35 STORIES
1972 · 70S
"Ben" is a tender ballad about loyal, unconditional friendship — but the friend in question is a rat. It was the theme song to a horror film…
1979 · 70S
A trembling, almost-whispered invocation explodes into a four-on-the-floor groove that effectively announces Michael Jackson's reinvention a…
1979 · 70S
"Off the Wall" is Michael Jackson's joyful manifesto of liberation — the moment a young man who had been a working entertainer since childho…
1979 · 70S
A glittering bridge between the dying disco era and the synth-driven pop future, "Rock with You" finds a twenty-one-year-old Michael Jackson…
1979 · 70S
The most devastating ballad Michael Jackson ever sang was not his song, was not written for him, and was never meant to end in tears — Quinc…
1982 · 80S
LOS ANGELES, USA
Beneath the screaming guitar and the switchblade swagger, "Beat It" is an anti-violence anthem in disguise — a song that tells young men the…
1982 · 80S
"Billie Jean" is the story of a man being accused of fathering a child he insists isn't his — a paranoid, defensive groove built on Michael …
1982 · 80S
On paper it's a love-triangle duet between Michael Jackson and Paul McCartney, two superstars squabbling over one woman — but the real story…
1982 · 80S
"Thriller" is a tongue-in-cheek love song disguised as a horror movie — Michael Jackson plays a sweetheart turning monstrous to thrill his d…
1983 · 80S
LOS ANGELES, USA
"Human Nature" is Michael Jackson's tender confession that wanting things — the city, the night, the touch of another person — is not a sin …
1983 · 80S
LOS ANGELES, USA
It sounds like Michael Jackson at his most carefree, but "P.Y.T." was actually a high-precision pop machine engineered by Quincy Jones and a…
1983 · 80S
Beneath its irresistible groove, this is a furious song about gossip, paranoia, and being talked about behind your back — a young superstar …
1987 · 80S
BROOKLYN, NEW YORK CITY, USA
"Bad" sounds like a swaggering boast, but it was reportedly inspired by the true story of a teenager from a rough neighbourhood who went off…
1987 · 80S
The most anticipated album in pop history was launched not with a dance floor bomb but with the plainest love song Michael Jackson ever wrot…
1987 · 80S
MONROVIA, LIBERIA
"Liberian Girl" is Michael Jackson's dreamiest love song to a woman he imagines rather than describes, and its famous African opening is sun…
1987 · 80S
The most famous protest song Michael Jackson ever sang wasn't actually written by him — and its radical message is that changing the world s…
1987 · 80S
Behind the slick funk and the gravity-defying lean, "Smooth Criminal" is a frantic crime-scene report about a woman named Annie who has been…
1987 · 80S
Beneath its swaggering, finger-snapping cool, this is Michael Jackson playing a part he almost never let himself play on record — a confiden…
1988 · 80S
"Dirty Diana" is Michael Jackson's snarling, guitar-soaked confession about the predatory groupie culture that surrounded him at the height …
1989 · 80S
On the surface "Leave Me Alone" sounds like a kiss-off to a clingy lover, but it is really Michael Jackson firing back at the tabloid press …
1991 · 90S
A swaggering rock-pop hybrid that arrived as the lead single from Dangerous, "Black or White" fused Slash's guitar pyrotechnics with a dance…
1991 · 90S
It sounds like a seduction, but "Give In to Me" is really a cornered man's ultimatum — a snarling hard-rock plea about a lover who hides beh…
1991 · 90S
"Heal the World" sounds like a sweet children's lullaby, but Michael Jackson called it the song he was most proud of in his entire career — …
1991 · 90S
"In the Closet" is Michael Jackson's sultriest record — a song about two lovers agreeing to keep their desire completely secret — and the br…
1991 · 90S
On the surface it is a jealous man demanding to know the name of his rival, but "Who Is It" is really about the far colder discovery underne…
1991 · 90S
It plays like a love song, but "Will You Be There" is really Michael Jackson at his most spiritually naked — a gospel-soaked prayer asking w…
1992 · 90S
On the surface it's a sleek new jack swing groove about a man begging an ex-lover to recall how good things used to be — but it's really a q…
1995 · 90S
A six-and-a-half-minute operatic lament that became Michael Jackson's biggest-selling single in the United Kingdom, "Earth Song" is less a p…
1995 · 90S
"Scream" is the sound of the most famous man on Earth losing his patience with the press — a furious, industrial-funk duet with his little s…
1995 · 90S
MOSCOW, RUSSIA
Behind the cold beauty of "Stranger in Moscow" is one of the loneliest songs Michael Jackson ever made — written in a hotel room far from ho…
1995 · 90S
It looks like a stadium-sized protest anthem, but it is really Michael Jackson's raw, wounded howl at every system that judges, brands and d…
1995 · 90S
A ballad about love surviving physical absence, written by R&B singer R. Kelly out of his own grief — and the first song in history to debut…
2001 · 00S
After a decade of songs about scheming women, tabloid persecution and the weight of being the most famous man alive, Michael Jackson's final…
2014 · 10S
It sounds like a breezy new disco single from 2014, but "Love Never Felt So Good" is actually a voice, a piano and a pair of snapping finger…
2026 · 20S
TL;DR: From "I Want You Back" to "Stranger in Moscow," here is every major song in the Michael Jackson biopic — and the real story behind ea…