Michael Jackson: The Definitive Collection [HIP-O RECORDS (UME)]

Why you'll love it

This newly remastered single-LP edition gives the Jackson 5 one side and Michael's early solo work the other, 14 Motown tracks in all. It starts with "I Want You Back," the first of four straight Jackson 5 No. 1 singles in America.

This edition

• Newly remastered
• Jackson 5 side and solo side
• Motown recordings
• Pressed in Germany

About the album

Long before Thriller, there was an 11-year-old from Gary, Indiana, fronting his brothers on a Motown single so joyful it still sounds like the first day of summer. This collection is that story, the Jackson 5 years and the solo career Motown launched alongside them, before Michael moved on to Epic and Off the Wall. Berry Gordy's label knew exactly what it had.

Side A runs from "I Want You Back," "ABC" and "The Love You Save" to the gorgeous "I'll Be There," "Never Can Say Goodbye" and the early disco of "Dancing Machine," with the Smokey Robinson cover "Who's Lovin' You" showing how much soul that young voice already had. Side B is the solo boy: "Got to Be There," "Rockin' Robin," "I Wanna Be Where You Are," "We're Almost There" and "One Day in Your Life," a UK No. 1 years after it was recorded.

Then there's "Ben," his first solo No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100. It is, famously, a tender ballad about a rat, and he sings it so completely that nobody has ever minded.

Also at Kops: more Michael Jackson on vinyl · browse Motown

Tracklist

Listen

On Motown / UMe.