Michael Jackson

At the end of the Seventies, a decade marked by huge hits and a few setbacks, Michael Jackson was finally ready to fly solo. He had already released four solo albums ("Got To Be There" and "Ben" in 1972, "Music & Me" in 1973, "Forever Michael" in 1975), but it was obvious those records were the product of Motown's rigid assembly line rather than his own artistic vision. The shift from the Jackson 5 to The Jacksons (Jermaine Jackson out, Randy Jackson in), together with the move from Motown to Epic Records, marked a significant leap in quality. The legendary production duo Gamble & Huff made sure not to tamper with the way the Jacksons sang, focusing instead on richer arrangements, while letting the group include at least two self-penned songs on every album.

Michael learned an enormous amount during that period, especially about songwriting. "Kenny Gamble and Leon Huff are true professionals," he later recalled. "They let me watch them create their songs, and it was an experience that helped me enormously as a songwriter. What taught me more than anything else about the anatomy of a song was being able to study Huff at the piano while Gamble sang along, guiding him." The result was two solid but commercially modest albums, "The Jacksons" (1976) and "Goin' Places" (1977). Things went much better with 1978's "Destiny", the Jacksons' most successful album, buoyed by two irresistible singles, "Blame It On The Boogie" and "Shake Your Body (Down To The Ground)". It was a record on which they sharpened a truly distinctive style, blending pop, funk, soul, dance and melodic ballads, proving they could write and produce excellent songs entirely on their own. For "Destiny", the five brothers were joined in the production booth by the seasoned Bobby Colomby, fusion drummer and founder of Blood, Sweat & Tears. With the help of two musicians of the calibre of keyboardist Greg Phillinganes and percussionist Paulinho da Costa, Colomby and the Jacksons shaped a cleaner, funkier sound, with a harder-hitting bass and sharper horns.

Michael Jackson loved that sound, and for his first true solo project he had something even more explosive in mind. The "Destiny Tour" was also hugely satisfying, even though Michael felt restless, sensing he was too tied to the group just as he wanted to focus on his new album. That period was defined by the worldwide triumph of disco, a boom Michael experienced firsthand at New York's Studio 54, where he was a regular fixture. The legendary club stood on 54th Street in Manhattan, inside an old theatre built in 1927 that had later, from 1943 onward, served as a CBS television studio. That's where the two owners, Steve Rubell and Ian Schrager, got the name: Studio 54.

Behind the decks were two DJs who took turns spinning, true pioneers of vinyl mixing. Their names have become legendary: Nicky Siano, who played on weekdays, and Richie Kaczor, who worked the weekends. In the basement was the VIP room, accessible only by personal invitation from the owners, where it wasn't unusual to run into the likes of Andy Warhol, Diana Ross, Liza Minnelli, Salvador Dalí, Elton John and, indeed, Michael Jackson. "The people who came to Studio 54 seemed like characters out of fiction: it really was like going to the theatre," Jackson said, having celebrated his 21st birthday there. "I think that's the psychological reason behind the disco craze: you can be whatever you dream of being. The lights and the music drive you wild, and you find yourself in another world."

The long nights at Studio 54, and the sound of that era, would prove an extraordinary source of inspiration for Jackson in what would soon become "Off The Wall".

Those months in New York, where the singer was shooting Sidney Lumet's film "The Wiz", also proved crucial for a fateful encounter. "The Wiz" was a film adaptation of an all-black Broadway musical, itself inspired by "The Wizard of Oz" and produced by Motown. The film's two leads were Diana Ross as Dorothy and Michael Jackson as the Scarecrow. The film's greatest achievement (admittedly unmemorable except for its songs) was bringing Michael together with Quincy Jones, the film's musical director. Curiously, one of the most fruitful partnerships in pop history began with an on-set gaffe. Jackson was rehearsing the scene in which the Scarecrow randomly pulls proverbs out of his stuffing, and kept mispronouncing Socrates' name in Italian-style fashion. The only person who bothered to correct him was Quincy Jones, who, loudly but with a friendly look, set him straight. Michael's eyes widened, and he thanked, somewhat embarrassed, this man he felt he'd seen somewhere before. "Nice to meet you, I'm Quincy Jones," said the composer and producer, extending his hand to the singer. "I'm doing the soundtrack."

The two had already met briefly in Los Angeles when Michael was just 12 years old. Having wrapped "The Wiz" and crossed America on the Jacksons' Destiny Tour, Jackson now simply needed to find a producer who matched his musical vision. A few weeks after filming ended, Michael called Jones and naively asked if he had any names to suggest for producing his record. "Why don't you let me do it?" Quincy replied, to Michael's astonishment, since he hadn't imagined Jones would be interested in his music. "If he can make people cry with a song about a rat ("Ben", ed.), then he's truly special," the producer later said.

Jones managed to draw out and shape Michael's musical ideas, as the singer wanted to make an album far more innovative than anything he'd recorded with the Jacksons. "Off The Wall" is widely regarded as Michael's finest work from a purely musical standpoint (thanks in part to sound engineer Bruce Swedien), the record that turned him from the Jacksons' brilliant frontman into a world-class artist in his own right.

