Ranking the King of Pop’s No. 1 hits for his birthday
It doesn’t matter if you’re “Black or White,” Michael Jackson’s 14 top songs are “Bad” to the bone.
Michael Jackson, the King of Pop, has more No. 1 hits than most artists could ever dream of charting – combined. With 13 No. 1s – and one more to which he contributed vocals – Jackson leads the list of male artists with the most chart-topping hits. ❚ His catalog has both legendary breadth and depth, considering Jackson was the first artist to score No. 1 hits in the 1970s, ’80s, ’90s and 2000s; and that during the ’80s alone, at his creative peak, he earned 10 No. 1s – more than any other artist that decade.
Yet for all his record-holding achievements, listeners may be surprised which of Jackson’s singles hit No. 1 and which songs missed the top spot. Bona fide classics such as “Thriller,” “Wanna Be Startin’ Somethin,’ ” “P.Y.T. (Pretty Young Thing),” “Got to Be There,” “Smooth Criminal” and his “Scream” collaboration with sister Janet Jackson all failed to reach No. 1, while a good number of arguably-lesser singles managed to reach the Billboard Hot 100’s peak.
In honor of what would’ve been Jackson’s 60th birthday Aug. 29, revisit Jackson’s 14 songs that reached No. 1, and judge for yourself which were the best – and worst – of his most-popular songs.
14. “We Are the World” (1985)
Where to start with “We Are the World,” the biggest charity single of all time, which recruited 46 singers to contribute a few words each to raise funds for poverty in Africa. Co-written by Jackson and Lionel Richie, “We Are the World” may have raised more than $75 million for the USA for Africa organization, but it’s less a song than a star-studded, overblown PSA and doesn’t deserve to be counted as an official Michael Jackson No. 1.
13. “I Just Can’t Stop Loving You” feat. Siedah Garrett) (1987)
The first single from Jackson’s “Bad” album also is its weakest. There’s nothing wrong with “I Just Can’t Stop Loving You” – it’s just that, when it comes to the many superior Jackson hits that missed the No. 1 spot, the song’s inclusion here feels like a fluke.
12. “Ben” (1972)
After becoming the youngest artist to collaborate on a No. 1 track with the Jackson 5’s “I Want You Back,” released in 1969, Jackson scored his first solo No. 1 with “Ben” two years later. “Ben” is an earnest ode to a pet rat, recorded for the 1972 horror movie of the same name and written by Walter Scharf. Like “We Are the World,” “Ben” is a Michael Jackson No. 1 single in name, but not in spirit.
11. “You Are Not Alone” (1995)
In a more just world, Jackson’s final No. 1 hit wouldn’t have been “You Are Not Alone,” an overly sentimental ballad that’s more the style of its songwriter, R. Kelly. Considering how Jackson recently charted in the top 10 with his unreleased vocals in Drake’s “Don’t Matter to Me,” there’s still a possibility that another posthumous Jackson feature will replace it as his last chart-stopping hit.
10. “Bad” (1987)
With “Bad,” Jackson became the first and only male artist to chart five No. 1 hits from one album. Its title track is a testament to how formidable Jackson’s singles catalog is: a perfectly strong track in its own right but one that barely cracks the top 10 of his own No. 1s.
9. “Say Say Say” feat. Paul McCartney (1983)
“Say Say Say” deserves an apology – or a second listen – from every listener who writes off Jackson’s collaborations with McCartney as less than the sum of the two artists’ parts. “Say Say Say” picks up the pace while splitting its verses, handing McCartney the opening notes while letting Jackson wail away on his appropriately funky melodies.
8. “Rock with You” (1980)
A favorite from Jackson’s fifth solo album, “Off the Wall,” the breezy “Rock with You” only scratches the surface of Jackson and Quincy Jones’ collaborations to come.
7. “Black or White” (1991)
Some parts of Jackson’s racial-unity anthem hold up less than flawlessly in this particular cultural climate, with lines like “I’m not going to spend my life being a color.” Yet “Black or White” bangs, its undeniably-great guitar line vaulting the song to the best of Jackson’s ’90s No. 1s.
6. “The Way You Make Me Feel” (1987)
Sandwiched in the “Bad” album run of singles between the swaggering title track and “Man in the Mirror,” “The Way You Make Me Feel” is proof that, even almost two decades into his career, Jackson could make a love song as pure as his original Jackson 5 recordings.
5. “Dirty Diana” (1988)
Neither about Princess Diana nor Diana Ross, Jackson’s most sinister No. 1 single – also from “Bad” – also is one of his best rock songs. The spiritual successor to “Billie Jean” as another groupie cautionary tale, “Dirty Diana” is a reminder that Jackson, whose legacy isn’t exactly one as a sex symbol, could channel carnal danger just like the rest of his male pop star peers.
4. “Man in the Mirror” (1988)
A career-defining Jackson hit for its statement of self, from an artist with a notoriously conflicted relationship with his own image, “Man in the Mirror” is tragic in the way it foreshadows Jackson’s struggles to come – and triumphant as a pop achievement in its own right.
3. “Beat It” (1983)
From Weird Al Yankovic’s immortal “Eat It” to Fall Out Boy’s considerably-less-immortal 2008 cover, there’s a cartoonish aspect to “Beat It” that makes it prime for parody – or fools lesser artists into thinking they appropriately can do the track justice. Yet “Beat It” is a top-tier Jackson single because of how absurd, purposefully or otherwise, anyone else singing it sounds. Only Jackson can spit out the track’s catchphrase and finesse lyrics like “Showin’ how funky / And strong is your fight,” all over a showy Eddie Van Halen guitar line and make it all sound like a pop classic instead of an ’80s fossil.
2. “Don’t Stop ’Til You Get Enough” (1979)
“Don’t Stop ‘Til You Get Enough” is Jackson’s first No. 1 hit that’s not about a pet rat, and famously, the first song he claimed he wrote as a whole. And it’s a stunner, six minutes of perfect pop music that courses with electricity from Jackson’s opening howl.
1. “Billie Jean” (1983)
This ranking was, really, a race for No. 2, because no other Jackson single can legitimately hold the No. 1 spot other than “Billie Jean.” From its iconic opening drumbeats, the song marches, in lockstep, deeper into the paranoia-seized psyche of its young star. Not a single one of Quincy Jones’ production flourishes is out of place, spanning rock and funk and disco and all anchored by a tortured performance by a 24year-old Jackson, which would remain his all-time career best.