Anthology (The Jackson 5 album)

This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. Find sources: "Anthology" The Jackson 5 album – news · newspapers · books · scholar · JSTOR (July 2017) (Learn how and when to remove this message)

Anthology
Greatest hits album by the Jackson 5
Released	June 15, 1976[1]
Recorded	1969–1975
Genre	R&B soul
Label	Motown
Producer	The Corporation Bobby Taylor Hal Davis Norman Whitfield
The Jackson 5 chronology
Moving Violation (1975) Anthology (1976) Joyful Jukebox Music (1976)
The Very Best of The Jacksons (2004) Gold (2005) The Motown Years (2008)
Alternative cover
1986 double CD release
Alternative cover
2000 double CD release
Alternative cover
2005 "Gold" release
Alternative cover
2006 release

Anthology was originally released as a triple-album greatest hits set by legendary Motown family unit, The Jackson 5, in 1976. It was the group's second greatest hits compilation, after Greatest Hits (1971). It was at this point that most of the Jackson brothers (with the glaring exception of Jermaine Jackson) had left the Motown label to join CBS Records. Motown president Berry Gordy once said that the Jackson 5 were "the last superstars to come off the Motown assembly line"; after the group left the label, Motown would not have another act to equal its success until Boyz II Men in the 1990s.

Later repackagings of Anthology have compiled it as a double compact disc set. The most recent re-release, issued by Motown in 2000 (the first time the release doesn't contain any hits from Michael or Jermaine), was repackaged in 2005 in North America as part of its Gold series, and in 2006 internationally as The Jackson 5 Story.

Professional ratings

Review scores
Source	Rating
Christgau's Record Guide	B+[2]
The Rolling Stone Album Guide	[3]

Reviewing Anthology in Christgau's Record Guide: Rock Albums of the Seventies (1981), American music journalist Robert Christgau wrote:

"The only one of Motown's triple-LP retrospectives to concentrate on (or even include much) '70s music documents an institution in decline. Initially, the company marshalls everything it's got for one final push—not for nothing was the group's songwriting-production combine called The Corporation, and it's a measure of their seriousness that they asked the Crusaders to help with the tracks. But within two years they'd run out of gas—all the mini-comebacks after that, even the dancing-machine coup, were flukes. The proof is that the old-formula filler often surpasses the desperate imitations that became minor hits—better 'E-Ne-Me-Ne-Mi-Ne-Moe' than 'Skywriter' or 'A Little Bit of You.' The selection includes Michael's hits, Jermaine's hit, the works, and as the other albums disappear it will become essential in its way. But not to listen to, much."^[2]

• (MJ) - Michael Jackson
• (JJ) - Jermaine Jackson
• (JaJ) - Jackie Jackson
• (L) - Live version
• (*) - Single version

• ¹ - Edited down to 2:55.