Michael Jackson: A Biography

Michael Jackson or MJ was born on August 29, 1958 in Indiana, USA to Joseph and Katherine. He was the eighth of ten children. His father worked in a steel mill and sometimes performed for an R&B band. He brooked no indiscipline and the children were not spared the rod when they misbehaved.

MJ burst on the musical scene as a member of The Jackson 5. Later the group was renamed The Jackson Brothers. He became the lead singer along with brother Jermaine. They had contractual problems with Motown Records and signed a new contract with CBS records. They changed their name to The Jacksons. Michael wrote hits like This Place, Can You Feel It, and Shake Your Body for the group between 1976 and 1984. In 1978, he starred alongside Diana Ross in the Quincy Jones Broadway musical The Wiz. This was the beginning of a long association between MJ and Quincy Jones.

Off the Wall (1979) jointly produced by Jackson and Quincy Jones spent 48 consecutive weeks on the Billboard Top 20 charts. It featured Stevie Wonder, Paul McCartney and many others. The hit Don't Stop Till You Get Enough won for Jackson a Grammy in 1980. In 1982 came his mega successful album Thriller. The album spent 37 weeks at No 1 in the Billboard charts. It is the best selling album of all time. The singles from Thriller, Billie Jean, Beat it catapulted Michael Jackson to worldwide fame and stardom.

In 1985, he co-wrote the song "We are the World" to raise money for the famine struck people of East Africa. It won the Grammy in the Song of the Year category. The album Bad came two years later. "I Just Can't Stop Loving You", "Bad", "The Way You Make Me Feel", "Man in the Mirror",and "Dirty Diana" went on to become No 1 in the U.S. In 1991, Jackson released Dangerous. It featured several hit singles such as "Black or White", "Give in To Me", "Remember the Time", "In the Closet", and "Heal the World". In June 1995, Jackson released HIStory: Past, Present And Future - Book, and in 2001, Invincible.