Musings on Michael and the top 10 Michael Jackson songs

My two most prominent memories of a famous person dying both come from a hotel room on a family vacation. I don’t exactly remember what cities we were in, but I remember vividly hearing news reports on the TV when Princess Diana (I think we were in Atlanta) and Dale Earnhardt (Gatlinburg) were killed in car crashes. Neither of those really got to me (I just felt bad for Dale’s family, especially since Junior had just started competing in the Winston Cup circuit), but rather it was just one of those “huh” moments — not a ‘HUH?,’ but a ‘huh.’

I learned of Michael Jackson passing away in a text message from my dad, which said simply “Michael Jackson just died.” I had heard earlier that he had gone to the hospital, but it hadn’t registered that it was a serious thing. It sparked a phone call between the two of us where we pretty much expressed our surprise, coincidence of Farrah Fawcett’s death on the same day and my regret that I never saw him live.

“That would have been expensive,” my dad said.

So was the career of the King of Pop, who had maybe the greatest 15-year run in music history. But after Dangerous came out, things kind of went south for MJ. All the plastic surgeries and then the allegations of child molestation kind of turned him into the punchline of the ’90s. When I was little, I knew Michael Jackson as the black man turned white woman joke that every kid in the fifth grade thought was hilarious. But then I had a kind of musical awakening sometime in late middle school/early high school, and I started to listen to the music that I do now. I got the Thriller album burned for me by a friend, and then I got the HIStory greatest hits collection (I stayed away from the studio disc). And all of a sudden, I realized what MJ meant to music and to most of America in the ’80s. Regardless of his personal life and bizarre appearance, Michael Jackson was the greatest musical entertainer of his time, maybe (this is what I believe) of all time. Whether it was his pioneering of the art of the music video or of the nearly impossible-to-believe dance moves, Michael had it all going for him. But as with most artists who have enormous success from a very young age (see Olsen twins), things fell apart for the King of Pop.

The most relevant MJ memory I have is when he came out with Invincible in 2001. The song and subsequent video for “You Rock My World” was the hottest thing in music for me at the time. As an unapologetic R&B fan, that song was a sign to me that MJ was back. Then he put out “Cry” and “Butterflies” off that album, and he was once again relegated to the sappy artist of Free Willy fame that came to define his ’90s career (by the way, before you think I’m knocking the Free Willy song, I dare you to watch that music video and not get chills just a little bit — I’m just saying that isn’t what MJ’s legacy was built on). The album still had some success though, and I thought Michael was back. Then he dangled a baby from a balcony, started wearing a face mask, went to trial, and he shut down again.

Then yesterday, he died. At first, I thought he was a classic case of “what if?” What if he didn’t go crazy and reclusive and kept making music? What if he had springboarded off of the success of Invincible and started making records using today’s style of music? What if he wasn’t embroiled in all of those legal troubles and had remained the philanthropist and genuinely caring artist that he had become in the early ’90s?

Then I realized that all of that would not have made Michael Jackson the fascinating icon that we see today. Part of his legacy (and a big part, at that) is the mystery surrounding his life. Nobody really knows — and we may never know — what demons he was battling the last 20 years. Unless somebody closest to him is able to shed light on that, our most credible source has passed. But all that time, he continued to be the most recognizable and controversial and loved and hated and ridiculed and revered face in entertainment, all at the same time. I will always be fascinated with his rise and fall, and I simultaneously want to know and don’t want to know what that man was all about.

As I write this, I’m listening to my collection of the King of Pop on my iPod, and I think this is an appropriate time to break out the listing and name my top 10 best Michael Jackson songs of all time:

10. Baby Be Mine – Going a little obscure here, but this Thriller gem is the head-bobbin’, synthesizin’ dance tune that MJ built his career on. It just had the misfortune of being lost in other iconic hits on the best selling album of all time.

9. Wanna Be Startin’ Somethin’ - One of the most well-produced songs he’s done, the tribal chanting at the end of this song was just sampled by Rihanna on her “Please Don’t Stop The Music” two years ago and showcases Michael’s creativity and penchant for choir backups.

8. Black Or White - I loved, loved, loved this music video, and it’s got all of MJ’s creative elements in it, from the kid at the beginning getting yelled at by his dad (Dad, this is the best part, come on!), to the metal breakdown in the bridge, to the rap line, this song had it all. I know it was funny for the kids to point out that black or white obviously didn’t matter to Michael, either, but let’s stick with what’s important here, mm-k?

7. Rock With You – Ah, the disco era. This was MJ’s first huge hit as a solo artist, and I still love the video of him dancing in that room with colors and shapes flying around him. First time we really saw his dance moves and heard his ability to sound as if he is singing directly to the listener. Probably some of the purest vocals we got from the King. Also a sick bass line.

6. Thriller - A lot of people consider this his best song, but while it is a great song, it was the video that made it so memorable for us. Still a kickin’ tune, though.

5. Billie Jean - I apologize to those who are going to flog me for putting this at #5, but this is another one that was helped out by the video. Also there was that mystery that I was talking about before of, ‘Is this song true? Who is Billie Jean?’ Again, I love the song, and I do think it is a top-5 MJ song, so there you go.

4. Man In The Mirror - The one slow song I’m putting on this list because it was socially-conscious Michael at his finest. The vocals weren’t his best, but the harmonies were spot on, and it has the second-most powerful key change in music (right behind “I Will Always Love You” by Whitney Houston). This is a great at-the-top-of-your-lungs, sing-in-the-car song. Plus we wish, just a little bit, that MJ would have taken his own advice.

3. You Rock My World - I told you I thought highly of this song. Michael’s comeback hit was also one of his best, in my opinion. He had the infectious dance beat, the grunts, the epic music video, the strings hook, everything you wanted in a contemporary MJ song. Plus, with modern music technology, his vocals sounded fantastic the whole way through, all the way down to the nearly whispering chorus. And the bridge is a wonderful throwback to what made Michael great in the beginning.

2. Beat It - From the Eddie Van Halen guitar riff to the driving drum beat to the in-your-face vocals, “Beat It” was Michael’s signature song, and for good reason. It has a quintessential ’80s guitar solo, and it comes in such an unlikely tune. Hard to sing along with, but I’m head-bobbing in my chair right now listening to it. Called a “black rock n’ roll song” by producer Quincy Jones, it became one of the best-selling singles of all time.

1. P.Y.T. (Pretty Young Thing) - I consider this the most underrated, and best, Michael Jackson song. It wasn’t even included on his HIStory collection, which surprised me. Another one that was buried in the Thriller album, “PYT” has a really singable melody and another one of those simple dance beats that MJ was so successful with. The interesting rhythms of the chorus and the funk-styled bass lines of the verses really get me. It also has the rock n’ roll breakdown in the bridge a la “Beat It” before giving way to the slap bass and back into the chorus. A really well-produced and well-written song, this will always be Michael’s best — although not most successful — effort of his career.

So there you go. Rest in peace, Michael Jackson. You were the strangest and most successful artist of the generation.