Which Motown song held the number one spot for the longest in the 1970s?
After Motown was formed in the 1960s and went on to dominate the charts as the most inimitable force in all of music, the following decade of the 1970s was the time for the hits to keep on rolling.
Between solo artists like Marvin Gaye and Stevie Wonder reaching their quintessential peak, while groups like The Temptations and The Commodores both continued on their rise to prominence before delivering a batch of absolutely iconic hits, it was a pint-sized pop star and his band of brothers who were the undisputed kings of the scene, who reigned supreme.
If it wasn’t already obvious enough, that would, of course, be the Jackson 5. After rising to fame in the late 1960s, like many of their original Motown counterparts, the ‘70s was the undisputed prime for the band, before their starry youngest member would shoot off in a few short years to become the regal monarch of the entire pop world.
The Jacksons quickly clocked up an incomparable line of hits, from ‘I Want You Back’ to ‘ABC’ and ‘The Love You Save’, and although all of these created an impressive calibre and standard to stand by, none were as seismic as the song that scored them their fourth consecutive number one in that period, sitting as the kingpin for no less than four weeks, and cementing their status as the crown jewel of Motown.
But ‘I’ll Be There’ represented far more than its singular reign at the top of the charts, as it also held the claim for the longest number one of the entire ‘70s period. Even on top of this, from a sonic perspective, it was the signal that the Jacksons were a true commercial force to behold, beyond their immediate pop surroundings.
What made ‘I’ll Be There’ so significant for Motown in the 1970s?
Over a stellar run from 1969 into the new decade of 1970, The Jacksons were the envy of both the Motown and pop worlds at large, with ‘I’ll Be There’ sealing their fourth number one of that period. The feat meant that the band became the most successful product of Motown at the time of their Detroit era, but even more than this chart acclaim alone, it showed that the five boys were capable of so much more than what met the eye.
While most of their previous hits had centred on the sugary principles of bubblegum pop, ‘I’ll Be There’ demonstrated a depth from the band that pierced through the very middle of the heart of what Motown was always meant to be. It was made all the more notable by the fact that Michael Jackson only celebrated his 12th birthday the day after the song was released.
‘I’ll Be There’ became the ultimate staple of the early ‘70s canon, not just in the Motown world but in the decade’s pop catalogue as a whole. With the mastermind of Berry Gordy at the helm, everyone could recognise that this was the watershed moment that both literally and metaphorically turned boys into men. That’s simply the power the genre possessed for them.
Of course, you can argue it out amongst yourselves whether ‘I’ll Be There’ retrospectively deserves to be lauded as the pinnacle of Motown for that seminal ‘70s time period, but it nevertheless remains as the single song that defined The Jackson 5 for a generation. The fact that all that power came from the mouth of one little boy was a foreshadowing of the heights to come.
