"The Love You Save" is a 1970 number-one hit single recorded
by The Jackson 5 for the Motown label. It held the number-one
spot on the soul singles chart for six weeks. It held the
number-one position on the Billboard Hot 100 singles chart for
two weeks, from June 27 to July 4, 1970. It is the third of
four Jackson 5 number ones released in a row (the others being
"I Want You Back", "ABC", and "I'll Be There"). "The Love You
Save" also features side vocals of Jermaine Jackson singing
alongside Michael in the final "Stop! The love you save may be
your own" besides Marlon and Tito Jackson.
"The Love You Save" has one of the most distinctive melodies
and is the most musically complex of the four number-one
singles by The Jackson 5. The song's lyrics feature Michael and
Jermaine Jackson warning a "fast" girl to slow down and "stop!"
because "the love you save may be your own!"
The opening exclamation of "stop" and the footstomps that
complement the rhythm during the latter part of the song are
allusions to the 1965 number-one Motown single by The Supremes,
"Stop! In the Name of Love". The Jackson 5 essentially replaced
The Supremes as Motown's main focus in the early 1970s,
although Diana Ross, who left the group for a solo career not
long before the release of this single, was publicized as
having discovered the Jackson 5.
Like most of the other early Jackson 5 hits, "The Love You
Save" was written and produced by The Corporation, a team
composed of Motown chief Berry Gordy, Freddie Perren, Alphonzo
Mizell, and Deke Richards and recorded in Los Angeles,
California, away from the old Motown studio at Hitsville USA in
Detroit, Michigan.
"The Love You Save" was the second single from the second
Jackson 5 album,
ABC.