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ABC (The Jackson 5 song)

1970 single by American pop band The Jackson 5

Field	Value
name	ABC
image	ABC by Jackson Five UK single solid centre side-A.png
alt	side-A label
caption	Solid centre variant of the UK single
border	no
type	single
artist	the Jackson 5
album	ABC
B-side	The Young Folks
released	February 24, 1970 (U.S)
recorded	December 1969
genre
label	Motown
M 1163
writer	The Corporation (Berry Gordy, Freddie Perren, Alphonzo Mizell and Deke Richards)
producer	The Corporation
prev_title	I Want You Back
prev_year	1969
next_title	The Love You Save
next_year	1970
misc

| B-side = The Young Folks

3:11 (single version)
2:54 (album version)
2:57 (radio edit) M 1163

"ABC" is a song by American pop band the Jackson 5. It was released as a single in 1970. The song replaced the Beatles' "Let It Be" on the number-one spot of the Billboard Hot 100 chart in 1970, and was number one on the soul singles chart for four weeks. It is the title track to the group's second album and sold 2 million copies within the first week of its release in the US and more than 4 million copies worldwide.

Cash Box said: "Having whetted the world's appetite with 'I Want You Back' the Jackson 5 makes it back with another dynamite side cast in the image of its million seller. Searing vocals and the familiar drive of the Motown supporting cast assure another giant here." Billboard said: "This pulsating swinger has all the sales and chart potential of the initial entry '[I Want You Back']." Record World said the song proved that "the Jackson 5 are Motown's newest supergroup".

"ABC" was performed on television on American Bandstand (February 21, 1970), The Ed Sullivan Show (May 10, 1970), and The Flip Wilson Show (November 4, 1971), among many other broadcasts. The upbeat lyrics compare learning to love to learning the alphabet.

"ABC" was nominated for the Grammy Award for Best Pop Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocals in 1971. 50 Cent told NME that the song was the first he remembered hearing: "I've always loved MJ, so I guess it was probably a good place to start music: right here, with the ABCs." On November 7, 2016, the Grammy Hall of Fame announced the song's induction, along with that of another 24 songs.

"ABC" is featured as an interpolation in Sigala's 2015 debut single "Easy Love".

Personnel

Musicians on the song's session were uncredited, in line with Motown policy. Motown did not list session musician credits on their releases until 1971. The musicians who performed on "ABC" are believed to be as follows:

David T. Walker – guitar
Louis Shelton – guitar
Don Peake – guitar
Wilton Felder – bass guitar
Gene Pello – drums
Don Randi – piano
Freddie Perren – keyboards
Sandra Crouch – tambourine
Joe Clayton – bongos

Charts

Weekly charts

Chart (1970–71)	Peak
position	Belgian Singles Chart (Flanders)	Canada Top Singles (RPM)	UK Singles (OCC)	US Billboard Hot 100
24
3
8
1

Chart (2009)	Peak
position	Australian ARIA Singles Chart	Irish Singles Chart	UK Singles (OCC)
43
38
50

Year-end charts

Chart (1970)	Position	Canada (RPM)	US Billboard Hot 100
50
15

Certifications

References

(2018-10-04). "Michael Jackson: All the Songs: The Story Behind Every Track". Octopus.
"The Jackson 5 | Biography & History".
"ASCAP ACE - Search".
Proffitt, Nicholas C.. (1 June 1970). "Jackson boys, from 10 to 18 years, fashioning hit records". The Star-Phoenix.
(18 Jul 1971). "Toledo Blade". Toledo Blade.
(2006-10-21). "Jackson 5 Discography Singles - Issued by Motown Records as of 1995".
(March 7, 1970). "CashBox Record Reviews".
(March 7, 1970). "Spotlight Singles".
(March 7, 1970). "Single Picks of the Week".
Bronson, Fred. (2003). "The Billboard Book of Number One Hits". Billboard Books.
Haynes, Gavin. (October 1, 2015). "Soundtrack of my life".
Kreps, Daniel. (29 November 2016). "Nirvana, Bowie, R.E.M. Songs Among Grammy Hall of Fame's 2017 Inductees".
(2018). "Michael Jackson All The Songs". Cassell.
"ultratop.be - ULTRATOP BELGIAN CHARTS".
(July 17, 2013). "RPM 100".
"April 25, 1970". [[Billboard Hot 100]].
(July 17, 2013). "Item Display - RPM - Library and Archives Canada". collectionscanada.gc.ca.
"Top 100 Hits of 1970/Top 100 Songs of 1970".

Info: Wikipedia Source

This article was imported from Wikipedia and is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Content has been adapted to SurfDoc format. Original contributors can be found on the article history page.

1969-songs 1970-singles billboard-hot-100-number-one-singles bubblegum-pop-songs cashbox-number-one-singles grammy-hall-of-fame-award-recipients motown-singles songs-about-language songs-about-school songs-written-by-alphonzo-mizell songs-written-by-berry-gordy songs-written-by-deke-richards songs-written-by-freddie-perren the-jackson-5-songs

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