BIOGRAPHY







Michael Joseph Jackson was born August 29, 1958 to Joseph and Katherine Jackson in Gary, Indiana. At a very young age he was already showing prominence with his dancing and singing skills, and this happened at a time when his father was trying to start up a music group with his 4 older sons. Originally Joseph didn't think his son would have the potential to become a star simply because of his age. In 1969, after relentless push, The Jackson Five signed to Motown. By the end of the year, their first Motown single, I Want You Back was storming up the charts, hitting #1 in January 1970. The next three singles released that year all also hit #1. "ABC", "The Love You Save" and "I'll Be There", making them the first group to have their first four singles hit #1. The albums ABC andThird Album also were smash hits, and Jackson Five were already becoming the biggest act since then Beatles. By the time Michael was 13, he already had a Greatest Hits album under his belt.

In 1972, Michael released his first solo opus, Got To Be There, which made the top 15, however, later that year, he released the single Ben, taken from a horror movie of the same name, and it went straight to #1 and brought the album Ben to the top 10 too. Supposedly written about a rat, it became one of Michael's most beautiful songs ever. Although Ben was a smash hit, the follow-up solo albums (including Music And Me and Forever Michael were comparatively duds, and The Jackson Five's career was beginning to decline, although having a #2 smash in 1974 with Dancing Machine.

In 1976, feeling awkward and angry at Motown, The Jackson Five decided to split from Motown because of a lack of creative control given to them (not allowed to write their own songs), they signed to CBS that year, while Jermaine (who was married to Barry Gordy, the owner of Motown's, daughter) decided to stay with Motown. Filling Jermaine's shoes were youngest Jackson brother Randy. But leaving Motown also meant losing the name 'The Jackson 5', and instead changing their name to 'The Jackson?s'. The first 3 Jackson?s LP?s: The Jackson's, Going Places and Destiny were all substantial hits, giving the world such hit singles as Enjoy Yourself (#6, 1976) & Shake Your Body - Down To The Ground (#7, 1979).

In late 1978, feeling a need to make some new solo music, Michael teamed up with Quincy Jones on what was to become his big solo breakthrough, Off The Wall. With such tracks as Rock With You, Working Day And Night and She's Out Of My Life, it was obvious that Michael Jackson had grown up from the little boy who warmed everyone?s hearts. Included on this album was a song Paul McCartney wrote for his London Town album in 1978 called Girlfriend that Paul told Michael he'd like him to do. Not many people expected Off The Wall to have the success it did when it was unleashed in August 1979. The first single was Don't Stop Til You Get Enough, and at first, it was performing lackluster on the Billboard chart, stalling in the 70's, but it miraculously began skiing up the charts very fast, and hit the #1 position is October. The second single, Rock With You, was released right after, and it was even more successful, spending 4 weeks at #1 in early 1980. The album never hit the #1 position on Billboard (only peaking at #2), but it's success was very long lasting, remaining on the top 200 album chart till 1984 and selling over 10 million worldwide. The third single, Off The Wall, hit #10 in the spring of 1980 and the fourth single broke records, She's Out Of My Life peaked at #10 in summer of 1980, making Off The Wall the first solo album to have 4 top ten hits. Not yet ready to follow up this phenomenal success too soon, he recorded another Jackson?s album and a live Jackson?s album before recording an album that changed everything.

In 1982, Michael teamed up once again with Quincy Jones, this time bringing in a wide range of such outside musicians as Eddie Van Halen (who unexpectedly played a heavy metal guitar solo on Beat It), Toto (who wrote Human Nature), James Ingram (co-writer of P.Y.T.) and even Vincent Price... the final result was an album that complete changed music Thriller. Thriller was released on December 1, 1982 with The Girl Is Mine as the first single, not many people realized then that the album would be bigger than life itself when that duet with Paul McCartney was released... nevertheless, The Girl Is Mine hit #2 by January 1983. The follow-up was a track called Billie Jean, which ended up hitting #1 for an incredible 7 weeks. One of the main factors in launching the phenomenal success in the album was the new video music channel MTV, which totally rewrote music history when it came out, bringing such new artists as Duran Duran, Madonna, Culture Club, and Men At Work the mainstream, as well as helping make such already established artists like Prince and David Bowie even bigger. At first, MTV was reluctant to show the Billie Jean video because of racism problems, but when they gave in, it only got bigger. The follow-up to Billie Jean, Beat It, was released less than a month after Billie Jean and were both climbing the charts at the same time, when Billie Jean finally fell out of #1, Beat It was already in the top 5, going to #1 for 3 weeks. The first two Thriller videos were phenomenon?s on MTV by this time, being played constantly, and Thriller was the #1 album for 37 weeks. The next three singles from Thriller weren't released with videos, but it didn't stop them from all becoming smashes, Wanna Be Startin Somethin peaked at #5 in July, Human Nature hit #7 in September and P.Y.T. (Pretty Young Thing) stopped in at #10 in November.. already Michael had topped his own record... he now had 6 top 10 hits off the same album. In October 1983, Michael filmed two smash videos, the first was Say Say Say, a duet with Paul McCartney released on his Pipes Of Peace release (another #1 smash for 6 weeks) and the video that changed the way people look at music videos Thriller, which was directed by John Landis at right under a million dollars. When the Thriller video premiered in December 1983, it brought the album back to #1 and made Michael Jackson bigger than ever before. However, through all the triumph, he had a brush of tragedy in 1984 when his hair burned while filming a commercial for Pepsi. However, he had made a full recovery by the time of the Grammy Awards, that night he won 8 Grammy's, for best album, song, artist and more. Things were going perfect for him, so he decided to do one final album and tour with his brothers that summer. Victory was released in July 1984, and he embarked on a five month tour that broke even more records the Victory album was however a disappointment, only hitting #4. In Jan 1985, Michael wrote We Are The World with Lionel Richie, and ended up making one of the most successful tunes in History, every profit went to the children in Africa.

