Latest on MJJC

Should HIStory have been a single album?

Tony R said:
You're right but The Essential is so much better. If you can get past the single edits. Stick on Give In To Me and Jam and it's almost perfect.

It's just too long for the casual fan I guess. But it really is the full story with J5 and Jacksons biggest hits also.
Click to expand...
Essential is perfect. I loaded that on my pcs with the Essential Jacksons and the Jackson 5 Definitive Collection by Motown and play the computers and the Cd player at the same time-so I can blast it all over the house.
 
Any of you peeps have The Essential 3.0? Would like to have that for the collection.
 
Personally, I'm glad HIStory was a double album.

To me, it felt like he was reminding everyone of why they loved him in the first place (after the worst allegations anyone could face), as well as the concept of 'past and present'. In addition, if it wasn't for the Greatest Hits disc, I don't think I'd be sitting here today talking about MJ.

The reason I got into MJ was because I saw Thriller on YouTube a good 7 or so ago. I played the song over and over and suddenly remembered Mum and Dad had an MJ album! So I rushed over to their CD collection, found the disc and studied the back. Almost gave up until I finally saw '9. THRILLER'. I ended up playing that disc loudly and discovering many songs I love (Billie Jean, Black or White, Bad to name a few) were songs made by MJ. If Thriller wasn't on HIStory, I would've likely not bothered with the disc and eventually moved onto something else.

Whilst lacking some of his best songs (notably SC), the Greatest Hits disc did not offset anything on the Present disc for me. I did listen to Disc 1 mostly at first, but I also ended up eventually listening to Disc 2 and discovering many more songs I liked. Obviously my views are largely influenced by my personal experiences but still, I'm far from the only person who's obsession with MJ begun with HIStory's Greatest Hits disc.

The double-disc set put the price up and probably did throw off the odd casual listener but admittedly, I don't really care about the price. It's not like it offset the albums sales too much, having sold over 20,000,000 copies (and wasn't that figure from before MJ's death? I've seen it float around for aaggeesss).

I agree about how there's too many 'greatest hits' discs for MJ, I'm seriously going to be annoyed if the Estate announces another one in the next decade or so (although in 20 years or something? I'll be totally down for that - introduce a new generation to MJ. Think what 1 did for The Beatles back in 2000).
 
The Essential MJ collection is obviously better, but there's something about chosing tracks to fit on ONE single disc in under 80 minutes.
Lots of people can put out 2 disc hits albums, but to keep costs down or keep it just the biggest hits, they do the 1 disc route (or these days, the 2 disc will be a deluxe edition on iTunes).
 
I hope we will not see a new GH release the next many years. - And when it does come it should include gems like Hollywood Tonight and Best of Joy and maybe even Much Too Soon. :lol: - and LNFSG maybe.

but maybe that's more fitting in 20 years time when 4 posthomous albums have been released - then make a Posthomous GH with the best from after he passed - and maybe another with songs from before he died.
 
It was the right business move. Let's face it- this was Michael's first album since being publicly accused of being a child molester. The public aren't that forgiving. By throwing a greatest hits package together with a full new album, Michael was saying "Look, lets get back to my music. Remember all these hits I had? Good, now listen to my new stuff".

This tying in with having Scream as the lead single, being heavily promoted as the first duet ever between Michael and Janet, this ensured that more heads were turned and that people were listening.

HIStory may not have sold as much as a stand alone album, but I think it would have. To me its still his 2nd best album.
 
analogue;4077982 said:
Why wasn't Smooth Criminal included on the greatest hits disk? That's something I'll never understand
Click to expand...

BAD album was making still sales due to “Smooth Criminal” and such a move would have had a detrimental effect on the BAD sales.
 
mj_frenzy;4082157 said:
BAD album was making still sales due to “Smooth Criminal” and such a move would have had a detrimental effect on the BAD sales.
Click to expand...

By that logic Essential has a detrimental effect on Thriller's sales because Essential has 7 of its 9 songs plus many other songs from other albums.
 
mj_frenzy;4082157 said:
BAD album was making still sales due to “Smooth Criminal” and such a move would have had a detrimental effect on the BAD sales.
Click to expand...

Lol, what kind of warped logic is this?
 
respect77 said:
By that logic Essential has a detrimental effect on Thriller's sales because Essential has 7 of its 9 songs plus many other songs from other albums.
Click to expand...

Funnily enough, essentially that's what happened to me. I got Essentials before most of his studio albums and Off the Wall, Thriller and Bad ended up being my last purchased albums :p
 
HIStoric said:
Funnily enough, essentially that's what happened to me. I got Essentials before most of his studio albums and Off the Wall, Thriller and Bad ended up being my last purchased albums :p
Click to expand...

when i got 'The Ultimate Collection' my dad was like ''you have most of these song's anyway'' but i pointed out the exclusive recording's that were included!
 
Zakk said:
when i got 'The Ultimate Collection' my dad was like ''you have most of these song's anyway'' but i pointed out the exclusive recording's that were included!
Click to expand...

I think I mainly got it to complete my collection (I had Essentials, Dangerous, HIStory, BOTDF and Invincible) and that it seemed weird that I was a big fan of Michael Jackson... but didn't even have his most famous albums.

Plus I got some great new songs too (I recall one of the first times I played Baby Be Mine - good memories ^_^).
 