From the cover onward, with a portrait of the smiling King of Pop in a sleek tuxedo and his iconic white socks peeking out from black loafers, his intent to project a more mature, elegant image was clear. Quincy Jones did a phenomenal job not just with the arrangements, but in bringing out the best in Michael's voice. "Everyone at Motown sang in a high register, even Stevie Wonder," the producer pointed out. "But I wanted to hear every note Michael was capable of hitting, using a more mature sound." "Don't Stop 'Til You Get Enough", with its spoken intro, its barely-there bassline, and the liberating shout that kicks off the party, boasts one of the most memorable openings in pop history. The song, which Jackson wrote in his own kitchen, is a triumph of strings, saxophones, flutes, guitars and percussion unlike anything heard before in the commercial disco music dominating the charts in 1979. The singer's mother objected to the title ("Don't stop until you've had enough"), but Michael kept it because "everyone could give it whatever meaning they wanted."

No less brilliant is the shimmering midtempo "Rock With You", one of three songs written for "Off The Wall" by Rod Temperton, former member of Heatwave, whose lyrics here too play on the double meaning between dancing and sex. Seductive, joyful and drenched in soul, the song, with its silky strings and its inviting rhythm guitar, is universally regarded as one of the King of Pop's greatest masterpieces.

"Working Day And Night" and "Get On The Floor" are two disco-funk gems it's impossible to sit still through, tracks still capable of reviving any party today. The first, kicked off by a dazzling display of Michael's beatboxing, was deeply autobiographical in its lyrics, with clear references to the frenetic pace of the previous decade, marked by nineteen albums and multiple world tours. "Get On The Floor" was co-written by the singer and bassist Louis Johnson. Here the musician shows off his extraordinary technical skill, delivering a three-dimensional, irresistible sound achieved through his slap technique, one that still rattles stereo subwoofers today. Both "Don't Stop 'Til You Get Enough" and "Working Day And Night" were recently featured in the soundtrack of the successful biopic "Michael", where they also play a key role in the film's narrative development.

Some critics mistakenly regard "Off The Wall" as a disco music album, when in fact it's a varied, richly multifaceted work. Just consider the moving ballad "She's Out Of My Life", wisely placed between "Girlfriend" and "I Can't Help It", after five straight dance tracks. "She's Out Of My Life", which carried the intensity of soul and the theatricality of a Broadway number, was written by Tom Bahler and originally intended for Frank Sinatra, until Quincy Jones decided it was perfect for Michael's voice. Johnny Mandel's pathos-laden strings open the track before the arrival of Greg Phillinganes' electric piano and Larry Carlton's plaintive guitar. Michael was so emotionally overwhelmed by the song that he couldn't hold back tears on the final line. "He cried every time we recorded it," Quincy Jones recalled. "We cut about ten takes, and in every single one, he cried at the end. So I decided to just leave it that way on the record."

"Girlfriend", objectively the weakest track on "Off The Wall" despite its catchy melody, was originally meant to give the album its title. A commercial move, designed to capitalize on the pull of a song written by Paul McCartney, a name that certainly needs no introduction. The former Beatle wrote it specifically for Michael (pitching it to him one night at a party), before releasing it himself on "London Town" with Wings in 1978. The playful confession of a love triangle gained real substance thanks to Jackson's masterful delivery, a singer capable of turning even the least memorable songs in his repertoire into gold. Another gem on "Off The Wall" was "I Can't Help It", written by Stevie Wonder and Susaye Greene of the Supremes. A sensual, late-night mood piece that, through its shifting chords and Michael's use of scat singing, winked at jazz, all carried by Greg Phillinganes' extraordinary electric piano and delicate synths.

The title track "Off The Wall", another excellent song written by Rod Temperton, opens with eerie sounds and a horror-movie laugh. It almost anticipates the noir atmospheres of "Thriller", though it soon turns into a fizzy r&b romp, complete with an unforgettable refrain: “Stasera devi dimenticarti del tuo lavoro/ E semplicemente divertiti/ Abbandonati, lasciati prendere dalla pazzia della musica/ La vita non è poi così male/ se la vivi fuori dalle regole”. Few songs, like the romantic "It's The Falling In Love" (written by David Foster and Carole Bayer Sager), capture the heady rush of falling in love so well. That mix of excitement and fragility is beautifully rendered by Michael and Patti Austin, on one of the most vibrant and joyful tracks on the album.

"Off The Wall" closes with another disco-funk anthem penned by Rod Temperton, tellingly titled "Burn This Disco Out". The song celebrates the cathartic power of dancing, at a moment when the disco era was about to draw to a close, soon to be swept aside by the rise of synth-pop within just a couple of years. “DJ lancia la musica/ Non c’è possibilità che tu ci deluda/ Balleremo fino a bruciare questa discoteca” is an almost superfluous invitation, given that it's physically impossible to listen to "Burn This Disco Out" without moving some part of your body.

Four of the five singles released from "Off The Wall" reached the top of the Billboard Hot 100, a feat no other artist had ever achieved before. The album sold nearly twenty million copies, but after winning 3 American Music Awards and 2 Billboard Awards, it incredibly took home just one Grammy, for "Don't Stop 'Til You Get Enough" as Best R&B Vocal Performance. Michael Jackson was deeply disappointed and angered by what he rightly considered a genuine injustice, but he decided to channel that pain into doing even better in the future. His goal was clear and ambitious: to make the best-selling album of all time, one where every single track was a hit. Three years later, when "Thriller" saw the light of day, that vision became reality.

Ride the wave of great music

Add OndaRock to your favorite sources on Google Discover. Don't miss our reviews, milestones and latest news straight in your feed.

Follow on Google

08/05/2026