Michael's Spotify Statistics

So far Spotify only listed the number of spins for the Top 10 songs of an artist. Now you can see the number of spins for all songs. I thought it would be interesting to summerize how many spins each of his songs get. Some are not surprising, some are and there are some shockingly ignored gems.

Some songs have several versions on Spotify (album version, single version, 2003 edit etc.). In those cases I added the numbers. I completely ignored remixes (except for Xscape) and I counted demos seperately. I'm yet to include Jacksons and J5 material, but it's coming up.

So here are the numbers by album:

Off The Wall

1. Don't Stop 'Til You Get Enough (Album version + Essential version) 17,158,579
2. Rock with You (Album+Single version) 12,490,703
3. Off The Wall (Album version + Essential version) 5,045,398
4. She's Out of My Life 4,121,632
5. Workin' Day and Night 2,311,405
6. I Can't Help It 1,067,219
7. Get on the Floor 1,023,370
8. Girlfriend 830,586
9. Burn This Disco Out 641,422
10. It's The Falling in Love 633,301

Most shockinly underrated song of the album: Get on the Floor. I guess it has to do with the fact that it wasn't a single.

Thriller 25

1. Billie Jean 76,540,831 (MJ's most listened to song on Spotify)
2. Beat It 48,828,468
3. Thriller (Album Version+Single Version+2003 Edit) 40,742,020
4. P.Y.T. 20,940,612
5. Human Nature (Album Version + Essential) 15,535,587
6. Wanna Be Startin' Somethin (Album Version+Single Version) 14,374,620
7. The Girl Is Mine 6,462,160
8. Baby Be Mine 2,281,033
9. The Lady In My Life 1,907,726

10. Someone In The Dark 794,985
11. Billie Jean Home Demo 1981 409,763
12. Carousel 303,359

Surprise hit: P.Y.T.
Underrated IMO: Wanna Be Startin' Somethin' (one of MJ's best songs IMO) and The Lady In My Life (better than both The Girl Is Mine or Baby Be Mine IMO.)

Bad 25

1. Man In The Mirror (Album Version + 2003 Edit) 52,440,870
2. Smooth Criminal 39,332,963
3. The Way You Make Me Feel (Album Version + Single Version) 27,711,620
4. Dirty Diana 21,741,285
5. Bad 20,689,927
6. I Just Can't Stop Loving You 10,728,014
7. Leave Me Alone 5,683,117
8. Liberian Girl 5,265,380
9. Another Part of Me 4,214,445
10. Speed Demon 2,471,286
11. Just Good Friends 1,847,640

12. Streetwalker 1,090,383
13. Don't Be Messin' 'Round 974,261
14. I'm So Blue 892,681
15. Al Capone 820,598
16. Todo Mi Amor Eres Tu 808,652
17. Abortion Papers 772,812
18. Free 737,147
19. Fly Away 730,321
20. Price of Fame 671,621
21. Je Ne Veux Pas La Fin De Nous 521,333

Underrated IMO: Another Part of Me. Surprised to see Don't Be Messin' as the second most spun demo because it's pretty uncomplete, but it is indeed a great tune.

Dangerous

1. Black or White (Album + Single Version) 32,116,558
2. Heal The World 11,460,210
3. Will You Be There (Album Version + Single Version) 8,796,648
4. Remember The Time 8,412,512
5. Jam 4,529,555
6. Who Is It (Album Version + 7" Edit) 4,495,151
7. Give In To Me 3,481,223
8. In The Closet (Album Version + Single Version) 3,115,457
9. Dangerous 1,821,013
10. Why You Wanna Trip On Me 877,254
11. Gone Too Soon 709,525
12. She Drives Me Wild 631,464
13. Keep The Faith 615,227
14. Can't Let Her Get Away 560,918

This is where the real criminalities begin. Heal The World second, but Who Is It down on sixth? To an extent I understand Black or White, because it was a Nr 1. hit, but to me it's almost one of the weakest tracks on the album. It's a nice pop song, but rather uninteresting musically compared to the genius of Who Is It, Give In To Me or passion of Will You Be There etc. People should really allow themselves to look beyond the hyped hits.

HIStory

1. They Don't Care About Us 25,382,339
2. Earth Song (Album Version + Radio Edit) 13,086,471
3. You Are Not Alone (Album Version + Single Version + Radio Edit) 12,399,681
4. Scream 2,680,106
5. Stranger in Moscow 2,650,572
6. Come Together 1,868,110
7. Smile 963,782
8. Childhood 782,688
9. History 575,165
10. Tabloid Junkie 551,795
11. 2 Bad 530,134
12. This Time Around 509,175
13. D.S. 508,044
14. Money 496,388
15. Little Susie 453,670

More criminalities... Especially Stranger in Moscow massively underrated. So much better song than YANA. Actually almost every other song better on this album than YANA IMO. But then that was the #1 single. Glad to see TDCAU getting the love it deserves though, despite of it being buried under an artificial scandal by the US media when it was released.

