Did The Jackson 5 ever recorded at Hitsville?

[timthemod]

Of all the Jackson 5 tracks I've listened to, none have the trademark, Funk Brothers/Snakepit sound. It's probable that most of their recordings were done in LA with Wilton Felder and crew, are there any early tracks that were recorded in Detroit?

[snakepit]

I believe the early Bobby Taylor produced tracks were.......at least some part of them

[RossHolloway]

Was there an established set of musicians [[or background singers) based in LA that Motown routinely used during the mid-late 60's thru when the company officially moved there? Brenda Holloway seems to have done a lot of recording in LA, does anyone know who those musicians were who played on her recordings?

[robb_k]

I think there was a more or less regular pool of musicians that Motown used while running their L.A. Jobete Music office, that they continued to use after moving there in 1972. As far as background singers, I know that they used Mary Love, Gloria Jones, Sandy Wynns and, probably the Blossoms [[not sure there?)).

[hwume]

The J5 recorded for several months in Detroit starting in May 1969 before they settled in Los Angeles in August of that year, then returned to record at Hitsville intermittently throughout 1970-early 1971 with various producers, but mostly with Bobby Taylor. Some of the Detroit tunes: Stand!, Born To Love You, Can You Remember, Chained, Who's Loving You, [[I Know) I'm Losing You, My Cherie Amour - basically 3/4 of the debut album - and A Fool For You, Darling Dear and others. The whole list would make a nice compilation.

[midnightman]

Yeah they recorded at Hitsville two months after negotiations over a year to get them out of their Steeltown contract finally allowed them to sign with Motown. Like hwume said, it wasn't until August that they began to work in both L.A. and Hitsville. Most of the songs on Diana Ross Presents the Jackson 5 were recorded in Hitsville with the exception of "I Want You Back".

[chidrummer]

Timthemod, Taylor himself named Uriel Jones on drums, Eddie Brown on percussion, Robert White, Wah Wah Watson and Eddie Willis on guitars, Jack Ashford on percussion and vibes. Earl or Johnny Griffin probably played keyboards. Bobby also says that 40 - 50 tunes were recorded in Detroit before the first album came out.

Meanwhile, on the west coast, remnants of the Wrecking Crew were used on J5 cuts, but there were a core of studio rats that they used a lot that included Gene Pello or James Gadson on drums, Wilton Felder, Ron Brown or Bill Salter on bass, Joe Sample, Mike Rubini or Don Randi on keyboards. David T. Walker, Art Wright and even Dennis Coffey on guitars.

Not too shabby

[timthemod]

Thanks for all your replys will search out the tracks mentioned plus the first album.

[soulwally]

But as Timthemod says, none of the tracks, Detroit recorded or not, had that 'Snakepit' sound, unless I've missed something. By the time the Jacksons started recording, the sound from Hitsville had changed anyway from that archetypal 64/65/66/even into 67 'Motown sound'

[chidrummer]

Da Godfadder might be able to shed some light on that. Ralph, is it possible that the J5 tracks were recorded at Studio B?

[jboy88]

The J5 recorded for several months in Detroit starting in May 1969 before they settled in Los Angeles in August of that year, then returned to record at Hitsville intermittently throughout 1970-early 1971 with various producers, but mostly with Bobby Taylor. Some of the Detroit tunes: Stand!, Born To Love You, Can You Remember, Chained, Who's Loving You, [[I Know) I'm Losing You, My Cherie Amour - basically 3/4 of the debut album - and A Fool For You, Darling Dear and others. The whole list would make a nice compilation.

Now that's a great idea. You'd hae a garenteed buy from me!

[captainjames]

I was always under the impression that everything on the 1st Lp was recorded at Hitsville USA except the "I Want You Back"

[nomis]

..you have to remember to thats its possible that some of the instrumental tracks where recorded in Hitsville then the finished master could have been flown to LA for the boys to record their vocal part there..Im not saying thats the case with all the tracks but Motown did things like this in this time period..