8

I Want You Back
Jackson 5
1969

Admit it:  when you saw this song listed, you immediately heard the piano cascading down into two minutes and fifty-nine seconds of pure joy and happiness.  I think it’s scientifically impossible not to like this song.  And if you are one of those people who are going to defy science, please keep it to yourself so I can continue to think highly of you.  Do not put that status in danger by denigrating this timeless classic.

A fun little anecdote to this one:  when Disney decided to scrap the “Tower of Terror” ride from California Adventure in favor of a new “Guardians of the Galaxy” ride several years ago, we were sad as Tower of Terror had been a family favorite.  The cool thing, though, about the new Guardians ride was that you would get one of six songs that would accompany you on the ride, completely randomized so you didn’t know which one you would get and each with their own drop sequences and synced to their own visuals.  It was pretty apparent, pretty quickly, that “I Want You Back” was the best of the bunch and we did everything we could to try and get this as our song (asking the crew about how to game the system to get that song, trying out different lines to try and game it, etc.).  I very vividly remember when we took our niece Sydney with us to Disneyland in April 2019 and we got this as our song going absolutely bonkers, with the rest of the folks on the ride looking at us like we were out of our minds (we probably were).  We still get very excited when we draw this song when we ride this ride (and get very sad when we get Steppenwolf’s “Born to Be Wild” for the 67th time).

This song never gets old, the bass line is superb, and this is a musical genius doing genius things at the age of 13.  Incredible.

Other Songs Considered:
ABC