Blood on the Dance Floor

1. Blood on the Dance Floor 2,804,350
2. Ghosts 1,493,972
3. Morphine 418,524
4. Is It Scary 368,236
5. Superfly Sister 235,187

Invincible

1. You Rock My World (Album Version + Essential + Radio Edit) 11,240,284
2. Butterflies 2,062,900
3. Speechless 1,148,959
4. Break of Dawn 1,130,863
5. Unbreakable 1,070,162
6. Whatever Happens 822,919
7. Heaven Can Wait 673,860
8. Invincible 452,249
9. Heartbreaker 440,229
10. Cry 416,271
11. You Are My Life 396,789
12. 2000 Watts 379,353
13. The Lost Children 357,322
14. Don't Walk Away 312,708
15. Privacy 311,145
16. Threatened 302,182

And the biggest criminality of all: Threatened being not only the least spun on Invincible but being his second least spun of all only after Superfly Sister... One of his best songs IMO and definitely one of the best on this album.

The posthumus albums (since they are fresher, esp. Xscape, they automatically get relatively bigger number of spins as any new music tends to get more spins than old songs).

Michael

1. Hold My Hand 35,172,497
2. Hollywood Tonight 3,419,236
3. (I Like) The Way You Love Me 1,658,800
4. Behind The Mask 1,471,783
5. Much Too Soon 1,198,369
6. (I Can't Make It) Another Day 1,086,704
7. Best of Joy 979,367

The real bitter part which almost made me throw up about people's ears and tastes:

The fakes:

Monster 2,499,705
Keep Your Head Up 1,763,324
Breaking News 1,070,150

It's very sad to see that these crappy fake ones got more spins than Best of Joy, Much Too Soon, Behind The Mask... I'd like to think it's only due to the controversy and people getting curious of these songs when hearing about the controversy. If not, I get consoled by the fact that this is after all the generation which keeps the likes of Niki Minaj and Iggy Azalea high on the charts...

Xscape

1. Love Never Felt So Good (JT duet) 29,706,019
2. Love Never Felt So Good (solo) 27,013,749
3. A Place With No Name 7,820,601
4. Slave to the Rhythm 6,837,872
5. Chicago 4,826,541
6. Do You Know Where Your Children Are (remix and original combined - for some reason there is no seperate number for these) 4,397,617
7. Loving You 4,347,157
8. Blue Gangsta (remix and original combined - for some reason there is no seperate number for these) 4,178,144
9. Love Never Felt So Good (original) 3,349,064
10. Xscape 3,115,457
11. A Place with No Name (original) 2,031,099
12. Slave to the Rhythm (original) 1,854,061
13. Chicago (original) 1,832,656
14. Loving You (original) 1,745,587
15. Xscape (original) 1,431,127

I guess here the surprise is the original Xscape being last. The number of spins the solo and duet version LNFSG got is pretty similar though, JT version only has 2 million more spins.

This Is It

1. This Is It 6,433,174
2. This Is It - Orchestra Version 1,477,802
3. She's Out of My Life (demo) 1,179,548
4. Beat It (demo) 1,161,316
5. Wanna Be Startin' Somethin' (demo) 994,864
6. Planet Earth (poem) 755,567

A full list:
(I did not include the fake Cascio tracks.)

I'll probably have more to say later, but from first sight here's what I got - I'm very happy TDCAU is getting so many spins and is rated up there among all of these massive hits (10th most heard). I'm also glad to see LNFSG solo isn't all that far from the duet version, especially since I heard some people say if it wasn't for JT it wouldn't have been such a great success.

OTW album's chart is pretty much what I would have guessed it would be like if I had to guess. Get on the Floor is a great song with a great production but I'm not surprised it's not above the rest of them. Very surprised WBSS isn't higher (at least above PYT and maybe Human Nature) since it's such a feel good song and the "ma ma se" part is so iconic, but the big 3 (BJ, BI and Thriller) are as predictable as tomorrow's sunrise,

Thank you for this thread and all the information you got together... I appreciate it!

To me Get on the Floor is one of MJ's best songs. Definitely Top 3 on OTW in my opinion. But then it wasn't a single, MJ never performed it in concert, so I guess it's relatively unknown to the general public. Yes, WBSS too should be higher. And Who Is It of course, which is always on or around the top in fan polls, but again, I guess it's relatively unknown to the general public.

^Yeah there's no doubt about the song's greatness... but it's also understandable why it's rated there. I see Whatever Happens is rated 6th while Butterflies is 2nd, that's a sore spot for me because I feel like Whatever Happens could have been a great success if they released it as a single. I'm not that a big fan of Butterflies (except the great vocal performance) and I think WH is much better and has more potential, but I guess the radio release has something to do with it in that case too...

One thing is for sure: MJ's second most popular album is not OTW (like critics often suggest) but Bad (that critics often call "dated"). Dangerous too gets more spins than OTW. Even HIStory, which is not really easy listening (though IMO one of his best albums, but I can understand why it's not as popular as Thriller or Bad, it's just not as easy and fun).

It's a shame that Is It Scary is so low on the list

Thanks for the work gone into this.

