Michael jackson I'll be there

"I'll Be There" is a soul song written by Berry Gordy, Bob West, Hal Davis, and Willie Hutch, which resulted in two U.S. number 1 hit singles: the original 1970 recording by American vocal quintet The Jackson 5 and a 1992 live version by American R&B singer Mariah Carey and American R&B singer Trey Lorenz.

The Jackson 5 original was recorded for Motown Records, and released as the first single from their Third Album in 1970. Produced by the songwriters, "I'll Be There" was The Jackson 5's fourth number 1 hit in a row, following "I Want You Back," "ABC," and "The Love You Save." "I'll Be There" is also notable as the most successful single released by Motown during its "Detroit era" (1959-1972). It is also the fourth in the group's string of four consecutive number one pop hits, making them the first black male group to achieve this.

The Mariah Carey/Trey Lorenz cover was recorded during Carey's appearance on MTV Unplugged in 1992, and released as the first single from her EP MTV Unplugged in the second quarter of 1992. Co-produced by Carey and Walter Afanasieff, "I'll Be There" became Carey's sixth number 1 single in the U.S., and her biggest hit elsewhere at the time.

The Jackson 5 version

[edit] About the record

After three upbeat "bubblegum soul" number 1 singles from the Jackson 5 ("I Want You Back," "ABC," and "The Love You Save"), Motown head Berry Gordy decided to take a risk and craft a ballad for the group. For this song, he brought in writer/producers Hal Davis, Willie Hutch, and Bob West, as opposed to working with the rest of The Corporation, who had crafted the first three hits.

The resulting song was a gentle ballad, in which the narrator asks his ex-lover to give their love another chance. He promises that, this time, he'll always be there "to comfort you," and that even if she "should ever find someone new," he'll still be there for her if her new love treats her wrong. Jackson 5 lead singers Michael Jackson and his older brother Jermaine share the lead vocals on this song. Michael's ad-libbed "just look over your shoulders, honey" is an allusion to "Reach Out I'll Be There," a 1966 number 1 hit single recorded by Four Tops. He was instructed by Gordy to say "just look over your shoulder" (exactly as Levi Stubbs had said it in "Reach Out I'll Be There"), but the slightly flubbed line was allowed to remain in the final mix. (It can be seen in the original game "Wii Music")

[edit] Release and reaction

In his Moon Walk autobiography, Michael Jackson noted that "I'll Be There" was the song that solidified The Jackson 5's careers and showed audiences that the group had potential beyond bubblegum pop. Allmusic commented that "rarely, if ever, had one so young sung with so much authority and grace, investing this achingly tender ballad with wisdom and understanding far beyond his years".^[1]

The most successful single ever released by the Jackson 5, "I'll Be There" sold 4.2 million copies in the United States, and 6.1 million copies worldwide. It replaced Marvin Gaye's "I Heard It Through the Grapevine" as the most successful single released on Motown in the U.S., a record it held until the release of Lionel Richie's duet with Diana Ross, "Endless Love" (1981). Outside the U.S., "I Heard It Through the Grapevine" remained Motown's biggest selling record with worldwide sales of over 7 million copies.

The song held the number 1 position on the Billboard Pop Singles Chart for five weeks from October 17 to November 14, replacing "Cracklin' Rosie" by Neil Diamond, and replaced by "I Think I Love You" by The Partridge Family. "I'll Be There" was also a number 1 hit on the Billboard Black Singles Chart for six weeks,^[2] and a number 4 hit in the United Kingdom. The single's B-side was "One More Chance."

"I'll Be There" was the Jackson 5's final number 1 Hot 100 hit as a group. For the rest of their career as a major-label act, Jackson 5 singles would get no higher than number-two. Michael Jackson scored several number 1 hits as a solo artist, beginning with "Ben" in 1972. He performed "I'll Be There" on all his world tours. In the live versions from his 1981 Triumph Tour to his 1987 solo Bad World Tour, Jackson would seemingly break down in tears, struggling with the words until feeling a jolt as he harmonized and shouted "can you feel it!" to the delight of the audience before dancing to the beat of "Rock With You," in his later tours from Dangerous World Tour onwards, by the time he would almost cry and struggle with the words, instead, he reminisced on his childhood past, shouting out his brothers' names and ending the song with a jump and a spin to end the song.

"I'll Be There" remains one of the most popular of the Jackson 5's hits, and has been covered by a number of artists, including Josie and the Pussycats and Mariah Carey, whose cover brought the song back into the public's consciousness two decades after its original release. The song was also covered by the punk band Me First and the Gimme Gimmes on their album Take a Break.

"I'll Be There" was one of the songs used in the showcase for Grease: You're the One that I Want!.

In this song was also by the 2008 music simulation game, Wii Music.

Punk rock band Green Day has frequently performed a live medley beginning with their original song "King For A Day", morphing into The Isley Brothers' "Shout" and breaks into a smaller medley including, but not limited to, The Penguins' "Earth Angel," "I'll Be There," and Ben E. King's "Stand by Me", then back into "shout."

The song was performed by Michael Jackson in the 2009 film Michael Jackson's This Is It. However, the song was performed by Jackson and backup singers as if they were the Jackson 5. During the song, clips of the Jackson 5 is shown. At the end of the song, Michael dedicates the song to all of his brothers and his parents.