The Jacksons and Jackson 5: The Very Best Of

Reviewed by RUSSELL BAILLIE

(Herald rating * * *)

There is the feel of a going-out-of-business sale about the arrival of this double-disc delivering the pick of the songs by the funkiest boy band of all time. There are bills to pay and recording costs of more recent albums to recover.

And it's sad and exciting to hear the voice of the then 11-year-old youngest member of the band spring forth on their 1969 first hit I Want You Back - especially knowing just how the family business ran under the thumb of father Joe, and from those pressured years may have sprung Michael's present problems.

With an early sound a playground-friendly take on the Motown vocal groups twice their age and using the same backing musicians, the Jackson 5 helped to join the dots between the soul era through disco to the release of Michael's first mega-pop opus Off the Wall.

Hits such as ABC, The Love You Save, Dancing Machine, the ever-infectious likes of Blame It On the Boogie, and Can You Feel It were the sound of a million school socials going into high gear. While on Shake Your Body [Down to the Ground] Michael served notice of great solo things to come and trademarked a few vocal tics.

Meanwhile, on ballads such as I'll Be There, Never Can Say Goodbye, and Ain't No Sunshine it showed Michael might have been young but he was a soul singer, even if the showbiz sensibility and the chintzy 70s/ early 80s production eventually got the better of the group.

With 32 tracks collated here, it does leave the impression that the actual best bits could have fitted on a single CD. Though as the second one covers the split between the Jacksons and Michael's early solo singles, there wouldn't have been the odd pleasure of hearing the wacky duet with Mick Jagger, State of Shock.

Those early hits remain brilliantly precocious and remind that The Jackson 5 were more than a springboard for its most famous member. But it has moments such as Michael innocently chirping through Sugar Daddy that lace the nostalgia with a hindsight verging on the dubious.

Label: Sony