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Music: What Was Michael Jackson's Best Album?
Written by US Townhall staff   
Wednesday, 01 July 2009 03:14

Michael Jackson's recent tragic death has once again catapulted him into the world spotlight.  Rather than focus on all of the personal trials and tribulations he faced over the last three decades, we'd like to focus on his talent and the music that made him a worldwide superstar.  As longtime Jackson collaborator Quincy Jones recently said, someone like Michael Jackson doesn't come along once in a lifetime; he just comes along once

What follows in this longform article is a career retrospective on one of the great talents in the music industry.

As an adult, Michael Jackson only released six studio albums over the course of his career.  This adult phase of Jackson's career began when the Jacksons left Motown and signed with CBS Records in 1975. 

Off the Wall (1979)After working with Quincy Jones on the movie The Wiz in 1978, Jones and Jackson formed a partnership and went to work on Michael's first solo album for CBS Records' Epic Records division.  The resulting album, Off the Wall, was released on August 10, 1979 and has gone on to sell over 7 million copies in the United States, and a total of over 20 million worldwide.  Off the Wall gave Jackson his first solo career achievement: it became the very first album in Billboard chart history by a solo artist to land four singles in the top 10.  These singles were: "Don't Stop 'Til You Get Enough" (#1), "Rock with You" (#1), "Off the Wall" (#10), and "She's Out of My Life" (#10).  "Don't Stop..." was the only single actually written by Michael Jackson.  Subsequent albums would feature a majority of the songs either written or co-written by Michael.

 

ThrillerThree years later, Michael would achieve his career zenith with his second album on Epic Records, Thriller, which was released on November 30, 1982.  While the album is a scant 42 minutes long and only contains nine tracks, Thriller became a monumental success and stands as the best selling album worldwide with estimated sales of anywhere between 49 million to 100 million copies.  Within the United States, Thriller is the second best selling album, certified at 28 times platinum.  Only Their Greatest Hits by the Eagles has a higher certification (29 times platinum), but that is sure to change now that the advent of Michael's death has caused a frenzy of consumer interest in Jackson's albums and videos.  Of Thriller's nine tracks, seven were released as singles and all seven of them made Billboard's top 10.  These singles were: "The Girl is Mine" (#2), "Billie Jean" (#1), "Beat It" (#1), "Wanna Be Startin' Somethin'" (#5), "Human Nature" (#7), "PYT (Pretty Young Thing)" (#10), and "Thriller" (#4).  Jackson wrote the first four of these hits himself.  Thriller was such an enormously popular album, and the singles received such extensive airplay that it remained in Billboard's top 10 album chart for 80 consecutive weeks, including 37 weeks at number one.  Although music videos were made for only "Billie Jean," "Beat It," and "Thriller," these videos became so widely aired that they forever changed and expanded what a music video could be and should be.  Michael's vision of the music video as "short film" only increased with subsequent releases.

 

Bad (1987)Given that tracks from Thriller continued to play strongly well into 1984, and that Michael followed it with his participation in the Jacksons' Victory album and tour, it wouldn't be until August 1987 that his next solo album would be released.  This album, entitled Bad, would be significant in that Michael took even greater creative control than ever before, writing 9 of the album's 11 tracks (only "Just Good Friends" and "Man in the Mirror" were not written by Jackson).  While Bad's US certification of 8 times platinum (and over 30 million sold worldwide) doesn't even come close to matching Thriller's tally, the many singles off this album seemed to perform better than Thriller's, with the first 5 releases all hitting number one on Billboard's Hot 100 chart.  The singles from Bad were: "I Just Can't Stop Loving You" (#1), "Bad" (#1), "The Way You Make Me Feel" (#1), "Man in the Mirror" (#1), "Dirty Diana" (#1), "Another Part of Me" (#11), and "Smooth Criminal" (#7).  Bad is significant in that it is the only album in US chart history to launch five number one singles.  Further, Bad is the first Michael Jackson album to debut at number one on the Billboard album charts.  This album is also the last of the three Michael Jackson albums produced by Quincy Jones.

