Released on August 10, 1979, Off the Wall was Michael Jackson's fifth solo studio album and the first he made as a fully grown artist in creative control. The four albums that preceded it had been Motown projects shaped around the Jackson 5 brand. Off the Wall, recorded for Epic Records at Allen Zentz Recording in Hollywood, was the first time Michael had real authority over the song selection, the arrangements, and the personnel.
He brought in Quincy Jones to produce. The pair had met two years earlier on the set of The Wiz. Epic was openly skeptical of the choice — Quincy was 46, primarily known as a jazz arranger, and had never made a hit pop record for a young Black solo artist. Michael held the line. They went on to make three of the most important albums in popular music together.
The album opens with Don't Stop 'Til You Get Enough, a song Michael wrote himself on a home tape recorder, beatboxing every part and using a glass bottle for percussion. It became his first solo number one and won him his first Grammy. Rock With You, written by Rod Temperton, gave the album its slow, warm gravity. She's Out of My Life — on which Michael reportedly cried during the take that was used — revealed a vulnerability few people knew he had.
Off the Wall became the first solo album in history to produce four U.S. top-10 singles. It sold over 20 million copies worldwide. When the 1980 Grammy nominations were announced and the album received only one major nomination, Michael was reportedly devastated. He told friends the next album would be impossible to ignore. The next album was Thriller.
Listening to Off the Wall today, what stands out is how generous and joyful it is. The arrangements give the band room to breathe. The horns and strings — arranged by Jerry Hey and Johnny Mandel — push the songs forward rather than overwhelming them. And Michael's voice, at 20 years old, sits in a place that is still finding itself and is exactly right because of it.