MICHAEL JACKSON 1958-2009

[Dennis Willis]

Michael Jackson is dead.

If we were still producing Soundwaves, Joey Mack and I would likely be scrapping everything to do a Michael Jackson tribute. Not because we were about chasing competitive news stories but, well, because in the twenty-five years we produced the show, there just weren’t many bigger artists.

Madonna. Elvis. Prince. But it’s a short list. We’re talking about history-changing icons and those folks don’t come along every day. But if you weren’t around back in the day, it would be hard to describe how many things were changed with just one word.

Thriller.

To this day, it’s still the biggest album of all time with over 100 million copies sold worldwide. Nothing else even comes close and for a time, as much as a million copies a week. Seven out of the nine songs hit the Top 10. Of those seven singles, only three music videos were made – Billie Jean, Beat It and Thriller and they are considered among the best of all time. MTV didn’t even play black artists until Billie Jean.

He rewrote music history, dance history, music video history and changed the way we look at celebrities (admit it, we tend to drive closer than we should…) There won’t be another celebrity quite like him and I seriously doubt that we’ll see any of today’s pop artists on the charts in twenty-five years.

People are falling over themselves in the media to find a new angle to this tragedy, but I think it’s best to simply list the facts. They speak for themselves.

* Jackson had nine platinum singles in the United States, trailing only Elvis Presley (27) and Mariah Carey (10).
* Jackson had 16 gold singles in the United States, behind only Elvis Presley (54), Madonna (26), The Beatles (24), Mariah Carey (23), Janet Jackson (21), Whitney Houston (18), Elton John (17) and The Temptations (17).
* Jackson's Thriller remained at number one for thirty-seven weeks, the longest-ever stay by a non-soundtrack album and second only to West Side Story.
* Thriller spent a record 80 consecutive weeks, more than a year and a half, in the Top 10 of the Billboard 200. It was the first of only three albums to remain on the Top 10 for more than a year (along with Alanis Morissette's Jagged Little Pill and Celine Dion's Falling into You).
* Thriller is the only album in the United States to have sold more copies than any other in two separate years, topping the sales charts in 1983 and 1984.
* Four of Jackson's albums, Bad, Dangerous, HIStory, and Invincible, debuted at number one in the United States.
* Jackson was the first artist to have four top-ten singles from one album (Off the Wall).
* Jackson was the first artist to have seven Top 10 singles from one album (Thriller), a feat matched only by his sister Janet and Bruce Springsteen.
* Jackson was the first artist to simultaneously have the number-one album and number-one single on Billboard's Pop Charts and Black Charts.
* Jackson was the first artist in the 1980s to have two simultaneous top-five hits (Beat It and Billie Jean on April 16, 1983).
* Jackson is the only artist to have five number-one hits from one LP, Bad (Bad, The Way You Make Me Feel, Man in the Mirror, I Just Can't Stop Loving You, and Dirty Diana).
* Jackson had nine number one singles in the 1980s, more than any other artist during the decade.
* Jackson was the first artist to have a song debut as high as #5 on the Hot 100 (Scream in 1995).
* Jackson was the first artist to ever have a song debut at number one on the Billboard Hot 100 (You Are Not Alone)
* Jackson's album Bad remained in the top five of the Billboard 200 for thirty-eight weeks, longer than any other album to date.
* Jackson has had thirteen number-one singles on Billboard's Hot 100 singles charts, trailing only The Beatles (20), Mariah Carey (18) and Elvis Presley (18 or 17, depending on source).
* Jackson had 28 top ten hits on the Billboard Hot 100, trailing only The Beatles (29), Elvis Presley (36) and Madonna (37).
* Jackson had 37 top 40 hits on the Hot 100.

Michael Jackson had 29 Top 10 hits on the Billboard Hot 100 charts.

* 1971: Got To Be There, #4
* 1972: Rockin' Robin, #2
* 1972: Ben, #1
* 1979: Don't Stop Till You Get Enough, #1
* 1980: Rock With You, #1
* 1980: Off The Wall, #10
* 1980: She's Out Of My Life, #10
* 1983: The Girl Is Mine (with Paul McCartney), #2
* 1983: Billie Jean, #1
* 1983: Beat It, #1
* 1983: Wanna Be Startin' Somethin', #5
* 1984: Human Nature, #7
* 1984: P.Y.T., #10
* 1984: Say Say Say (with Paul McCartney), #1
* 1984: Thriller, #4
* 1985: We Are The World, #1
* 1987: I Just Can't Stop Loving You (with Siedah Garrett), #1
* 1987: Bad, #1
* 1988: The Way You Make Me Feel #1
* 1988: Man In The Mirror #1
* 1988: Dirty Diana, #1
* 1989: Smooth Criminal, #7
* 1991: Black or White, #1
* 1992: Remember The Time, #3
* 1992: In The Closet, #6
* 1993: Will You Be There, #7
* 1995: Scream (with Janet Jackson), #5
* 1995: You Are Not Alone, #1
* 2001: You Rock My World, #10

Michael Jackson had 13 number one hits on the Billboard Hot 100 charts, and 1 number one collaboration, Say Say Say, feat. Paul McCartney.

* 1972: Ben (1 week)
* 1979: Don't Stop 'Til You Get Enough (1 week)
* 1980: Rock With You (4 weeks)
* 1983: Billie Jean (7 weeks)
* 1983: Beat It (3 weeks)
* 1983: Say Say Say (6 weeks)
* 1985: We Are The World (4 weeks)
* 1987: I Just Can't Stop Loving You (with Siedah Garrett) (1 week)
* 1987: Bad (2 weeks)
* 1987: The Way You Make Me Feel (1 week)
* 1988: Man in the Mirror (2 weeks)
* 1988: Dirty Diana (1 week)
* 1991: Black or White (7 weeks)
* 1995: You Are Not Alone (1 week)

Yes, his image was greatly tarnished with his child molestation trial and an earlier similar accusation and settlement. And that incident with him dangling his baby over the rail in France didn’t help. He was an odd duck, blessed and cursed from an early age to know he would never have anything close to a normal life. Throughout his entire life, he was studied, stalked, celebrated, honored, vilified and deified.

He didn’t exactly try to prevent any of it. In fact, calling himself the "King of Pop" and naming his album HIStory, he was either in possession of the healthiest ego this side of Kanye West or was a marketing genius. He just did his thing, no matter what anyone thought. He was just Michael.

At the time of this writing, local radio stations are breaking format and playing nonstop Michael – and the amazing thing about music is its ability to cut through years of bad press, Wacko Jacko stories, strange rumors and stranger truths. But music is the soundtrack of our lives and in Michael’s case, he gave us a solid twenty-five years of constant hits.

It’s great hearing all these songs again. It’s a very sad occasion on which we hear them.


THE OFFICIAL MICHAEL JACKSON YOUTUBE CHANNEL