EBONY: Best of Michael Jackson: 21 Songs of All Time

Bonnie Lamrock May 16, 2014 News

By Michael A. Gonzales / EBONY

From ‘I Want You Back’ to ‘Butterflies,’ vintage visionary Michael A. Gonzales surveys his favorite 21 songs from the King of Pop.

“Michael likes to lay back,” big daddy Joe Jackson told Ebony magazine in 1974. “He’s not the type who wants to be out front.” Although this might have been true when the Jackson clan was in the crib, back in the superfly seventies, in the studio and on stage, the cute soul boy transformed into a natural leader. Equally influenced by Sammy Davis and James Brown as he was by Jackie Wilson and Stevie Wonder, M. J. always seemed as comfortable on stage as he was in the studio.

Learning from pop and soul masters from the time he was a tot wandering the hallways of Motown Records (practically his second home), Michael matured into an artist who believed in musical diversity. With his love of all music, Michael created a canon of material including bubbly Cali-pop, screaming soul, stomping disco, raging rock and exquisite ballads.

“I love creating and coming up with unusual things,” he once told journalist Lisa Robinson. “To be kind of a pioneer.” Indeed, from the stunning first Jackson 5 single “I Want You Back” in 1969 to his own last official solo album, Invincible (2001), Michael Jackson was a stellar force gone way too soon.

With the posthumous release of this week’s Xscape, which features a star-studded list of collaborators, we decided to jump into our way-back machine and remember the time when M. J. was king.

1. “I Want You Back”: One of the most explosive debuts in Black pop history, this glorious Jackson Five track was the world’s introduction to Michael’s magical voice. As the single went platinum, a man-child singing sensation was born.

ALBUM: Diana Ross Presents the Jackson 5, 1969

2. “ABC”: Described by Time magazine as “the biggest thing to hit Pop Capitalism since the advent of the Beatles,” the title track to the Jackson Five’s second disc ABCcombines stirring soul and bubblegum pop, creating a hypnotic hybrid of freshness.

ALBUM: ABC, 1970

3. “The Love You Save”: Written and produced by in-house mavericks the Corporation, which featured the mighty pens of Barry Gordy and Alphonso Mizell, this life lesson for a wayward girlfriend has no problem taking us to church. Hands clapping like Baptists, the Jackson Five deliver a powerful message.

ALBUM: ABC, 1970