Michael Jackson's 6th Studio album, Thriller

[Agonum]

Just chiming in to say "ben" gets weekly airplay on a 6Os/70s station I listen to regularly. Not surprising as Ben was a massive hit in Belgium.

 

[filmandmusic]

 

[Agonum]

If y'all want to holler at Forever Michael, Got to be there then go ahead ...... It's Motown standards full of covers.

I'll stick to Michael's first release as a MAN!

Off the Wall has two covers, too.

 

[Blues_Away2023]

Off the Wall has two covers, too.

Not in the same way , I'm talking the Motown standards, you've got a friend, my girl etc

 

[Agonum]

Not in the same way , I'm talking the Motown standards, you've got a friend, my girl etc

You’ve Got a Friend is no Motown standard.

 

[zinniabooklover]

you've presented nothing but facts,I admit,but,to be realistic,if you'd ask the averrage music listener about Michael Jackson's "Ben" or anything (outside of the US,that is),then they'll most likely look at you like you're coming from Mars or anything

Coming in to defend my song, lol.

(and I wouldn't blame them for that tbh,a love song sang to what it seems to be a rat,by a 12-14 year old Michael Jackson,isn't quite what I would be catching myself listening to on my free will,but yeah [...]

I almost never think about the rat story when I listen to Ben. There is so much else to be woven around those lyrics. But, even if I do think about the rat, how poignant is that story? A lonely child (or young teenager) who feels no-one understands them and they can only find true companionship with this rat. Isn't that rather moving? It is to me. Painful and poignant.

it being his most released song barely means anything,if you ask me..it's most likely never going to show up in a dicussion with the averrage person,where you'd ask them to name five random Michael Jackson songs that they've heard or even love,in the best of cases (never outside of the US and maybe selected parts of the UK and Australia,so whatever..)

This might be true, I couldn't say. But after Michael died the song I heard the most on UK radio was Ben. I'm not going to claim it was the song that got played the most, I have no idea. Probably that was BJ. But Ben got tons of air play. People just naturally gravitated towards it. It wasn't about the lyrics at that moment, it was just his beautiful voice and that haunting lament.

(or am I just clueless and do not actually know what I'm talking about?)

Not gonna go there, lol.

You’ve Got a Friend is no Motown standard.

Exactly so!

 

[filmandmusic]

Something I forgot to add. The day MJ died I went to a club. The club played MJ’s dance songs non stop for hours (I was so proud) but when the evening came to a close the final song that got played before everyone got home was “ben”.
I mean he could have played a ton of other ballads but the DJ chose ben.

 

[zinniabooklover]

Something I forgot to add. The day MJ died I went to a club. The club played MJ’s dance songs non stop for hours (I was so proud) but when the evening came to a close the final song that got played before everyone got home was “ben”.
I mean he could have played a ton of other ballads but the DJ chose ben.

Exactly so. They all did. It was the perfect song and everyone understood.

 

[innuendo141]

One Day In Your Life, first solo number 1 in the UK.

 

[Hot_Street]

One Day In Your Life, first solo number 1 in the UK.

from his fourth solo album
recorded in 1974
number 1 in 1981

 

[innuendo141]

from his fourth solo album
recorded in 1974
number 1 in 1981

A fine album, and an absolute gem of a song. One of the best ballads of his entire solo career.

 

[filmandmusic]

Exactly so. They all did. It was the perfect song and everyone understood.

Yeah it was my favorite part of the evening, it was only then at that moment I realized he was gone for good, not that that was a good thing but you know what I mean lol. It also sounded so good that loud.

 

[Salami]

I don’t think you can just dismiss 30-40 songs of his. Whether you like them or not and whether they’re good or not, they exist and we probably wouldn’t have ended up with Off The Wall without them.

Ben and One Day In Your Life in particular are phenomenal songs, those early albums are a nice listen.

 

[zinniabooklover]

Yeah it was my favorite part of the evening, it was only then at that moment I realized he was gone for good, not that that was a good thing but you know what I mean lol.

