Michael Jackson, c. 1979

I just saw a CBS Sunday Morning piece on Quincy Jones, and of all the artists and performers who Jones worked with, Michael Jackson (link goes to his creepy official site) stood out (within the CBS piece). I somehow hurt for him. His story is such a tragic one. Such a shame. There was a real magic about Michael Jackson as the 1970s ended and the 1980s began. There was something really special about him. And I am referring to and alluding to his awesome talent(s).

The video for "Don't Stop 'Til You Get Enough" begins with what is in hindsight an appropriately weird, spoken word intro by Michael. It's the kind of bizarre, nonsensical wackiness we've just come to expect from him today, and perhaps this is a first example of it. But the music soon begins to weave its spell upon the listener, and you're off. In order to describe or explain the "original" appeal of Michael Jackson (why people loved him to begin with) to generations of schoolchildren in the future who will no doubt wonder what the heck we were thinking about (when we bought his records and made him a huge star), I'd show them this, for starters. This, children, was Michael Jackson! (you probably shouldn't show a group of schoolchildren a video of Michael Jackson, but just go along with the scenario):


Who is that handsome fella?
From the Wikipedia entry:

"Don't Stop 'Til You Get Enough" was the first hit single from Michael Jackson's 1979 Off the Wall album, his first album with Epic Records and the first solo record over which he had creative control.

The song was written and composed by Jackson himself in late 1978, with Quincy Jones producing.

"Don't Stop 'Til You Get Enough" was a successful restart to Michael Jackson's career, hitting number 1 on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 in October 1979, where it sold over a million copies (and being his first Platinum-selling single since "Ben" seven years earlier). By far the most successful single from Off the Wall, the track also topped the charts in Australia and Norway, and reached the top 3 in Belgium, the Netherlands, Denmark and the UK.

The track also earned Jackson his first solo Grammy Award for "Best R&B Vocal Performance."