One day in 1965, a model called Evelyn Leahy was organising a children's fashion show in Illinois' Forest Glen Park. She needed a band and recalled a group she had recently seen play at a shopping mall in Gary, Indiana. She phoned their mother, Katherine, a friend, and enlisted them to perform. Problem was, they didn't yet have a name to put on the flyers. Katherine came up with one: The Jackson Brothers Five. Too long, responded Leahy. Her suggestion? Simply, The Jackson Five.
Over the coming decade, with the help of their fearsome father, Joe, The Jackson 5, as they rebranded themselves – Jackie, Tito, Jermaine, Marlon and Michael – would release a string of hits including "ABC", "The Love You Save" and "I'll Be There" through Motown Records. Jackie was the eldest, but they had the good sense to put Michael, who was just five when he joined, up front on lead vocals. He was not only a talented singer, but also a precocious technician. It was Michael who could dance like James Brown, Michael who could learn a reworked melody on the spot. "Michael was young but he was professional," recalls Clifton Davis, who wrote "Never Can Say Goodbye". "His ear and pitch were amazing. He could take things and make them his own."
Inevitably, Michael struck out solo, one of the first artists from a Motown group to do so. His first independent track, "Got To Be There", came out in 1971, but it wasn't until the 1979 album Off The Wall that he really hit his stride. His fame from that point so eclipsed that of the band, which had transferred to Epic Records and changed their name to The Jacksons, that it's easy to forget they continued recording music. But record they did, including hits such as "Can You Feel It" from their 1980 album, Triumph. In 1984, after the release of Victory, the brothers would go on tour with Michael for one last time. Now, on the 50th anniversary of the band's debut single, "Big Boy", The Jacksons are releasing their first official book, The Jacksons: Legacy. Featuring new interviews and unseen photographs, it tells the story of pop's royal family in their own words...
Jackie on starting the band
"Tito, Jermaine and I started the group. We were just fooling around on guitar and bass and then one day Michael joined us, playing bongos on a Quaker oatmeal box. He played them so well, we thought he should be part of the group. As soon as we did that, he started dancing up in front, doing his James Brown thing. Michael always watched James Brown on television, and Jackie Wilson, too – also The Temptations and then The Four Tops. He would copy what they were doing. That's when we realised how much showmanship he had, and we thought maybe he should be singing lead."
Gladys Knight on seeing an early Jacksons show in 1967
"I was sitting in my dressing room on the second floor [of the Regal Theater in Chicago] when I heard these little voices. I could look out from the banister to the stage, so I got up from my make-up chair and saw these little kids. I couldn't see that well because the curtains were in the way, but I could see how they moved. I thought to myself, 'Oh, my god. Who is that?' As young as I was, I knew talent when I saw it. Even with their little children voices I heard their potential and knew what these guys could achieve. I went back to my dressing room and when The Pips came upstairs I asked, 'Who was that singing a few minutes ago?' They told me it was 'Joe's boys'."
Jackie and Marlon on growing up in Gary, Indiana
Jackie: "Gary wasn't the safest place to live. There were gangs and Dad had six boys. He wanted to make sure we didn't get into drugs, so he kept us busy."
Marlon: "He would have us move bricks from one side of the back yard to the other. We'd stack them up on one side of the yard and two days later he'd have us move them back. They weren't little bricks, and there were a lot of them."
Jackie on playing at Diana Ross' birthday party after signing to Motown
"We were kids from Gary, Indiana, who had never been in a big mansion. I noticed Smokey Robinson and Stevie Wonder. We had to sing their songs in front of them. My brothers were running around, having fun. They forgot that we had a show to do and that it was make it or break it for us."
Marlon on the band's leaving Motown for Epic Records in 1976
"I was too young to realise it was a big deal to leave Motown. We came to Motown with the name Jackson 5 and I thought we should walk away with it. But they kept it and that's why we changed it to The Jacksons. Emotionally, it was tough to leave. I really appreciated Motown. Berry [Gordy, the founder] gave us our start."
Jackie on writing 1980's 'Can You Feel It'
"I had been dating Kathy Avanzino [later Kathy Hilton, mother of Paris]. I was leaving her house on Mulholland Drive and the idea for the song came into my mind. I kept singing the melody, with the drums and music and everything. I had a Dictaphone in the car and put everything on that. I got to the house in Encino and went right to the piano."
Tito on watching Michael moonwalking during 'Billie Jean'
"Michael doing the moonwalk was a surprise to everyone. Michael was hot at that time, so everybody was gathered backstage around the monitors. We had seen the moonwalk many times, because we'd been around Michael his whole life. We were all able to do the moonwalk, too, but we never presented it or thought about putting it in the show like that. He used it brilliantly and it became a signature move for him."
Jackie on Michael
"There's never a day that goes by that I don't think about my brother, because he's all around us. The other day, when I was driving down the Strip, I was at a stoplight on Las Vegas Boulevard and I turned to the right and there was this big poster of him looking at me. I said, 'Hey, Mike, what's going on?' Things like that happen all the time. When I walk in a restaurant or a store, all of a sudden one of his songs will play, so he's around us 24/7 and we miss him dearly. He is always with us in spirit and it will always be that way. We just have to carry on his message, what he was about."
Jackie on collaborating with Mick Jagger for Victory's 'State Of Shock'
"We weren't in the studio at the time when they did that, just Michael. But the finished product sounded incredible and it captured Mick really well. Michael told me that when he was in the studio Mick was worried that he wasn't going to deliver like Michael wanted him to. Michael had to reassure him, 'No, man, you're doing a great job. Keep doing what you're doing.' Because Mick wanted to impress all of us."
Tito on the tour that never happened
"Although Michael was doing The O2 Arena [scheduled to run from July 2009 to March 2010], we had already been discussing the possibility of going out again with him. So that was the plan, for us to join him later at The O2 Arena, maybe do five songs with him, and then go on tour from there. But as we know, that never came to light."
**The Jacksons: Legacy by The Jacksons and Fred Bronson (Thames & Hudson, £25) is out now. **Follow us on Vero for exclusive music content and commentary, all the latest music lifestyle news and insider access into the GQ world, from behind-the-scenes insight to recommendations from our editors and high-profile talent.
