jackson 5 - STEELTOWN

Description

In 1968, Joe Jackson approached Gordon Keith, the owner of a local company Steeltown Records, to invite him to watch the Jackson Five (and Johnny) perform. Sceptical, Keith was reluctant to waste his time on a bunch of kids, but nevertheless he agreed to sit in on one of their sessions. He kept his word and, knocked out by what he saw he saw and heard, he immediately offered Jospeh's boys their first recording contract. A six months contract was signed in November 1967, following which the Jackson Five and Johnny stepped into a recording studio for the first time. Over a period of months, a dozen or more songs were recorded, a mix of originals and cover versions. Steeltown released four of the songs on two singles. "Big Boy" was released in January 1968 on single (Steeltown 681). The demo was recording circa November 1967. The single was initially hand-sold by Michael and his brothers, at the many gigs they played, and was picked up for national ditribution by Atco, a subsidiary of Atlantic Records, who pressed about 10 000 copies. Sold well locally, it failed to register on any of Billboard's charts. "Big Boy" was re-issued as a limited edition CD single in the USA, on the Inverted record label, in June 1995.An ex-engineer, who engineered on all the sessions, has confirmed the Jackson 5 recorded eight songs for Steel-Town, only six of which have been released, including: