Favourite Michael Jackson Songs
I thought today was a good a time as any to post my top 10 favourite Michael Jackson songs. Note these arn’t necessarily his 10 best songs .. these are just my favourites.
Leave me Alone Maybe its the clip spawned from his 1988 movie ‘Moonwalker’, but growing up and consuming the idea of Michael Jackson to be a theme park always stuck with me, this was always my favourite.
Human Nature In my opinion one of Jackson’s under-rated tracks, although its easy to see why with the track list from Thriller. This song was also heavily sampled by Nas – It Ain’t Hard to Tell from 1994s Illmatic.
Smooth Criminal This song had everything The story telling, the video clip, the dancing … but growing up it was the ‘lean’ which had me mesmerized till this day. Arguably his most complete song. Notable Cover by Alien Ant Farm
Get On The Floor You cant help but get caught in that bass guitar hook .. something that i put on before a night out. This is Michael at his disco best and how ill always remember him, My favourite from Off The Wall and amazed it wasn’t released as a single.
Billie Jean Arguable his most iconic track, the simplicity is what i love most about it. The kick, snare intro leading into a bass line which almost physically lifts you up to the dance floor needs no introduction. Covered by Chris Cornell
They Don’t Care About Us The most controversial of Michael’s songs, it raised issues of cultural segregation in society and demanded equality. All this with a marching band like snare roll encapsulating the military imagery perfectly.
Dirty Diana Personally this song captured everything about ‘Bad’, it was anthemic , grimy, crowd samples were used and the dirty guitar sound fit perfectly. Quite simply it sounded like something that Michael had never done before.
Beat It It wouldn’t feel out of place on ‘Bad’ such is its sound. Beat It showed Michael’s range, featuring Van Halen’s Eddie Van Halen. Its killer riff and solo had massive cross over appeal and inspired myself still to this day to nail that Guitar solo. Covered by Fall Out Boy
Wanna Be Startin Somethin The track which kick started Thriller, growing up there was all ways an argument on what the lyrics were. Was it “mamma say mamma sa ma ma coo sa?” or “I was saved by the sound of Michael’s song?” amongst other attempts at desiffering the hypnotic chant. The percussion in this song alone has it as a firm favourite in mine. Heavily Sampled by Rhianna – Please Don’t Stop The Music
Say Say Say Technically a Paul McCartney song given it features on 1983s ‘Pipes of Piece’ the favour was repaid after McCartney appeared on ‘Thriller” with ‘The Girl is Mine’. Highly under-rated and almost forgotten about by many. Michael’s chorus is one of his most soulful of vocal recordings.
Thank You and Rest In Peace.
