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Off the Wall

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Off the Wall
Album cover
Album by Michael Jackson
Released August 10 1979
Recorded December 4, 1978 – July 7, 1979, Los Angeles
Genre Disco/funk/R&B/soul
Length 42:16 (Original Version)
60:17 (Special Edition)
Label Epic
Producer Quincy Jones[1]
U.S. Certification 7 x Platinum
Professional reviews
Q October 2000
Rolling Stone (RS 303)
Allmusic.com link
Robert Christgau Grade: A link
Michael Jackson chronology
The Best of Michael Jackson
(1975) 		Off the Wall
(1979) 		One Day In Your Life
(1981)
For the radio show, see Off the Wall (radio).

Off the Wall was American pop and R&B singer Michael Jackson's breakthrough 1979 solo album. The album was a major success for the Jacksons frontman, despite critics who said Jackson's career was doomed after leaving Motown in 1975.

Quincy Jones, the musical director for Motown's film adaptation of The Wiz (in which Jackson starred as the Scarecrow), served as the album's producer, with lyrics and music by Jackson, Heatwave's Rod Temperton, Stevie Wonder, and Paul McCartney, among others.

More than twenty-five years after its release, Off the Wall remains one of the defining moments in Jackson's music career and began his domination as one of pop music's leading artists. In 2003 the TV network VH1 named Off the Wall the thirty-sixth greatest album of all time. Rolling Stone ranked it #62 in their list of the 500 Greatest Albums of All Time. Jackson's next album, Thriller, was even more successful.

Track listing

  1. "Don't Stop 'Til You Get Enough" (Jackson) - 6:05
  2. "Rock with You" (Rod Temperton) - 3:40
  3. "Working Day and Night" (Jackson) - 5:14
  4. "Get on the Floor" (Jackson, Luis Johnson) - 4:39
  5. "Off the Wall" (Rod Temperton) - 4:06
  6. "Girlfriend" (McCartney) - 3:05
  7. "She's Out Of My Life" (Tom Bahler) - 3:38
  8. "I Can't Help It" (Susaye Greene-Bowne, Wonder) - 4:39
  9. "It's the Falling in Love" (David Foster, Carole Bayer Sager) - 3:48
  10. "Burn This Disco Out" (Rod Temperton) - 5:24

Outtakes

Chart trajectory

Billboard 200 Chart trajectory — Off The Wall
Week 01 02 03 04 05 06 07 08 09 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30
Chart position 48 23 9 6 6 5 5 5 9 9 12 14 15 11 11 11 11 11 10 9 8 7 4 4 3 3 3 5 10 10


Billboard 200 chart trajectory — Off The Wall
Week 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60
Chart position 10 10 7 5 5 6 6 9 9 13 13 12 11 17 16 18 18 19 20 20 33 33 37 56 56 61 61 71 83 83


Billboard 200 chart trajectory — Off The Wall
Week 61 62 63 64 65 66 67 68 69 70 71 72 73 74 75 76 77 78 79 80 81 82 83 84 85 86 87 88 89 90
Chart position 86 86 86 185(re) 178 170 163 158 154 149 136 136 115 103 99 96 88 85 58 57 57 53 44 47 46 44 55 59 72 79


Billboard 200 chart trajectory — Off The Wall
Week 91 92 93 94 95 96 97 98 99 100 101 102 103 104 105 106 107 108 109 110 111 112
Chart position 84 83 81 78 80 79 92 93 90 97 110 114 111 114 111 116 121 175 171 167 169 187

Special Edition

File:Otwspecialed.jpg
The cover of the special edition of Off The Wall, released 2001.

