After years of Motown’s assembly-line control, where he and his brothers could not write songs or play instruments on their records, Michael Jackson used the 1978 film The Wiz as a training ground, studying nature documentaries of cheetahs and panthers to shape his movement as the Scarecrow. The film flopped, but arranger Quincy Jones noticed his discipline and agreed to produce his next solo album. Jackson’s father allowed the project only if it did not interfere with the family band, and Jackson insisted it sound nothing like his brothers’ records.
Recorded in Los Angeles from late 1978 to mid-1979, Off the Wall blended disco momentum with jazz chords, soft rock guitar and funk syncopation. Released in August 1979 in the wake of Disco Demolition Night at Comiskey Park, it stayed in the Billboard Top 10 for over eight months, became the best-selling album of 1980 in the U.S., and made Jackson the first solo artist with four Top 10 hits from one album. The Grammys gave him only one award, for male R&B vocal performance, and he vowed never to be overlooked again.
- Jackson stayed up all night memorizing Rod Temperton’s three songs and finished them in two sessions.
- He wrote the lead dance track by humming in his kitchen, then sang each drum, bass and harmony part to the musicians.
- Quincy Jones compared his voice to Sinatra, Ella Fitzgerald and Aretha Franklin and heard an open wound quality in it.
- He can be heard crying at the end of a ballad written by Tom Bahler, and the take was kept.
- The album cover paired a tuxedo suggested by management with his own white socks.
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