Forever, Michael is Michael Jackson’s fourth and final solo studio album for Motown Records, released on 16 January 1975. The album marked Jackson’s emergence into adolescence with a more sophisticated sound. The lead single “We’re Almost There” reached #7 on the U.S. R&B chart and #54 on the Hot 100. “One Day in Your Life”, initially overlooked, was rereleased in 1981 and became a #1 hit on the UK Singles Chart.
Genres: Disco
Off the Wall is Michael Jackson’s fifth studio album, released on 10 August 1979 by Epic Records. It marked his first collaboration with producer Quincy Jones, after the two met during the filming of The Wiz the previous year. Recorded between December 1978 and June 1979 at three Hollywood studios, it represented a clear break from Jackson’s Motown years and the Jacksons’ Epic output.
Jackson and Jones assembled an extraordinary cast of session musicians and songwriters. Rod Temperton, then of Heatwave, contributed three tracks including the title song and “Rock with You”. Stevie Wonder and Paul McCartney each gave the album a song. Toto members Steve Lukather and David Paich played extensively, while Greg Phillinganes provided keyboards and arrangements that would define the Jackson-Jones sound for the next decade.
Four singles became U.S. top-10 hits: “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 ‘Til You Get Enough” won Jackson the 1980 Grammy for Best Male R&B Vocal Performance, his first Grammy as an adult solo artist. Jackson, however, was deeply disappointed that the album was overlooked for Album of the Year, and reportedly used that disappointment as fuel for the all-encompassing ambition of Thriller.
Off the Wall has sold over 20 million copies worldwide. It transformed disco into something more sophisticated, blending pop, funk and post-disco soul, and proved that Jackson could carry a major adult solo career on his own. The album is widely cited as one of the greatest of all time and was reissued in 2016 alongside Spike Lee’s documentary film Michael Jackson’s Journey from Motown to Off the Wall.
Thriller is Michael Jackson’s sixth studio album, released on 30 November 1982 by Epic Records. It is the best-selling album of all time, with estimated worldwide sales of over 70 million copies. Produced by Quincy Jones with Jackson co-producing, the album was recorded between April and November 1982 at Westlake Recording Studios in Los Angeles.
Jackson, eager to top the success of Off the Wall, sought a record where every song could be a single. Of the album’s nine tracks, seven were released as singles, an unprecedented run that included “The Girl Is Mine” (a duet with Paul McCartney), “Billie Jean”, “Beat It” (with Eddie Van Halen’s iconic guitar solo), “Wanna Be Startin’ Somethin'”, “Human Nature”, “P.Y.T. (Pretty Young Thing)” and the title track. Vincent Price provided the spoken-word “rap” at the end of “Thriller”, recorded in two takes after Rod Temperton wrote the lyrics on the way to the studio.
The album spent a record 37 weeks at number one on the US Billboard 200 and reached number one in most major markets. “Beat It” and “Billie Jean” became inescapable on radio and MTV, with the latter’s music video breaking the colour barrier on MTV after pressure from CBS Records chief Walter Yetnikoff. Jackson’s performance of “Billie Jean” on Motown 25 in May 1983, where he debuted the moonwalk, is widely regarded as one of the most iconic moments in television history.
Thriller swept the 1984 Grammy Awards, winning a record-breaking eight statues including Album of the Year. It also won eight American Music Awards, three MTV Video Music Awards (for the title track’s 14-minute John Landis-directed short film) and the Brit Award for Best International Album. The album has been certified 34× Platinum by the RIAA, the highest certification ever awarded for an album in the United States.
Beyond the commercial achievements, Thriller transformed the music industry. It elevated music videos from promotional tools to art form, repositioned MTV as a Black-friendly platform, and made Jackson the world’s biggest star. Successive reissues — Thriller 25 (2008) and Thriller 40 (2022) — added previously unreleased tracks, demos and remixes, keeping the album in the global charts decades after its release.