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As a kid originating from 1976, I was shocked when the news came out. I was convinced this was a hoax. It could not be, one of the most famous superstars around the planet died? Till.. I hit google! Michael Joseph Jackson, born in Gary, Indiana at August 29, 1985; has died of a heartattack at June 25, 2009 in his rented home on North Carolwood Drive in the Holmby Hills area of Los Angeles.

Michael Jackson - RIP

There was not a single kid who didn’t like atleast one song or dance-move Michael Jackson made. He was known for his diversity of music and showbusiness all-together. He popularized moonwalking and robot dance techniques as no-one could do better! While Elvis is the king of Rock-n-Roll, Michael is the king of Pop. Already since the early 1980s, he combined showbusiness in such tight performance, with popular music videos such as “Billie Jean”, “Beat It” and “Thriller”.

His distinctive musical sound and voice influenced many hip-hop, pop and contemporary R&B artists, While Jackson was a member of Generation Jones; it has a huge impact on multiple generations and it probably will still be with the memories we have left; just like our parents are remembering Elvis in living form! In 1962 he had his first singing debut with his brothers called “The Jackson Five”. In 1969 The Jackson Five had their first succes with hits like “ABC” and “I’ll be there”.

The commercial music scene has lost one of the best quality show-business legends from the era; with his style, music and shows, unable to be copied by others. This music legend has sold more than 750 million records during his career according to US figures.

His history and discography as solo artist was enormous:

In 1972, Michael Jackson released a total of four solo studio albums with Motown. The Jackson 5′s sales, however, began declining in 1973, and the band members chafed under Motown’s strict refusal to allow them creative control or input. The Jackson 5′s left Motown in 1975 and signed a new contract with CBS Records in June 1975. As a result of legal proceedings, the group was renamed The Jacksons. The band has continued to tour internationally rleasing six more albums between 1976 and 1984. In this period, Michael Jackson was the lead songwriter of the group, writing hits such as “Shake your Body (Down to the Ground)”, “Can you Feel It?” and “This Place Hotel”. In 1978 his solo career took off with producer Quincy Jones; when he needed someone with great experience, to get a different album sound from the Jacksons, who just had their biggest album succes with “Destiny”. In August, 1979, his first music album has hit the billboards with “Off The Wall” which created his first breakthrough as adult solo artist. 1982 gave birth to “Thriller“, also one of the most famous mini movies, costing more than $800.000 in production cost, written by Rod Temperton and Michael Jackson; At 1987 Michael Jackson came out with “Bad“, a music album which wasn’t as succesful as Thriller was, but still has sold about 8 million copies around the world. The first five singles reached the number-one position of the billboards in the USA. The remastered version (Special Edition) has three bonus numbers called “Streetwalker”, “Todo Mi Amor Eres Tu” and “Fly Away”; His eight album, released at November 26, 1991 called “Dangerous” was his second to debut at the Billboard 200 album charts where it spent the next four consecutive weeks. It has sold over 32 million copies worldwide and has won one Grammy for the Best Engineered Album. It’s the most succesful New Jack Swing album of all time. In February, 1993; Michael Jackson gave a 90-minute interview with Oprah Winfrey talking about his childhood abuse and his first admitting of his skin condition called Vitiligo, a relative unknown condition before then. The interview was watched by 90 million americans, becoming the forth most-viewed non-sport program in US history. Michael Jackson marries Lisa Marie Presley in 1994, daughter of Elvis Presley and divorces two years late; “History“, a double album, was created at June 20, 1995; containing 30 seongs with the first disk one “HIStory Begins” containing 15 of Michael’s number one hits and the second disk “HIStory Continues” containing 15 brand new songs, where 12 were composed by Michael himself. This album credited Michael for the first time with playing the keyboards, synthesizer, drums and percussion and guitar. The album was very controversial with many “Angry songs” as well with a softer edge with ballads like “You Are Not Alone”, “Earth Song”, “Stranger in Moscow” and “Smile”. The release was pulled from the shelves due to the controvercial lyrics in the song “They Don’t Care About Us”. New copies of the album were released with a formal apoligy written by Michael for those wo where offended by the lyrics. In 1996, Michael Jackson marries Debbie Rows, mother of his first two children (known as Paris and Prince Jackson) and divorces three years later; 2001 has brought “Invincible” while Michael Jackson has made birth to his third child, Prince Michael Jackson II (also known as Blanket) from a surrogate mother; The Diamond Award was awarded on November 15, 2006, for selling over 100 million albums at the World Music Awards, shortly following with the death of James Brown. Michael also received eight records in the Guinness World Records, with among them “First Entertainer to Earn More Than 100 Million Dollars in a Year” and “Most succesful Entertainer of All Time“. Jackson and Sony bought Famous Music LLC from among others. To celebrate the 25th anniversary of Thriller, Jackson issued Thriller 25 containing original materials from the album, remixes, a DVD and the previously unreleased song “For All Time”. It became number one in eight countries and Europe. As of November 2008, US sales of Thriller 25 stood at 688,000 copies making it the best selling album of 2008 while it has sold over three million copies worldwide. In 2008-2009, Jackson planned to make his come-back and had been scheduled to perform in 50 sold-out concerts to over one million people, at London’s O2 arena, from July 13, 2009 to March 6, 2010. He was planning to perform with his eldest son on stage. Current, June 25, 2009, Jackson had a cardiac arrest in his home in LA. LAFD paramedics received a 911 call at 12:21 pm and arrived nine minutes later at Jackson’s location. Many hoaxes turn up around the web. Hours following Jackson’s death, his record sales increased dramatically. Thriller climbed to number one in the American iTunes music chart, while another eight have made into the top 40. Less than four months before Jackson’s death, one of his biographers, Ian Halperin, Revealed that Jackson had a stash of 100 unreleased songs which he planned to release after his death to support his children.

If that isn’t an impressive biography from one of the most famous world stars in this era! I’ve got a dozen of vinyl records of Michael which for sure will be cared about with full dedication. While not being a superfan of Michael, I was for sure touched by more than a handful of songs; including but not limited to “Bad”, “Stranger in Moscow”, “Beat It”, “Thriller” and “Billie Jean”.

For rememberance, all MJ buttons and pictures of Michael Jackson in this blog article can be used by others, they are created with Public Domain images available on the net. The pictures are all transparant .PNG’s in various resolutions and designs. Please link back to this article to share these rememberance buttons around with your friends! An .SVG will be soon available for those who like to have it in (Inkscape) Vector format.

Rest in peace! You’ll be remembered Michael, by many, since you were a vast inspiration for many around the world as singer, businessman and show-guru!

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