I know exactly what you mean.

It also sounded so good that loud.

I can imagine. That soaring voice.

"They don't see you as I do
I wish they would try to
I'm sure they'd think again"

 

[filmandmusic]

"They don't see you as I do
I wish they would try to
I'm sure they'd think again"

Again almost autobiographical, like I touched upon in that other thread. Motown knew Michael very well, that much is clear.

edit: Ben is at 76 million streams on Spotify, pretty good for a kid and 51 year old tune.

 

[DuranDuran]

Again almost autobiographical, like I touched upon in that other thread. Motown knew Michael very well, that much is clear.

Motown had little to do with it. Ben is the theme song from a movie. Ben (the movie) is the sequel to another movie called Willard. Ben (the song) was originally written for Donny Osmond to sing, but he was busy and couldn't do it. The Osmonds song One Bad Apple was written for the Jackson 5.

 

[filmandmusic]

Motown had little to do with it. Ben is the theme song from a movie. Ben (the movie) is the sequel to another movie called Willard. Ben (the song) was originally written for Donny Osmond to sing, but he was busy and couldn't do it.

True but they still thought it was a good song for Michael to sing, most likely because Michael himself told them he really loved it.

 

[Hot_Street]

Another reason why his Motown albums are special:
Michael became the first Motown artist to go solo whilst still an active member of a group.
Others like Diana Ross had to leave their groups before becoming solo artists.

 

[Victorious]

It's funny to think that (if I am correct) MJ didn't want to do more albums after 'Bad', and so 'Dangerous' and 'History' exist only because of the abundance of new tracks meant as extras for the compilation albums which 'Dangerous' (Decade) and 'History' actually were meant to be and History also became

 

[Hot_Street]

It's funny to think that (if I am correct) MJ didn't want to do more albums after 'Bad', and so 'Dangerous' and 'History' exist only because of the abundance of new tracks meant as extras for the compilation albums which 'Dangerous' (Decade) and 'History' actually were meant to be and History also became

to me the new contract in 1991 doesn't sound like he didn't want to do more albums:

In March 1991, Jackson renewed his contract with Sony for $65 million (equivalent to $140 million in 2022), a record-breaking deal,[169] beating Neil Diamond's renewal contract with Columbia Records.[170]

Michael Jackson - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

 

[miikasillanpaa]

I don’t think that anyone here thinks that OTW was really MJs first solo album, but i can clearly see why someone would say it is his first.

I’m just sharing my opinions here so don’t write angry messages for me because of this

So ”child MJ” was fantastic as a J5 member and as a solo artist, but i dont think it was enough to be a world wide star or King of Pop even though he was extremely famous in America, he was still more famous from J5 than his solo albums (please correct me if im wrong i wasnt alive during those days). When OTW was released he was a grown up man and he wasn’t so much ”attached” to the Jacksons anymore so OTW was maybe more like a breakthrough album(?).

Please let’s keep this conversation polite and respect each others opinions

 

[Hot_Street]

To me the Motown solo albums are excellent in production and vocals, but a bit too samey. OTW sounds like a breath of very fresh air compared to them.

 

[Victorious]

to me the new contract in 1991 doesn't sound like he didn't want to do more albums:

It was my believe that he didn't plan to do any more studio albums after 'Bad'. 'Dangerous' was meant to be a compilation album (Decade) and 'turned' into a studio album, the same for CD 2 of 'History'. I think he mainly wanted to do movie scores, compilations and other projects (like 'Ghosts')

 

[Thatkliqkid]

No, it doesn't bother me. It's factually correct.
Why are people so keen to flat-out ignore the fact that Michael Jackson had been recording songs for 12 years before Off the Wall?

 

[R1chard]

Why are people so keen to flat-out ignore the fact that Michael Jackson had been recording songs for 12 years before Off the Wall?

That's what I was getting at. Really strange to ignore such a big proportion of his output. And on a technicality.