Some interesting stuff. I guess it's always the way that the songs you already know get the biggest spins.

^^ I agree with tony. I'm a little bumped to learn that Superfly Sister is the song with the least spins since I love that song so much, other than it was kinda what I predicted

Really great work respect.

Btw what are the statistics for the Jackson5/The Jacksons albums? That would be interesting to see.

A statistical comparation of the albums is difficult because of the different number of songs on them, so I think maybe the best way to compare is to count an average for the number of spins on each album so here it is. I only counted this for the albums released in his lifetime because posthumus albums have a certain "unfair" advantage over them being new and released currently when Spotify already existed.

1. Thriller 25,290,340
2. Bad 17,466,050
3. Dangerous 5,830,194
4. Off The Wall 4,532,362
5. HIStory 4,229,208
6. Invincible 1,344,887
7. Blood on the Dance Floor 1,064,054

Like I said the different number of songs on the albums make this below stat a bit distorted, but here is also the list based on the total number of spins an albums songs got so far (not counting the Thriller 25, Bad 25 extras, only the original albums):

1. Thriller 227,613,057
2. Bad 192,126,547
3. Dangerous 81,622,715
4. HIStory 63 438 120
5. Off The Wall 45,323,615
6. Invincible 21,518,195
7. BOTDF 5,320,269

Themidwestcowboy said:

Btw what are the statistics for the Jackson5/The Jacksons albums? That would be interesting to see.

Click to expand...

I'm gonna do it later.

I can't help but suspect that the reason Threatened is so low is because of the fact that it's the very last song on a generally overlooked album. If Threatened had been the opening cut on Invincible, I reckon it'd be much higher.


A crime indeed though. Brilliant song.

I have a feeling that I Want You Back, ABC, I'll Be There and The Love You Save is gonna be in the top 4 of The Jackson 5 list. If that's not the top 4 I'll be shocked

My guess for The Jackson's top 3 is Blame It On The Boogie, Can You Feel It and Shake Your Body (Down To The Ground)

At first glance (without going through it all - and I will have to count together the many different versions of Shaek Your Body, for example).

Jacksons

1. Blame It on the Boogie
2. Can You Feel It
3. Shake Your Body

J5

1. I Want You Back ~40 million
2. ABC 30,681,539
3. Santa Claus Is Coming to Town ~10 million
4. I'll be there ~5.9 million
5. Who's Lovin' You 5,321,885

Also I have not gone through the Motown MJ solo albums yet.

analogue said:

I have a feeling that I Want You Back, ABC, I'll Be There and The Love You Save is gonna be in the top 4 of The Jackson 5 list. If that's not the top 4 I'll be shocked

My guess for The Jackson's top 3 is Blame It On The Boogie, Can You Feel It and Shake Your Body (Down To The Ground)

Click to expand...

Here are the most popular songs for both The Jackson 5 and The Jacksons, re-ordered by their respective playcounts. I'm just taking these from the 'Popular' section of their profiles. Some songs aren't 'linked' with one another, hence there are duplicates in the Popular tab and so I have correlated their playcounts respectively.

The Jackson 5:
1. I Want You Back (34,245,809+7,531,036 = 41,776,845)
2. ABC (30,681,529)
3. Santa Claus is Coming to Town (10,279,288)
4. I'll Be There (5,907,809)
5. Who's Lovin' You (5,321,885)
6. Frosty the Snowman (3,311,425)
7. The Love You Save (3,167,819)
8. I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus (2,858,733)
9. Dancing Machine - Single Version (1,677,893)

Now The Jacksons is more complicated, as not only are there songs from Immortal, but their songs aren't really 'linked' so there are duplicates from multiple albums showing up in the 'Popular' list on their profile. Gives you a rough idea anyway I suppose...

The Jacksons
1. Blame It on the Boogie (15,983,699)
2. Can You Feel It - Single Version (9,297,919+1,666,024 = 10,963,943)
3. Shake Your Body (Down to the Ground) (4,027,118+2,302,077+488,562 = 6,817,757)
4. Immortal Megamix (842,394)
5. Beat It/State of Shock - Immortal Version (598,710)
6. Show You The Way To Go (573,513)
7. Shake Your Body (Down to the Ground) - Immortal Version (475,705)

Jacksons. I did not count remixes, including Immortal, but I counted all the different edits (album version, single version etc.).

Full list

Album's order based on the average number of spins of its songs:

1. Destiny 2,608,760
2. Triumph 1,422,277
3. The Jacksons 183,962
4. Victory 182,551
5. Goin' Places 52,366
6. 2300 Jackson Street 38,975

Album's order based on the total number of spins of its songs:

1. Destiny 20,870,077
2. Triumph 12,800,489
3. The Jacksons 1,839,620
4. Victory 1,460,406
5. Goin' Places 471,293
6. 2300 Jackson Street 428,729

^^Wow-how odd that Destiny is so much higher than Triumph!!!??? You'd think if you loved one of the albums, you'd love the other as much.

It was really hard to decide between the two in the poll thread.

Respect-thank you so much for putting together these numbers. A lot of work but really interesting!!