Saying he could “use the money,” Gordon Keith is dusting off mint recordings of the band’s first record – “Big Boy” – released on Steeltown Records in 1968 as well as rehearsal tapes, demos and master mix tapes, according to the Gary Post-Tribune.

Keith also has about 100 copies of the group’s 45 rpm pressing of “We Don’t Have To Be Over 21” with “Jam Session” on the flip side.

“Motown had turned the Jacksons down two or three times before I recorded them,” Keith said.

Keith, who bills himself as the Jackson 5’s original discoverer, is also selling the 1968 contract he signed with Atlantic Records to distribute the group’s Steeltown recordings, and is thinking about selling, “with stipulations,” the 1967 contract he signed with family patriarch Joe Jackson for the brothers’ services.

A bank vault contains most of Keith’s J5 collection. Many, if not all, recordings are in mint condition and portray the group before the world discovered Michael and his brothers when Motown released “I Want You Back” in 1969.

Although Keith hasn’t yet decided how he’s going to sell his collection of early Jackson 5 recordings, he expects to make hundreds of thousands of dollars from records that represent, not only the group’s beginnings but also an important part of pop music’s history.

“When I finally recorded them, I said, well, I know this group is gonna make it all the way, so I’m going to put away some of their recordings and other paraphernalia,” Keith said. “So that’s why I have these now. I knew that they were gonna be big.”

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