Michael Jackson: Encyclopedia II - Michael Jackson - Solo career

Michael Jackson - Solo career

Michael Jackson - Off The Wall: 1978-1980

In 1978, Michael appeared in The Wiz as the Scarecrow, with former labelmate Diana Ross as Dorothy. The musical film's songs were arranged and produced by famed producer Quincy Jones, who found a rapport with Jackson. After Jackson signed a solo contract with Epic in 1978, he began work on his first of several albums with Jones.

Michael Jackson's 1979 album Off the Wall was a worldwide hit, and spawned the number-one hit singles and music videos "Don't Stop 'Til You Get Enough" and "Rock With You". The ballad "She's Out of My Life" and the album's title track also reached the top ten in 1980. With that accomplishment, Jackson became the first solo artist to have four Top Ten hit singles in the Billboard Hot 100 singles chart from a single album. The album went on to sell over 20 million copies worldwide, establishing Jackson as a musical force without his brothers.

Michael Jackson - Thriller: 1982-1985

In the 1980s, Jackson released a progression of solo albums of slickly-produced synthesizer-heavy pop. In what was perhaps the "Golden Age" of the music video, some of Jackson's videos were virtually short films with detailed plots, special effects, and featuring Jackson's distinctive dance style.

Michael Jackson's 1982 album Thriller produced seven top-ten hit singles, broke sales records, and became the best-selling album in music history. The "Billie Jean" music video, released to promote Thriller, became the first video by a black artist to gain regular airplay on MTV. The fourteen-minute "Thriller" music video became the world's best-selling home video at the time (packaged with the featurette The Making of Michael Jackson's "Thriller"). The album's third major single, "Beat It", was another #1 pop hit in the U.S., accompanied by a popular West Side Story-inspired music video. The videos for "Billie Jean", "Thriller" and "Beat It" frequently place highly on MTV and VH1 countdowns of notable classic videos, and receive airplay on MTV2 to this day.

While performing "Billie Jean" during the Motown 25: Yesterday, Today, Forever special on television on May 16, 1983, Jackson publicly performed his moonwalk dance for the first time. In January 1984, at the American Music Awards, Jackson was nominated for nine awards, and won a record eight. At the Grammy Awards in February, Jackson was nominated for twelve awards, and won a record-breaking eight: seven for Thriller and one for his narrative on The E.T. Storybook. In May, Thriller was certified by the Guinness Book of Records as the best selling popular music album of all time. The same year, he was also awarded the H. Claude Hodson Medal of Freedom at the NAACP Image Awards, honored at the White House by President Ronald Reagan with the Presidential Special Achievement Award, and was awarded a star in November on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. By 2005, Thriller had been certified twenty-seven times platinum in the U.S.

Jackson became a spokesman for Pepsi at the height of Thriller's popularity. On January 27, 1984, while singing "Billie Jean" during a Pepsi commercial shoot in Los Angeles, Jackson's hair caught on fire when a fireworks display erupted behind him, showering him in sparks. He received hospital treatment for second-degree burns to his scalp. ^{[citation needed]}

After Paul McCartney appeared in the song "The Girl is Mine" on 1982's Thriller, McCartney's solo album Pipes of Peace featured two McCartney/Jackson duets, "Say Say Say" (US #1, UK #2) and "The Man". Any hopes of further collaboration were seemingly ended by their subsequent estrangement stemming from Jackson's purchase of Northern Songs/ATV Music and The Beatles' publishing catalogue (See 'Finances' section).

Inspired by the musical charity group Band Aid, Michael Jackson was instrumental in organizing the recording of the single "We Are the World", which he co-wrote with former Motown labelmate, Lionel Richie. The single was released in 1985 to raise money for USA for Africa, a charity working to raise awareness about and give aid to impoverished families in Africa. "We Are the World" featured forty-four different vocalists, including Jackson, Ritchie, Harry Belafonte, Cyndi Lauper, Diana Ross, Ray Charles, Lindsey Buckingham (Fleetwood Mac) and Stevie Wonder, and sold eight million copies in the United States, becoming one of the best-selling singles of all time.

Michael Jackson - Bad: 1986-1990

In 1986, Jackson starred in the George Lucas/Francis Ford Coppola 3-D film Captain Eo, which was shown in Disney theme parks until 1998. Minute for minute, it was the most expensive film ever produced at the time, with an estimated total production cost of US$17 million. The film contained the songs "We Are Here to Change the World" and "Another Part of Me".

