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"Motown Records" Contract Signing

Tommy Chong, helped Joe Jackson with contract, personal blog (2009), from Chris Cadman’s “Michael Jackson the Maestro” (article summary/quotes)

“Once Berry heard them he gave them a contract, which Joe Jackson (their father) brought to me, because I was the only guy in the group that had any business experience. I was the unofficial leader of the Vancouvers - I owned the club in Vancouver where Berry Gordy and the Supremes discovered us.”

Shelley Berger, “The Jackson 5” Motown manager from 1969-1970, “Larry King Live” (June 25, 2009) (archived)

KING: What was he like to manage? BERGER: Well, I managed -- I was their first manager when they joined Motown. It's interesting, because I only managed people that Barry Gordy was personally interested in. So I managed Smokey. I managed the Supremes. I managed the Temptations.

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.

KING: Wow, how long were you with him?

BERGER: I was with him only for about a year and a half.

KING: Those were good times, then? Easy?

BERGER: Well, we just created something because Mr. Gordy, who, you know...

KING: Berry's a genius.

BERGER: He said to me, can we -- we were doing meetings and the agency, like, oh, we're going to get him on the Joey Bishop Show. We're going to get him.

After the meeting Mr. Gordy said to me, "What do you think?"

And I said, "Let me ask you a question. Do you think you can get three No. 1 records on the Jackson 5?"

Now, only Barry Gordy can say this. He says, "I already have it in the can." And I believed it.