June 25th, 2009 
joel 
Do you remember hearing “ABC” by the Jackson 5 on WJET radio in the 60’s? How about the haunting theme song to the movie “Ben”? Or his first moonwalk on the Motown 25th Anniversary special? The countdown to the debut of the “Thriller” video? The bewilderment at his apprearance on a Barbara Walters special?
What is your memory of Michael Jackson?
Two of mine: When I was in high school, I used to DJ dances after the basketball games. My friend Sam Cohen and I were the S & S Express-the Dynamic Duo of Disco (my nickname at the time was snarkily “Slim”). One of the songs that got the most reaction was “Don’t Stop Til You Get Enough” from Michael’s first solo album “Off The Wall.” It’s hard to believe that at the time, there was skeptism that a Jackson could get back on the charts as the popularity of the Jackson 5 had been in demise for a few years. “Off The Wall” was a solid R&B, fully danceable record and totally launched MJ into his own.
The second is remembering when MTV came to Erie in the early 1980’s. Michael’s video’s were the most produced of any on the video channel. But nothing matched the buildup for the “Thriller” video. According to Wikipedia, the video was released on Dec. 2, 1983, smack in the middle of my senior year at Gannon, where we were all abuzz at the media phenomenon, and the budget of $500,000! As it turned out, we all absolutely loved it.
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“Off The Wall” is still one of the best produced and listenable albums ever recorded in pop music. Big Guy, I still remember all of us crowding into the Media Center in the basement of the Gannon Library to watch “Thriller”. A truly REAL communal moment in pop culture. Something has been lost with our digital on-line communities. It’s not the same.
“Slim”? I’m not going to go there…
I remember being at K104 and hearing the first single off “Thriller”…”The Girl is Mine”, the duet w/Paul McCartney (we hadn’t gotten the album yet). This had so much advance hype and after hearing it a few times I wound up thinking that it was a rather nothing song…I thought these two musical giants were better than this. Had this same song been released by anyone else, it would have been justifiably ignored.
Then we got the album and “Billie Jean” and “Beat It” just blew us all away. And the rest is “HIStory.”
The sheer genious of “Thriller” I mean who would have imagined that you could take a horror genre icon like Vincent Price, and have him rap the final measures of the song only to end with his sinister laugh. (all done with a slight reverb) Despite the personal demons, Jackson was the pop artist of the era.
Michael was one of my favorites. “Off the wall” is one of the greatest albums of all time. I was very sad when I heard he passed away.
I will be doing a 3 hour special on Michael’s 80’s songs this Monday night on 90.5 WERG.