On October 16th, 2001, Epic re-released the four major Michael Jackson albums in special packages. "Off The Wall - Special Edition" contained some bonus material, including the original demo of "Don't Stop 'Til You Get Enough" and "Workin' Day And Night", both recorded at home in 1978, plus interviews with Quincy Jones and Rod Temperton. The set also contains a new booklet featuring previously unseen photos, lyrics and additional info. After the re-release, the catalogue sales picked up around the world. It re-entered modestly in the UK, USA, and some other albums charts, and the Living with Michael Jackson Interview in 2003 gave it another major boost, where it has been in and out of the UK album chart ever since. A HMV sale in July 04 gave the album another huge boost with an impressive chart re-entry at #13 in the UK, the highest for 21 years. UK sales since the re-release will be around 200,000 and it was the 189th best selling album of 2003. USA sales since re-release are around 225,000 peaking at #7 in the Catalogue chart.

Charting singles

Album positions:

  • 1979 "Off the Wall" — Top Soul Albums No. 1
  • 1980 "Off the Wall" — Top Pop Albums No. 3
  • 1984 "Off the Wall" — Top 200 Albums No. 44

Singles positions:

  • 1979 "Don't Stop 'Til You Get Enough/Rock with You" Club Play Singles No. 2
  • 1979 "Don't Stop 'Til You Get Enough" Pop Singles No. 1
  • 1979 "Don't Stop 'Til You Get Enough" Soul Singles No. 1
  • 1980 "Off the Wall" Pop Singles No. 10
  • 1980 "Off the Wall" Soul Singles No. 5
  • 1980 "Rock with You" Pop Singles No. 1
  • 1980 "Rock with You" Soul Singles No. 1
  • 1980 "She's out of My Life" Pop Singles No. 10
  • 1980 "She's out of My Life" Soul Singles No. 43
  • 1980 "She's out of My Life" Adult Contemporary No. 4

Personnel

  • Rick Ash — assistant engineer
  • Patti Austin — vocals
  • Michael Boddrick — synthesizer
  • Larry Carlton — guitar
  • Steve Conger — assistant engineer
  • Ed Cherney — assistant engineer
  • Paulinho Da Costa — percussion
  • Frank "Cheech" Damico — assistant engineer
  • George Duke — keyboards
  • David Foster — synthesizer
  • Mitch Gibson — assistant engineer
  • Jim Gilstrap — vocals, backing vocals
  • Gary Grant — trumpet
  • Bernie Grundman — mastering
  • Steve Harvey — photography
  • Richard Heath — percussion
  • Marlo Henderson — guitar
  • Jerry Hey — trumpet, arranger, flugelhorn, horn arrangements
  • Kim Hutchcroft — flute, horn, sax (baritone), sax (tenor)
  • Michael Jackson — main performer
  • Randy Jackson — percussion
  • Mortonette Jenkins — vocals, backing vocals
  • Augie Johnson — vocals, backing vocals
  • Louis Johnson — bass, rhythm arrangements
  • Quincy Jones — producer, vocal arrangement, rhythm arrangements
  • Johnny Mandel — strings
  • Paulette McWilliams — vocals, backing vocals
  • Greg Phillinganes — synthesizer, piano, keyboards, clavinet, rhythm arrangements
  • Steve Porcaro — synthesizer
  • Bill Reichenbach Jr. — trombone
  • William Reichenbach — trombone
  • John "J.R." Robinson — drums
  • Michael Salisbury — design
  • Seawind Horns — ensemble
  • Bruce Swedien — engineer, mixing
  • Rod Temperton — vocal arrangement, rhythm arrangements
  • Phil Upchurch — guitar
  • Gerald Vinci — concert master
  • Wah Wah Watson — guitar
  • Bobby Watson — bass
  • David Williams — guitar
  • Larry Williams — wind
  • Zedric Williams — vocals, backing vocals
  • David Wolinski "Hawk" — piano, keyboards
  • Benjamin Wright — arranger, string arrangements
  • Erik Zobler — assistant engineer

Music samples

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Notes

  1. ^ "Album Credits for Off the Wall". Artists Direct. Retrieved February 3. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |accessdate= (help); Unknown parameter |accessyear= ignored (|access-date= suggested) (help)
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