In 1986, in the middle of recording his next album Bad, he was asked by George Lucas to make a short 3d movie for Disney's Epcot center, the movie was entitled Captain EO, and included Another Part Of Me, which became a hit single off Bad. Michael had an extremely hard task having to follow up the biggest selling album in history, but he did a successful job, as Bad was released in August 1987 along with a half hour CBS special that debuted the first video off the new album, Bad. Bad was actually the second single off the album, as the debut single I Just Can't Stop Loving You, a duet with Siedah Garrett, hit #1 the week Bad was released. While it was not to repeat the 40 million worldwide that Thriller sold, Bad was still hugely successful, moving over 8 million units in the U.S., as well as establishing one of the most successful tours of the 1980's. From Sept 1987 to Jan 1989, Michael gave the longest and most exhaustive worldwide tour of his career, reaching the US in Feb 1988. Just as Off The Wall and Thriller set records with their smash singles, Bad is still the record holder for album with most #1 singles, 5 (The Way You Make Me Feel, Man In The Mirror and Dirty Diana also hit the coveted spot). In April 1988, Michael's autobiography, Moonwalk, was released and January 1989, the longform video Moonwalker was released and quickly became the biggest selling music video ever.

After Bad ran it's course, Michael took some well deserved time off, and in late 1991, he emerged with Dangerous, which was already loaded with controversy before it's release, for 2 weeks before the release date, the first video Black Or White made it's debut after the Simpsons and the last 4 minutes were extremely notorious and caused an outrage, for the last 4 mins had a panther walk the streets and turn into Michael, while grabbing his crotch too many times to count and vandalizing a streetcar, these 4 mins were so controversial that Michael decided to edit it out less than 2 days later. Dangerous turned out to be a relative disapointment in the US compared to the last three blockbusters, but even that sold 5 million copies and spent over 2 1/2 years on the chart, the singles didn't have the success of the previous albums, as each single charted lower and lower to the point that in early 1993, Michael realized he basicly had a flop on his hands and he had one last chance to save it, so he had a tv special in Feb 1993 where he gave his first television interview since the 70's to Oprah Winfrey. All of a sudden, Dangerous zoomed up the charts and went back to the top 20, peaking at #10.

After the controversy that surrounded MJ in 1993, he took some months off in early 94, but in August of the year, he emerged a married man. Married to Lisa Marie Presley, daughter of Elvis, this helped Michael regain public status, and although they were married for only 1 1/2 year, it was one of the most publicized things times in his career. But back to the music, in late 1994 he began work on a Greatest Hits type album that also had new material. HIStory had an unprecidented amount of pre-release hype that it was doomed. However, in June 1995, it was released and debuted at #1, in the U.S., HIStory turned out to be history fast, but it still broke records. In June 1995, Scream, a duet with sister Janet, debuted at #5, which broke the all time high debut at #6 set by The Beatles in 1970. then 3 months later, You Are Not Alone became the very first single in HIStory to debut at the #1 position. Although HIStory was widely considered a flop in the US, worldwide it ended up selling 36 million copies.

After his divorce from Lisa Marie Presley-Jackson in early 1996, he was already dating and ended up finally marrying Debbie Rowe, and the even bigger news was that the King of Pop was going to be a dad!!! On February 13, 1997, Prince Michael Jackson Jr. was born. Three months later, the remix compilation with new tracks added in, Blood On The Dance Floor, was released. In the U.S., it was put out with very little fanfare, only hitting #24 and going gold, but worldwide it sold over 6 million copies. On April 3, 1998, Paris Michael Katherine Jackson, a daughter, was born. Michael has been a very busy man these days, with a soon to be released theme park, as well as two upcoming albums, one as a Jackson 5 reunion album. Michael Jackson has changed the world and broken almost every record there is to break, and has spent almost 30 years as a superstar, and all this before his 40th birthday.


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