In 1987, Jackson released the album Bad, which sold over 30 million copies and became the second-best-selling album of all time (behind Thriller). Its first five singles ("I Just Can't Stop Loving You", "Bad", "The Way You Make Me Feel", "Man in the Mirror", and "Dirty Diana") provided Jackson with another string of hits, and made him the first artist to generate five number-one singles off of one album. Jackson hired film director Martin Scorsese to direct the video for the album's title track, which premiered on TV as an 18 minute short film, although subsequent broadcasts would only show the song part of the film, where Jackson and a group of dancers perform in a New York subway. The other three singles, "Another Part Of Me", "Smooth Criminal", and "Leave Me Alone" kept Jackson on the charts throughout 1988 and the beginning of 1989 as he embarked on his first solo world tour.

The Bad World Tour spanned the globe with stops in 15 countries on 4 continents, and included 123 concerts to about 4.4 million fans. This tour became the highest grossing concert tour ever, grossing over USD 125 million. Jackson would later beat this record with the Dangerous World Tour, and again with the HIStory World Tour.

In 1989, the ninth and final single from Bad was released, "Liberian Girl". After enjoying the success of Bad and the Bad World Tour, Jackson wrote an autobiography titled Moon Walk, about his life and career up to that point. He also made a feature film/music video titled Moonwalker, and Sega released a video game with the same title.

The following year, The Simpsons released an album called "The Simpsons Sing the Blues". Jackson wrote and produced the song "Do the Bartman" (under the pseudonym John Jay Smith), which was featured on the album. ^{[citation needed]}

Michael Jackson - Dangerous: 1991-1993

Jackson was awarded a new record-breaking US$890 million contract by Sony in March, 1991, and released his first album under the new contract, Dangerous, that November. Beginning with this album, Jackson ended his association with Quincy Jones, and enlisted new producers such as new jack swing inventor Teddy Riley for his records. While in the U.S., sales for the album reached seven million, internationally Dangerous eclipsed Bad as the second best-selling album of Jackson's career, selling over 32 million albums. The major hits included "Black or White", "Remember the Time", "Heal the World", and "Will You Be There".

As was becoming the standard for Jackson, the album's music videos were among the most costly and innovative of their time. "Give in to Me" featured Slash from Guns n' Roses in its video. The video was shot a few days before the Dangerous Tour started, in Munich in 1992. The directors were the Austrian duo Rossacher and Dolezal who shot many, if not all, of the videos and specials for Freddie Mercury and Queen. The video for "Heal the World" featured children and adults from throughout the world, in order to correspond to Jackson's charity of the same name. "Will You Be There"'s video showed Jackson singing in front of scenes from Free Willy, for which "Will You Be There" served as the theme song. Several of the other videos had complex storylines and dance sequences, and featured cameo appearances by celebrities. The video for "Jam", directed by David Kellogg, showed Jackson and Michael Jordan playing basketball and dancing together, while "Remember the Time" was set in an ancient Egyptian palace, and starred Eddie Murphy and Iman as the pharaoh and his queen. Also, it featured a cameo by basketball legend Magic Johnson. "In the Closet" featured Jackson and model Naomi Campbell as lovers. The director of the video was photographer Herb Ritts, who also photographed Jackson in a series of promotional shots for the release of the Dangerous album.

"Black or White" probably remains Dangerous's most aired and most remembered video today. Originally over ten minutes long, the world première of the video clip took place on November 14, 1991, and was broadcast simultaneously in 27 countries with an estimated audience of 500 million people. It was the largest audience ever to view a music video![[3]].The video is technically noteworthy for featuring one of the earliest examples of computer-generated morphing. The last four minutes of the video also induced much controversy, as it depicted a crotch-grabbing Jackson smashing store windows and destroying a car with a crowbar. MTV and the other music video networks decided to excise the last four minutes of the "Black or White" video for all subsequent airings, and Jackson issued a statement apologizing to anyone who had been offended, and explaining that he tried to imitate a panther's wild instincts. The video featured Macaulay Culkin and was directed by John Landis, the director of the "Thriller" short film.

On October 1, 1992, Michael Jackson performed the Bucharest leg of the "Dangerous World Tour". This particular show was sold to HBO and were the highest paid TV broadcast rights for a concert in history, and attracted one of HBO's highest rating programs ever. This show was later released on DVD.

Michael Jackson - HIStory: 1995-1999

In 1995, Epic released Jackson's HIStory: Past, Present And Future - Book 1, a double-disc album. The first disc, HIStory Begins, was a fifteen-track greatest hits album, while the second, HIStory Continues, contained fifteen new songs. The newer songs found help from producers Jimmy Jam & Terry Lewis, sister Janet, Dallas Austin, Bill Bottrell, R. Kelly and Jackson himself. The double disc album has sold over 20 million copies to date and still remains the biggest selling multiple-disc album of all-time.

HIStory was the first album where Jackson showcased his instrumental abilities, playing keyboard and synthesizer, guitar, drums and percussion on the album. HIStory produced two major hit singles and videos in America. "Scream", a duet with Jackson's pop star sister Janet, was supported by a futuristic music video which remains, at a cost of $7 million, the most expensive music video ever filmed. Thanks to a change in Billboard's chart policy, the R. Kelly-produced "You Are Not Alone" became the first song to ever debut at number one on the Billboard Hot 100 singles chart. The album's third single, "They Don't Care About Us", peaked at #30 on the Hot 100 and #10 on the Billboard R&B charts. The original video for "They Don't Care About Us" was banned in some countries due to its offensive content. It is also known as the Prison Version. A second video was filmed in its place in Brazil. Other songs such as "Stranger in Moscow" found better success in Europe. "Earth Song" beat The Beatles' "Free As A Bird" to the UK christmas #1 spot in 1995, and is Jackson's highest selling solo single to date.

In 2001, HIStory Greatest Hits - Disc 1 was re-released on its own as a greatest hits album. By December 2005 it had confirmed 500,000 sales in the United States.

In 1997, the members of The Jackson 5 were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Michael Jackson would be inducted into the Hall of Fame as a solo performer in 2001.

The same year, Jackson released an album of remixes of hit singles from the "HIStory" album titled Blood on the Dance Floor: HIStory in the Mix. Jackson also recorded five original songs which were put on the album ("Blood On The Dancefloor", "Is It Scary?", "Ghosts", "Superfly Sister" and "Morphine"). Of the new songs, three were released globally, including the title track which peaked at #42 in the US but reached #1 in the UK. The album was largely ignored on the US charts. Other single releases from the album included "Ghosts", a song later based on the short-film Jackson created in that year, and "Is It Scary?". The album went on to sell over seven million copies worldwide, becoming the best-selling remix album of all time.

In 1999, it was announced that Jackson was working on a new album. This album later became Invincible.

Michael Jackson - Invincible: 2001-2003

On October 30, 2001 after two years in production, Jackson's Invincible album was released. The album debuted at #1 on the Billboard Top 200 album chart, and went on to sell over two million copies in America (11 million worldwide). The singles released from the album include "You Rock My World" (US #10; R&B #13; UK #2), "Cry" (UK #25), "Butterflies" (US #14; R&B #2) and "Heaven Can Wait" (R&B #72). The album included guests such as Carlos Santana, Brandy (who performed background vocals on the album's first track, "Unbreakable"), and a posthumous appearance by The Notorious B.I.G..

On Invincible, Jackson expanded his instrumental involvement on the album, playing most of the instruments and much of the programming in collaboration with producers Rodney Jerkins, Teddy Riley, and Dr. Freeze.

Just before the release of Invincible, Jackson informed Sony Music Entertainment head, Tommy Mottola, that he was not going to renew his contract, signed in 1991, which was about to expire in terms of supplying the label with albums of full-new material for release through ER/SME.

In 2002 Mottola cancelled all the singles releases, video shootings and promotions, concerning the Invincible album. Due to this, Jackson made allegations about Sony not supporting its African-American artists. Jackson referred to Sony Entertainment head, Tommy Mottola, as a "devil" and a "racist" who used black artists for his own personal gain. Jackson also insisted that Mottola called Irv Gotti "fat nigger" . Sony issued a statement stating that they found the allegations strange, since Motolla was once married to half-Black R&B star Mariah Carey [4].

There were seven singles and videos that Jackson wanted to release from Invincible. Initially, Jackson wanted to released "Unbreakable" as the debut single from the album, partnered with a 20-minute music video. However, Sony wanted Jackson to release "You Rock My World" instead of "Unbreakable" due to shorter production time of the video accompanying the single. "You Rock My World" was the only worldwide single release from Invincible. Jackson had also planned to release "Break of Dawn", "Butterflies", "Speechless", "Cry" and "Whatever Happens" (with Carlos Santana). These singles were never released because of cancellation by Mr. Mottola [5].

On October 21, 2001, Michael Jackson performed the song "What More Can I Give" at the United We Stand: What More Can I Give charity concert for the September 11 terrorist attacks, in Washington, D.C. Twenty-seven other artists joined Jackson onstage during the song, including Mariah Carey, Céline Dion, the Backstreet Boys, Justin Timberlake, Beyoncé Knowles, Usher, Anastacia, Mya, Ricky Martin, Julio Iglesias and Tom Petty. After the event raised USD 3 million, Jackson planned to release it as a single.

The single release of "What More Can I Give" was cancelled by Mottola after he also cancelled all single releases, video shoots and promotion of Jackson's Invincible album, following an announcment that Jackson would not be renewing his contract with Sony which would expire in 2003. The song was made available for paid download on the Internet, and had a video shot for it, but the single was never commercially released as intended. Later a catalog featuring the song, called "What More Can I Give: Michael Jackson and Friends", was released instead.

Michael Jackson - One More Chance: 2003-2005

In early 2003, rumors spread through-out the Internet that Michael Jackson was working on a new album. There rumored titled for the album was "Resurrection". Tracks that were reported to be on the album included "Another Day" (with Lenny Kravitz), "Prayer for Peace" (with Barry Gibb), "Crush", "Trust in My Heart", "The One Truth", "The Pain", "Pressure", "Seduction" and "Xscape". The public has yet to hear any of these songs except for "Xscape" which was leaked to the Internet in early 2003. Michael Jackson released a statement on January 18, 2003 regarding the leak and ordered his production company, MJJ Productions, to take "all measures necessary in order to ensure that the illegal distribution of Xscape is ceased." In mid 2003, a second song titled "Get Out of My Mind" surfaced on the internet, but it was later confirmed that the song was not by Michael Jackson, but by a French impersonator. Not long after the second leak, work on the album was put on hold and plans went underway for a greatest-hits album to be released instead.

On November 20, 2003, Jackson released a new song, "One More Chance", written by R. Kelly. It was the only new track included on his Number Ones greatest hits album, released the same year. Number Ones was the first of 4 consecutive "Greatest Hits" collections to be released by Michael Jackson. As of 2005, the album has sold over six million copies worldwide. "One More Chance" went on to become the number-one track on Billboard's R&B/Hip-Hop Singles Sales chart for three straight weeks. An original video for "One More Chance" was filmed but never released. By December 2005, Number Ones had sold 1,000,000 copies in the United States.

In November 2004, Jackson released his first box set, Michael Jackson: The Ultimate Collection, a five disc collection which included many of his hits, unreleased material from the past 25 years, demo recordings of some of his biggest hits, four new songs, and a bonus DVD that featured a concert from the Dangerous world tour, originally aired on HBO in 1992. As of September 2005, The Dangerous World Tour DVD is available on its own. Six months later, Epic released a two-disc compilation, The Essential Michael Jackson, which focused only on the hit records. The Ultimate Collection has sold 250, 000 copies, and The Essential Michael Jackson (which sold 8,000 copies in the first week in the U.S., and 45,000 in the first week in the U.K.) has sold 2 million copies to date.

Michael Jackson - Visionary: 2005-present

After being acquitted of charges of child sexual abuse on June 13 2005, Jackson moved to Bahrain where he spent his time writing new music, including a charity single dedicated to the victims of Hurricane Katrina.^[6]

In September 2005, Jackson's publicist, Raymone Bain, announced that Jackson was busy working with various recording artists to produce a single dedicated to victims of Hurricane Katrina in order to raise funds for relief.^[7] Hoping to rekindle the success of "We Are the World", which raised millions for aid to Africa, Jackson has enlisted the involvement of other recording superstars to help him record the single. From his new location in the Middle East, Jackson has been working through global satellite and phone connections with the 12 recording artists who are participating. So far, not all of the 12 recording artists have been confirmed.

Jackson is the executive writer and producer of the single. The Katrina single will be released through 2 Seas Records, owned by Prince Abdulla Osama Hamad Alkhalifa Hussein of Bahrain. All proceeds from the sale of the single will be donated to the victims of Hurricane Katrina. Despite all the rumours about the details of the new single, the title of the charity single is rumoured to be "I Have A Dream"; however both the title and date of the release for this single are still unknown.

On 8th November 2005, Gloria Haydock (founder of MJ News International) accounced that she received a phonecall from Michael Jackson, telling her of upcoming releases and plans for the future [8]. Jackson told Haydock about a new song which he had written during the 2005 trial of Michael Jackson and which he wanted the fans to know about. "I can't wait to record it. I wrote it during the trial. You could let them know...", Jackson said over the phone. The song Jackson was inspired to write for the fans during the trial is titled "You Are So Beautiful".

In 2006 Sony BMG will release a singles box-set titled Visionary - The Video Singles.

Each week over a five-month-period starting in 2006, Sony BMG will release twenty of Michael Jackson’s biggest hit singles. Each single will be issued as a DualDisc allowing not only his most popular singles to be collected but also their accompanying music videos. Michael Jackson worked on the project as executive producer, giving final approval on the music, video editing and packaging design.

The first CD single from the box set to be released is "Thriller", which will be released with the collector's box on February 20th 2006. All the singles from the box will be eligible to chart, as they will be released individually as regular singles.

Adapted from the Wikipedia article "Solo career", under the G.N U Free Docmentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki