When the Jacksons jumped the Motown ship, they signed a group deal with Epic Records and Michael also got himself a solo deal. After they released "Destiny" in 1978, Micheal thought it was time to put out his own album. Michael had crossed paths with producer Quincy Jones several times as a youth, and then they worked together on "The Wiz" where Michael played the Scarecrow to Diana Ross's Dorothy.


He took an armful of his own compositions to Quincy to get suggestions of who he should work with and keep the freedom to produce and write his own songs. Jones asked for the chance to do it and they set about bringing Micheal's songs to life. "Don't Stop Til You Get Enough" was written by Michael and then worked out a demo version with his brother Randy. Once the melody was completed, Michael wrote lyrics about the force and power of love then took the demo to Quincy, who was pleased by the young man's talent. Jones was inpressed by Michael's determination and intensity and agreed that the new album would not sound like anything the Jacksons had already done.


The results were clear, nine million albums were sold and "Off The Wall" spawned four top 10 singles, with "Don't Stop" and "Rock With You" peaking at #1. By this point, Michael became the first artist to have four top ten singles pulled from one album, matching the success of the first group to have 4 top ten singles from the same LP, Fleetwood Mac. Of course you could argue that the soundtracks to "Saturday Night Fever" and "Grease" should also be on the list, but those two had hits from different artists. Michael could now set his sights on world domination and that is precisely what he did with his next LP, 1983's record making, groundbreaking "Thriller".

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