Off the Wall
Michael Jackson
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Off the Wall by Michael Jackson ranked # 68 on Rolling Stone Magazine's 500 Greatest Albums list.
Off the Wall was American pop and R&B singer Michael Jackson's breakthrough 1979 solo album. The album was a major success for the Jacksons frontman, despite critics who said Jackson's career was doomed after leaving Motown in 1975. The album was later certified as 7x Platinum by RIAA.
Quincy Jones, the musical director for Motown's film adaptation of The Wiz (in which Jackson starred as the Scarecrow), served as the album's producer, with lyrics and music by Jackson, Heatwave's Rod Temperton, Stevie Wonder, and Paul McCartney, among others.
Despite its commercial success, Jackson felt the album should have made a much bigger impact. In particular, Jackson was angry that he had "only" won one Grammy Award at the Grammy Awards of 1980 (Grammy Award for Best Male R&B Vocal Performance for "Don't Stop 'til You Get Enough"), losing the Grammy Award for Best Disco Recording to Gloria Gaynor's "I Will Survive". He became determined to exceed everybody's expectations with his next album. Even Jackson himself couldn't have prepared himself for the phenomenon that followed. (Though his personal vow was fulfilled at the Grammy Awards of 1984 when he swept the ceremony, taking home a record-breaking 8 awards.)
More than twenty-five years after its release, Off the Wall remains one of the defining moments in Jackson's music career and began his domination as one of pop music's leading artists. In 2003 the TV network VH1 named Off the Wall the thirty-sixth greatest album of all time. Rolling Stone ranked it #62 in their list of the 500 Greatest Albums of All Time. Jackson's next album, Thriller, was even more successful.
Track Listing
- Don't Stop 'Til You Get Enough
- Rock with You
- Working Day and Night
- Get on the Floor
- Off the Wall
- Girlfriend
- She's Out Of My Life
- I Can't Help It
- It's the Falling in Love
- Burn This Disco Out
100 Greatest Albums of All Time
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