had seven singles as well as Guns N’ Roses’ Appetite for Destruction, but none that we could fine had nine singles released. Thriller had seven, Bruce Springsteen’s Born In The U.S.A. No other studio album with the exception of Michael Jackson’s Badalbum has ever had nine singles released from the record. There were nine singles released from the Dangerous album over a span of two years. The list of other countries around the world in which the song hit number one is just too long to list. “Black Or White,” went straight to number one on the U.S. Released as the first single from the album, the song “Black Or White,” was a huge hit. Jackson turned to Bill Bottrell, Teddy Riley, and Bruce Swedien to produce this album leaving Quincy Jones behind. After an amazing run with Quincy Jones that helped turn Michael Jackson into the so called King Of Pop. Michaels Jackson’s “Black Or White,” was released on his Dangerous album in 1991.
There was a deep message presented in this song fueled by powerful guitars, soulful and hot dance grooves and of course Michael Jackson’s pitch perfect vocals. Basically that’s what the song was about, crossing all genres, races and stereotypes. Michael Jackson threw all musical styles into this one. Michael Jackson’s “Black Or White,” stands as one of the last great Michael Jackson singles. This one presents a huge leap in time from Off The Wall past Thriller and into the Dangerous album. Michael Jackson was only 21 years old when he released the Off The Wall album. This is the one that started Michael Jackson’s glorious run into the 80s. However, artists like Donna Summer were still going strong keeping disco alive and helped this hit r&b disco tune form Michael Jackson explode on the charts. We present the album’s lead single here entitled “Don’t Stop ‘Til You Get Enough.” After release the song went straight to number one on the Billboard Hot 100.ĭisco music was still popular at the time in 1979 but was starting to fade as new wave bands like Blondie, The Cars and a host of others were beginning to dominate radio. Five singles were released from the album. This was a completely new sound for Michael Jackson and the world ate it up. The record would be the first Michael Jackson album to be produced by Quincy Jones. In 1979, Michael Jackson released the album Off The Wall. The song was written by Quincy Jones and James Ingram.Ĭontinuing with our top 10 Michael Jackson songs list we go back to the album that was released before Thriller. It just broke the Billboard top 10 peaking at number 10. (Pretty Young Thing).” The song was released as the sixth single from Thriller. The first Michael Jackson song we picked from the Thriller album was the smoking track “P.Y.T. Seven singles from this LP were top 10 hits so it was tough to choose from this album without filling up most of this top 10 list. We open up our Top 10 Michael Jackson songs list with the first of four tacks on this list taken from the Thriller album. It does not include songs he recorded as a member of the Jackson Five or The Jacksons. This list only incudes Michael Jackson songs from his solo career. Following the initial Top 10 Michael Jackson songs list will be additional lists focusing on specific periods of his solo career in order so that we could mention so many of the other great Michael Jackson songs. This list factors in commercial sales, chart successes, fan favorites and of course some of our own opinion. We first present our traditional top 10 list in which we choses our favorite top 10 Michael Jackson songs. Unlike most of our top 10 articles with the exception of a few, we thought we would spice this one up a little. Furthermore, many of them hit number one, That’s not counting all his other solo albums from the 1970s and the period after Dangerous. The man released four albums in a row Off The Wall, Thriller, Badand Dangerous that combined together issued thirty singles with more than half of them breaking the top 10 on the Billboard Hot 100. However, it was no easy feat to pick just ten Michael Jackson songs. The songs and only the songs and the stories behind them is what our Top 10 Michael Jackson songs article is all about. Where he ranks among the greatest of all time is not important for this article. Standing somewhere in between Elvis Presley, Paul McCartney, Bruce Springsteen, Madonna, Prince and James Brown was Michael Jackson. Our Top 10 Michael Jackson songs list takes a look at the career and songs of one of the most famous personalities of all time. Photo: Constru-centro, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons