Rolling Stone's 100 Best Singles of the Past Twenty Years: #5, "I Want You Back" by the Jackson 5

Eventually, "I Want You Back" was finished and ready to record. "The only thing I was concerned about was the keys," says Perren. "I knew that this thing went up to a high E-flat and thought, 'Wow, this guy really needs to sing high to get this.' I worried about that much more than anything else.

"Michael didn't say much at all. He wasn't as outgoing or playful as the other guys; he would just stand there. We were singing the song, and all the time we were showing it to him, I was thinking, 'Can he reach those notes?' Finally we took a try at it — and he just reached it the first time with no effort at all."

Even so, a vocal track that met Gordy's standards required much more work. At one point, Perren, Mizell and Richards presented what they thought was a perfect take, only to have Gordy say, as Perren tells it, "Oh, man, you guys are getting ready to blow a hit. Get the fellas back and go do some more rehearsing."

Gordy was eventually satisfied, although he had one other matter on his mind: how the creators of "I Want You Back" would be credited on the record. It turned out to be as the Corporation, just as Gordy, Richards and three other writers were tagged the Clan on "Love Child," a 1968 Supremes hit. "I think that was because Holland-Dozier-Holland were in litigation with Motown," Perren says. In Perren's view, Gordy didn't want to encourage any more back-room superstars.

Not so the stage-front-and-center variety. "Please join me in welcoming a brilliant musical group, the Jackson 5, on Monday, August 11th, 6:30 to 9:30 p.m. at The Daisy, 326 North Rodeo Drive, Beverly Hills," read a gushing 1969 Western Union telegram signed by Diana Ross. "The Jackson 5 featuring sensational eight-year-old lead singer Michael Jackson will perform live at the party. Please come and listen to this fabulous new Motown group."

Two months later, "I Want You Back" was released. By January, the Jackson 5 were at the top of the charts with the first of four consecutive Number One hits and seven Top Ten hits, all within two years. As it had done so many times in the past, Berry Gordy's drive for recorded perfection paid dividends in full.

"I'll never forget his persistence," Michael Jackson writes about Gordy in his book Moonwalk. "That was his genius. Then and later, I observed every moment of the sessions where Berry was present and never forgot what I learned."