Michael Jackson Discography Guide

Michael's fifth solo studio album and the first he made after leaving Motown for Epic. Recorded at Allen Zentz Recording in Hollywood between December 1978 and June 1979, with Quincy Jones producing after the two met on the set of The Wiz.

Off the Wall was the first solo album in history to produce four U.S. top-10 singles. Don't Stop 'Til You Get Enough won Michael his first Grammy. The record established the disco-funk-pop synthesis that Michael and Quincy would refine on Thriller and Bad, and it is widely regarded by critics as the point at which Michael became an adult artist in full creative control.

The best-selling album of all time. Recorded at Westlake Recording Studios in Los Angeles between April and November 1982 on a budget of approximately 750,000 dollars — an enormous figure for the era.

Seven of the album's nine tracks were released as singles, all seven charting in the top ten of the Billboard Hot 100. Thriller spent 37 non-consecutive weeks at number one on the Billboard 200, a record that stood for decades. The album won eight Grammys at the 26th Annual Grammy Awards on February 28, 1984, another record that stood for 40 years.

The Thriller music video, released in December 1983 as a 14-minute short film directed by John Landis, transformed the music video from a promotional afterthought into a distinct artistic medium. The Making of Thriller VHS became the best-selling music home video of all time.

The final Michael Jackson album produced by Quincy Jones. Recorded at Westlake Studios between January 1985 and July 1987 across a reported 4-million-dollar production budget. Michael wrote or co-wrote nine of the album's 11 tracks — a significant creative shift from Thriller, where most songs came from outside writers.

Bad is the only album in history to produce five number-one Billboard Hot 100 singles from a single release. The accompanying Bad World Tour ran from September 1987 to January 1989 across 123 concerts in 15 countries and set the template for the modern global stadium tour.

The Smooth Criminal video, and its patented anti-gravity lean shoe (U.S. Patent 5,255,452, granted in 1993), remains one of Michael's most enduring visual and technical inventions.

The first Michael Jackson album without Quincy Jones since 1978. Michael brought in 23-year-old Teddy Riley, the Harlem producer credited with inventing new jack swing, to overhaul his rhythmic palette. Recorded over 16 months at Record One and Ocean Way Recording in Los Angeles on a budget of roughly 10 million dollars.

The Black or White music video premiered simultaneously on Fox, MTV, BET, and VH1 on November 14, 1991 to an estimated global audience of 500 million people — the largest music-video debut in history. Dangerous became the best-selling album worldwide in 1992 and launched the Dangerous World Tour, which grossed roughly 100 million dollars across 69 concerts on four continents.

A double album — the first disc a greatest-hits compilation, the second disc a full album of 15 new tracks. Released on June 20, 1995 to coincide with a major promotional campaign that included giant floating statues of Michael in cities across Europe.

You Are Not Alone became the first single in Billboard chart history to debut at number one. Earth Song reached number one in the United Kingdom and stayed there for six weeks, becoming Michael's best-selling single in Britain.

The HIStory World Tour ran from September 1996 to October 1997 across 82 concerts on five continents to an estimated 4.5 million fans, making it one of the highest-attended concert tours in pop history.

Michael's final studio album released during his lifetime and, at a reported 30 million dollars, the most expensive album ever recorded. Produced primarily with Rodney Jerkins at the Hit Factory in New York and Record One in Los Angeles across roughly four years of recording sessions.

Butterflies, a slow-burn R&B ballad, has become one of the most-covered Michael Jackson songs of the 21st century despite never being promoted as a single with a music video. Speechless, an a-cappella ballad Michael wrote entirely by himself, is regularly cited by vocal coaches as one of the technically most accomplished lead vocals of his career.

Commercially, Invincible was a disappointment relative to its budget. Michael and Sony Music publicly broke over the album's promotion, and no full world tour was funded. Michael would not release another studio album before his death in 2009.