I Want You Back

"I Want You Back" is the first national single by the Jackson 5. It was released by Motown in October 1969, and became the first number-one hit for the band on January 31, 1970. It was performed on the band's first television appearances, on October 18, 1969, on The Hollywood Palace and on their milestone performance on December 14, 1969, on The Ed Sullivan Show. "I Want You Back" has sold over 6 million copies worldwide.
The song, along with a B-side remake of "Who's Lovin' You" by Smokey Robinson & the Miracles, was the only single to be released from the Jackson 5's first album, Diana Ross Presents The Jackson 5. It went to number one on the Soul singles chart for four weeks and held the number-one position on the Billboard Hot 100 singles chart for the week ending January 31, 1970.
"I Want You Back" was ranked 104 on Rolling Stone's 500 Greatest Songs of All Time.
Originally considered for Gladys Knight & the Pips and later for Diana Ross, as "I Wanna Be Free", "I Want You Back" explores the theme of a lover who decides that he was too hasty in dropping his partner. An unusual aspect about "I Want You Back" was that its main lead vocal was performed by a tween, a then-11-year-old Michael Jackson. The song is composed in A-flat major.
"I Want You Back" was released on October 6, 1969, and was the first Jackson 5 single to be released by Motown and the first song written and produced by The Corporation, a team comprising Motown chief Berry Gordy, Freddie Perren, Alphonso Mizell, and Deke Richards. Upon the single release, Record World said "The Jackson 5 are Motown's new soul kings who will quickly charm Top 40 and R&B lovers."
It is the first of four Jackson 5 number-ones released in a row (the others being "ABC" – 1970, "The Love You Save" – 1970, and "I'll Be There" – 1970) and the first Jackson 5 song recorded in Los Angeles, California; the quintet had previously been recording Bobby Taylor-produced remakes of other artists' hits, including "Who's Lovin' You", the B-side to "I Want You Back", at Hitsville U.S.A. in Detroit, Michigan. From late 1969 and on, nearly all of the Jackson 5's recordings were done in Los Angeles when the majority of recordings for other artists on the label were done in Detroit.
Although Gladys Knight had been the first to mention the Jacksons to Berry Gordy, and Bobby Taylor brought the Jackson brothers to Motown, Motown credited Diana Ross with discovering them. This was done not only to help promote the Jackson 5, but also to help ease Ross' transition into a solo career, which she began in 1970 soon after the Jackson 5 became a success.
The song was remixed by Dimitri from Paris and Kenny Hayes for the 2009 release The Remix Suite.
The Jackson 5 performed "I Want You Back" during all of their world tours, either as a full song or as a part of the Jackson 5 Medley in concerts (which also included "ABC" and "Mama's Pearl", later on switched with "The Love You Save" in 1973). During their second-ever television appearance (in an episode of The Hollywood Palace hosted by Diana Ross & the Supremes), the Jackson 5 performed "I Want You Back" along with Sly & the Family Stone's "Sing a Simple Song", The Delfonics' "Can You Remember", and James Brown's "There Was a Time". They also performed the song on American Bandstand and The Andy Williams Show.
Michael Jackson performed the song as part of the "Jackson 5 Medley" (which also included the songs "The Love You Save" and "I'll Be There") during all of his world tours: Bad, the Dangerous World Tour and the HIStory World Tour. The song was performed live at the Michael Jackson: 30th Anniversary Special in 2001, in which Jackson reunited with his brothers on stage for the first time since 1984. The song was to be performed at Jackson's This Is It comeback concerts in London, which were cancelled due to his death.
The song has sold six million copies worldwide. In 1999, "I Want You Back" was also inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame.
"I Want You Back" ranks number 104 on Rolling Stone's list of the '500 Greatest Songs of All Time'. It also ranks ninth on Rolling Stone's list of the '100 Greatest Pop Songs since 1963'. In 2020, it was ranked number 2 on Rolling Stone's list of 'The 100 Greatest Debut Singles of All Time'.
In 1995, two Rappin' 4-Tay songs—"Problems" and "A Message for Your Mind"—were featured on the Dangerous Minds soundtrack. "A Message For Your Mind" sampled "I Want You Back" by The Jackson 5.
In 2006, Pitchfork named it the second best song of the 1960s, adding that the chorus contains "possibly the best chord progression in pop music history". A June 2009 article by The Daily Telegraph called it "arguably the greatest pop record of all time". Digital Spy called the song "one of the most enduring pop singles of the sixties".
The single has been awarded 3× Platinum certification in 2021, by the British Phonographic Industry Association.
"I Want You Back" has long been considered one of the most sampled songs in all of hip hop music. The song has been sampled over 90 times since its release by artists including Jay-Z and The Notorious B.I.G.
Credits are adapted from Michael Jackson All The Songs and AllMusic.
English girl group Cleopatra recorded a cover version of "I Want You Back" for their 1998 debut studio album, Comin' Atcha!. It was released as the album's third single on August 10, 1998, and received mixed reviews from music critics. "I Want You Back" became the group's third and final top-five hit on the UK Singles Chart, peaking at number four and staying on the chart for 11 weeks, making it their longest-charting single along with "Cleopatra's Theme". It also charted in several other countries, reaching the top 20 in France and New Zealand.
British trade paper Music Week reviewed the song before its release, calling it "close-to-the-original" and giving it a "side-thumb" rating. British columnist James Masterton wrote that this cover version has "no merit whatsoever" but ultimately called the track "forgivable" due to Cleopatra's talents and worldwide popularity, referring to the single as "nothing short of a superb but faithful rendition of an all time classic song by a group with the voices to carry it off perfectly".
UK CD1
UK CD2
UK 12-inch single
UK cassette single and European CD single
Australian and Japanese CD single
Credits are taken from the UK CD1 liner notes.
Studios
Personnel
A cover of "I Want You Back" by South Korean girl group Twice was released by Warner Music Japan on June 15, 2018, as a digital single. The song was used as the theme song to the 2018 live-action film adaptation for Sensei Kunshu. A second version of the music video featuring the cast of the film dancing with Twice was released on June 26, 2018.