Diana Ross Didn't Discover Them

THE FACT

Motown's PR machine credited Diana Ross with discovering the Jackson 5. She didn't. The real discoverer was Bobby Taylor of Bobby Taylor & the Vancouvers, who saw them open for him at Chicago's Regal Theater in July 1968 and personally drove them to Detroit to audition for Berry Gordy.

WHAT MOST DON'T KNOW

Taylor — himself a Motown artist — was so blown away that he made the boys a tape that same night, sent it to Gordy, then flew to Detroit with them in a station wagon a few weeks later. Their famous audition tape at Motown's Hitsville USA studio still exists; on it nine-year-old Michael covers James Brown's I Got The Feelin' so completely that Gordy reportedly turned to his staff and said: 'I have just signed the next biggest thing in the history of this company.' The Diana Ross myth was invented by Motown publicist Junior Walker to give the act a more glamorous origin story for the launch press kit in late 1969 — it was even built into the lyrics of their first single's intro. Bobby Taylor was never publicly credited in his lifetime. Michael acknowledged the truth in his 1988 autobiography Moonwalk.

▶

THE MOMENT

Jackson 5 — Motown Audition Tape (1968) — Nine-year-old Michael covering James Brown at the Hitsville USA audition.