SlNGER, DANCER, SONGWRITER

The Jackson Five.

From birth, Michael Jackson and his five brothers and three sisters were surrounded by music. In the Jackson home in Gary, Indiana, their mother taught them folk songs and their father played the guitar. When the five oldest boys—Jackie, Tito, Jermaine, Marlon, and Michael—displayed a talent for singing, their father, Joe Jackson, encouraged them to form a group and turn professional. A series of local talent contests and their first professional gig, at a Gary nightclub in 1964, made it clear that five-year-old Michael was destined to be the group's leader. By the time he was seven, Michael Jackson was already doing the choreography for the quintet. The group began traveling, doing shows at venues such as the Apollo Theater in New York and the Regal Club in Chicago, where The Jackson Five opened for Motown acts such as The Temptations and The Miracles. Gladys Knight saw...