The 10 Best Michael Jackson Singles

Michael Jackson’s Wikipedia page was updated within moments of the announcement of the singer’s passing in 2009. Two of the major broadcast television networks suspended their primetime schedule to air specials about Jackson, while radio stations across the country cued up songs from his extensive catalog of hits. One woman called in to New York’s Power 105 in tears, repeating, “I loved Michael Jackson! I loved that man!” over and over, before threatening to throw herself in front of a car.

Jackson’s songs still serve as a crucible for our various compromises and self-imposed psychological barriers. It sounds carefree, but it’s impossible to listen to the music without assessing its creator’s hidden torment. Even the smoothest, catchiest, most disco-tastic singles in MJ’s back catalog are a little obsessed. (Don’t stop ‘til you get enough? Got me working day and night?)

Which is our own tortured way of saying it sounded great then, and it sounds great now. You can still hear Jackson’s influence in the music of today’s younger pop, R&B, and hip-hop stars, and his own songs, whether it’s “Human Nature” or “Remember the Time,” wouldn’t sound conspicuous when sandwiched between hits by the Weeknd and Dua Lipa.

To celebrate the very reason he mattered, still matters, and always will, we’ve compiled a list of our 10 favorite Michael Jackson singles, both solo and with his siblings, in chronological order.

“I Wanna Be Where You Are”

When Marvin Gaye recorded a version of Leon Ware’s plaintive long-distance love song, “I Wanna Be Where You Are,” little could he have known it would just a few years later sound like comforting “I’ll always love you” sentiments from beyond the grave. The gap was far longer in Jackson’s case (he recorded it in 1972, one of his earliest singles without the Jackson 5), but again the song now aches with the foreknowledge of something lost.

“Don’t Stop ‘Til You Get Enough”

After a glorious fake-out prelude of tentative, mumbling first-date banter, Jackson and producer Quincy Jones absolutely blow the roof off. “Don’t Stop ‘Til You Get Enough” is declaration as explosive imperative, pop music’s ultimate side one, track one.

“Off the Wall”

Prevailing wisdom dictates that “Rock with You” and “Don’t Stop ‘Til You Get Enough” should be cited as Jackson’s best disco-era tracks, but “Off the Wall” comes pretty damn close. And this one lyric seems to capture the often-bizarre icon’s too-short life: “Life ain’t so bad at all if you live it off the wall.”

“Can You Feel It”

The Jacksons’s “Can You Feel It” wasn’t the first time Michael Jackson blew his socio-musical aspirations out into Cinerama dimensions, but this stately slice of disco represents maybe his first successful stab at synthesizing social consciousness and million-dollar production values. It’s the secular forerunner of “Man in the Mirror.”

“Billie Jean”

“Billie Jean” defies genre—dance, pop, R&B—by embodying them all with such finesse that it’s hard to imagine a time when the song didn’t exist. The beat is measured, even downright sluggish, but it’s the bassline, at twice the speed, that propels the song. Impeccably produced by Jackson and Quincy Jones, the track mixes purely synthetic sounds (polyphonic keyboard string samples and that signature analog wind synthesizer) with the more organic approach of disco (Chic-like guitar riffs, live bass).

“Thriller”

Never before had a music video, a largely artless marketing tool up until that point, employed plot, costume, and cinema style as expansively as “Thriller.” But the song itself is notable for more than its annual Halloween playlist status. Marked by Quincy Jones’s fuzzy synthesized basslines, the growling stomp-lite of “Thriller” weaned millions of unsuspecting children onto low-end funk.

“I Just Can’t Stop Loving You”

As the leadoff single from the album that had the dirty job of following up Thriller, “I Just Can’t Stop Loving You” seemed an unlikely candidate. It wasn’t danceable. It wasn’t immediately hooky. For Christ’s sake, it was a duet! But aided immeasurably by the endlessly descending chords of a particularly melodramatic chorus, it’s one of Jackson’s finest moments as a recording artist.

“Remember the Time”

A slow jam of the highest order from Jackson’s underrated 1991 opus Dangerous, “Remember the Time” proved that even when the King of Pop’s crown was starting to get a little rusty, his R&B was as smooth as ever.

“Scream”

The blockbuster-budget video, the Jam & Lewis crashes and clatters, the long-awaited collaboration with the only other Jackson who matters. All superfluous. “Scream” boils down to that solitary curse: “Stop fucking with me.” Only Michael Jackson could, as late in the “Parental Advisory” game as 1995, make the word sound like a direct slap.

“They Don’t Care About Us”

Jackson’s controversial 1996 single “They Don’t Care About Us” was accompanied by two music videos that effectively captured the song’s nuances: The first was directed by Spike Lee and was shot in a favela in Rio de Janeiro; the second was a less subtle statement about poverty, racism, and the prison system, juxtaposing images of the civil rights movement with Jackson shackled in a prison cell and performing among inmates in a prison cafeteria.