I also don't think Smooth Criminal is the only reason why people buy the Bad album. For that you do not need to buy a whole album. Man In The Mirror, The Way You Make Me Feel, Dirty Diana etc. etc. are also very popular songs - just based on the number of spins they get on Spotify.
 
respect77;4082164 said:
By that logic Essential has a detrimental effect on Thriller's sales because Essential has 7 of its 9 songs plus many other songs from other albums.
Click to expand...

No. “The Essential” came out during an inactive period, hence its strong (and huge) track listing.
 
mj_frenzy;4082580 said:
No. “The Essential” came out during an inactive period, hence its strong (and huge) track listing.
Click to expand...

I can't see how it's relevant to the effect it has on Thriller's sales. And like I said, people do not buy Bad only for Smooth Criminal. That's like reducing that album to one song, when in fact it's almost like a greatest hits collection in terms of famous songs and hits on it.
 
I think it was a waste of time releasing it as a 2 disc set when Sony eventually released the greatest hits cd all on it's own in 2001. The album (both the 1995 original materials, and the greatest hits) would have both sold extremely well on their own IMO.

I too remember the price of that cd. Here in the states, it cost about $30 dollars for it.
 
Initially Michael planned on History featuring all new songs but changed mind and featured what we witnessed w/the classic song/new song combo
 
Tony R said:
What's that based on, that it was Michael's idea?
Click to expand...



after Dangerous, preparing for his new studio album, he looked to make history by eventually by looking back on his history, to celebrate his 15 years as an adult solo artist, he looked to gain/regain the best of both worlds

Disc 1 featured all this top charting classic songs to regain his american audience from his earlier years, thus he featured the of him standing on his toes w/the original glittered socks while performing during the Triumph Tour

Disc 2 featured the new songs w/the goal of maintaining the current fans he had along with attracting a new generation of fans
 
respect77;4082581 said:
I can't see how it's relevant to the effect it has on Thriller's sales.
Click to expand...

“The Essential” came out in the mid 00’s, a period when sales of all Michael Jackson’s albums (including Thriller) were (very) low. So, its track listing had, in essence, no negative effect on them.
 
mj_frenzy;4082734 said:
“The Essential” came out in the mid 00’s, a period when sales of all Michael Jackson’s albums (including Thriller) were (very) low. So, its track listing had, in essence, no negative effect on them.
Click to expand...

Number Ones and Essential are two albums from Michael which constantly chart since their release. It's not surprising, because greatest hits albums are always the ones that casual fans or the general public first turn to when they want an album from an artist. Thriller is also a regular on the charts and I think that has a lot to do with its legendary status. However, I'm sure there are also a lot of people who do not care about its legendary status but look at the track list on Essential then look at the track list on Thriller and see that 7 of Thriller's 9 songs are on Essential PLUS a lot of other songs from other albums and then they rather buy Essential. I think to say that Essential has no effect on Thriller's sales is a little naive. Especially from someone who argued that Smooth Criminal is not on HIStory to not to hurt Bad's sales - as if the Bad album was about just that one song.
 
respect77;4082736 said:
Number Ones and Essential are two albums from Michael which constantly chart since their release. It's not surprising, because greatest hits albums are always the ones that casual fans or the general public first turn to when they want an album from an artist. Thriller is also a regular on the charts and I think that has a lot to do with its legendary status. However, I'm sure there are also a lot of people who do not care about its legendary status but look at the track list on Essential then look at the track list on Thriller and see that 7 of Thriller's 9 songs are on Essential PLUS a lot of other songs from other albums and then they rather buy Essential. I think to say that Essential has no effect on Thriller's sales is a little naive. Especially from someone who argued that Smooth Criminal is not on HIStory to not to hurt Bad's sales - as if the Bad album was about just that one song.
Click to expand...

I believe that if someone (fan or non-fan) wanted to buy Thriller in the mid 00’s he would have done it, irrespective of The Essential’s track listing.
 
mj_frenzy;4082737 said:
I believe that if someone (fan or non-fan) wanted to buy Thriller in the mid 00’s he would have done it, irrespective of The Essential’s track listing.
Click to expand...

The same is true of Bad. If someone wanted to buy it he would have done it whether HIStory had Smooth Criminal or not. And if someone was interested only in SC from Bad he would not have bought a whole album for it anyway.
 
HIStory is brilliant album but was big mistace the price of it.Someone who had allready the old song had to pay a lot of money to buy it and hear songs he had allready AGAIN!!!!.if price was low like a solo album that would be amazing
 
respect77;4082738 said:
The same is true of Bad. If someone wanted to buy it he would have done it whether HIStory had Smooth Criminal or not. And if someone was interested only in SC from Bad he would not have bought a whole album for it anyway.
Click to expand...

No. My answer (about the connection or not between “Thriller” & “The Essential”) is specific and as such should be considered. It does not apply to any era, or to any album.
 
Disc 1 was to remind people of Michael Jackson the MUSIC ARTIST, because Michaels image was all over the place after the 93 drama.
I think that's the main reason or thought behind this otherwise weird combination of a best of and a complete new album.

I think it's hard to say how much good that actually did or how much better a Disc 2 only HIStory album would have sold.
But it could well be that the Greatest Hits actually helped sales a lot. Remember the main group of MJ buyers are not fans
and back then this was the first official Michael Jackson Best Of release.
 
Last edited:
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top