№ 33 of 100
Off the Wall
Off the Wall by Michael Jackson (1979), № 33 in The Lead-In’s 100 greatest albums. Off the Wall at 33, ahead of Thriller, ahead of half of what our colleagues at this magazine wrote up before us. We'll defend it.
Michael Jackson at twenty, Quincy Jones in the producer's chair for the first time together, in Hollywood for ten months in 1979. The album that introduced the adult Michael Jackson. Released August 10, 1979.
- Released
- August 10, 1979
- Label
- Epic Records (CBS)
- Producer(s)
- Quincy Jones · Michael Jackson
- Runtime
- 42:28 (10 tracks)
- Chart peak (US)
- #3 (Billboard 200)
- Chart peak (UK)
- #5 (Record Retailer)
- Certifications
- 8× Platinum (RIAA); 20M units globally
- Awards & honours
- Grammy Best Male R&B Vocal Performance (1980); Library of Congress National Recording Registry (2008); ranked #36 on Rolling Stone's 500 Greatest Albums (2020)
Jackson's fifth solo album, his first as an adult, and his first collaboration with Quincy Jones. Recorded at Allen Zentz, Westlake, and Cherokee Studios in Hollywood across spring 1979. The album that established the Jones-Jackson formula that would peak with Thriller three years later.
Michael Jackson had been a recording artist since age six. By 1979 he had released four solo albums on Motown and seventeen Jackson 5 albums. He was twenty years old, signing his first major-label solo deal with Epic Records (a Sony subsidiary). Quincy Jones had been considered a controversial choice as producer, Jones was 46, primarily known for film scores and jazz arrangements; he had never produced a major pop album in this style. Jackson insisted on him.
Recording took place at three Hollywood studios, Allen Zentz, Westlake, Cherokee, across March-June 1979. The band included Greg Phillinganes (keyboards), Louis Johnson (bass), Jerry Hey (horn arrangements), and a rotating cast of LA session musicians.
The album introduced what would become Jackson's signature vocal approach, multiple vocal stacks, falsetto used as an emotional rather than novelty element, and the disciplined performance approach that would peak on Thriller.
The album's ten songs are dominated by the Jackson-Jones formula: disco-funk uptempo songs ('Don't Stop 'Til You Get Enough,' 'Rock with You,' 'Off the Wall'), soul ballads ('She's Out of My Life,' 'It's the Falling in Love'), and gentler R&B ('Working Day and Night,' 'Get on the Floor').
Off the Wall belongs at number thirty-three because it is the album that established the Jones-Jackson collaboration and introduced the adult Michael Jackson. The album reached #3 on Billboard 200 and produced four top-ten singles. It was the foundation Thriller would build on three years later.
Pressing guide — the one to own
Original 1979 US pressing on Epic, catalog FE 35745, in a gatefold sleeve with the Mike-in-tuxedo 'glowing socks' cover photograph; the inside gatefold carries Jackson's dedication 'to the year of the child & my mother.' First pressings have the orange/tan Epic label. The record was mastered by Bernie Grundman at A&M Studios and pressed at the Pitman plant (a 'P' stamp in the deadwax; Terre Haute 'T' copies also exist), with matrix roots AL 35745 / BL 35745.
© The Lead-In · an independent, reader-supported music publication.