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Motown Deal Signing

Shelley Berger, Jackson 5 manager

And one night I was getting off the road with the Supremes, and I got a telephone call from Barry Gordy and he said, "We just signed this new group and you're going to manage them." He said, "You have to come down to the studio right now."

I said, "Why do I have to come down to the studio? You tell me I'm managing them, I'm managing them. I know what I have to do."

"No, no, no, no. You have to come down to the studio." OK. So I go down to the studio on Fairfax Avenue. There's five little kids. And he says, "This is Shelley Berger. He manages Diane Ross. He manages Smokey Robinson. He manages Temptations. Now he's your manager. Show them what you can do."

And Michael just went into this James Brown thing. And I almost fell on the floor and I said, "Sammy Davis has been reincarnated." You know? It was the same kind of electricity.