&B/# 16 Hot 100, and in late summer 1973, Get It Together made it to # 2 R&B/# 28 Hot 100. Dancing Machine then became their last # 1 R&B in spring 1974, and also # 2 Hot 100, and in February 1975, I Am Love (Parts I & II) finished at # 5 R&B/# 15 Hot 100.
The following year they moved to Columbia's Epic subsidiary where, from 1976 to 1989, billed as The Jacksons (and with personnel changes), they would add another 15 hit singles. Another, 1987's Time Out For The Burglar from the film Burglar (# 88 R&B in February), was released on MCA, while in 1992, a different version of Who's Loving You, recorded on May 29, 1971 in Gary, Indiana, was a # 48 R&B hit on Motown, again billed as The Jackson 5.
A very nice compilation, which includes two album cuts (tracks 5 and 18) and, at track 21, It's Your Thing (The J5 in `95 extended remix). A 5-star edition with those missing J5 hits.
The Ultimate Collection
Date undefined
Here's how to make this a perfect J5 collection. Replace "It's Your Thing ('95 Extended Remix)" with "Ben" (how could they forget to include Michael's first number one single?) and "Goin' Back To Indiana".
Other than those two oversights, this collection is top notch. Awesome sound quality, great packaging.