 

Dangerous (1991)November 1991 brought Michael Jackson's last significant solo album, Dangerous.  Like Bad, this album entered the US Billboard Album charts at number one.  Although Dangerous has reportedly sold more copies than Bad did worldwide, Bad remains the better seller in the United States by at least a million copies.  Seven singles were relased from Dangerous, but overall, they performed noticably weaker than the singles from Michael's prior Epic albums.  The singles from Dangerous were: "Black or White" (#1), "Remember the Time" (#3), "In the Closet" (#6), "Jam" (#26), "Who is it" (#14), "Heal the World" (#27), "Will You Be There" (#7).  Of course, the biggest controversy surrounding the Dangerous album was the video for the single "Black or White."  The ending of the video depicted a panther morphing into Michael Jackson who then proceeded to engage in what some considered to be sexually suggestive dance moves (including the, by then, MJ staple of grabbing his crotch as well as zipping up his pants).  This was followed by the infamous window smashing and property damage that occupies the video's final four minutes.  To mitigate the controversy, racist graffiti was digitally added to the windows that Jackson is shown breaking thereby making clear his motivation for his violent outburst.  The original, uncensored, non-graffiti version of "Black or White" is only available on the VHS tape entitled HIStory - The Video Greatest Hits.  The DVD version of this tape only includes the racist graffiti edit.  Even today, many TV airings of the video omit the final four minutes entirely except for special airings after midnight. 

Dangerous was a successful enough album that singles were still being released into 1993.  In fact, the title track was planned for a release, which would have been the album's eighth US single (and tenth worldwide), but was canceled in the wake of the first child sexual abuse accusations brought against Michael in August 1993.  When the accusations were first leveled, a vast majority of people responding to various polls thought Jackson to be completely innocent of the charges.  However, over time, the unrelenting tabloid circus and Michael's payment of a $22 million out-of-court settlement to the child and his family began to turn public opinion against him, and his popularity began to dwindle severely.

 

HIStory (1995)Jackson's next album, HIStory: Past, Present and Future, Book I, was released on June 20, 1995 and has become the most successful double album release of all time with worldwide sales in excess of 20 million copies.  After Thriller, HIStory is Jackson's top money making album due to it being more expensive than his single-disc releases.  However, by this time, even the mainstream press spent more time discussing Michael himself than they did his music.  This, coupled with HIStory's higher price tag and half the album being songs that most people already had in their collections, took its toll on album sales.  HIStory sold only 3.5 million copies in the US,  but was certified as 7 times platinum due to its double-CD package.  Although HIStory contained 15 new songs (including a cover of the Beatles' "Come Together"), only four singles were released in the United States.  The singles from HIStory were: "Scream" (#5), "You Are Not Alone" (#1), "They Don't Care About Us" (#30), and "Stranger in Moscow" (#91).  "You Are Not Alone," a song written by R. Kelly, earned Michael Jackson yet another career highlight: it became the first song in Billboard singles chart history to debut at number one.  This single, released in August 1995, remains Michael Jackson's final number one of his career.  On the flip side, "Stranger in Moscow" achieved the lowest ranking of any Michael Jackson single, barely creeping into the Billboard Hot 100 in spite of it being well received by the critics. 

 

Invincible (2001)The last studio album completed by Michael Jackson during his lifetime, Invincible, was released on October 30, 2001.  Although the album has been certified at 10 million copies sold worldwide, it has only been certified double platinum in the US.  Reasons for this are many including Jackson's continued diminishing popularity in the wake of his personal life dominating headlines and lack of support by Sony, his record company, after he informed them, shortly before Invincible's release, that he would be leaving the label.  The resultant lack of promotion of Invincible by Sony led to Jackson making allegations of racism against Sony Music Entertainment head Tommy Mattola and Sony itself.  Only one single was released commercially in the US, "You Rock My World" (#10), which is now Michael Jackson's final top 10 hit in his lifetime.  However, "Butterflies," while supposed to be released commercially, was canceled by Sony, but was released to radio stations as a promotional single.  Based on airplay alone, "Butterflies" reached #14 on the Billboard Hot 100 and became Jackson's final top 40 hit in the United States.  On its release, Invincible was available with its cover image in five colors: silver, red, green, orange, and blue.  Currently, the silver cover is the only version that remains in print.

 

So, which is your favorite Michael Jackson album?  Vote in the poll and post your thoughts at our messageboard.

 

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