Michael Jackson began his career an adult with 1979’s Off the Wall which many look upon as his real debut solo album even though he had already released four solo albums as a youngster. This article is an overview of his six studio albums beginning with Off the Wall through 2001’s Invincible.

Off the Wall - Jackson’s true solo debut made him a big star with two #1 singles (”Don’t Stop ’til You Get Enough” & “Rock with You.”) The album has sold over 7 million copies in the US to date and over 20 million copies worldwide.

Thriller - Still the biggest selling album ever (both in the US & worldwide.) Beyond it’s incredible success commercial, the album also represents a big step forward for Jackson as a songwriter as he wrote four of the albums nine tracks: “Wanna Be Startin’ Somethin’,” “The Girl Is Mine,” “Beat It,” & “Billy Jean.” Each of these four songs were released as singles and they all reached the top 5 in the US with “Beat It” and “Billy Jean” both reaching #1.

Bad - This album is way too often overlooked in comparison with Thriller just because it didn’t match the ridiculous sales numbers of that monumentally album. But what about the five #1 singles that Bad produced? And how about the fact that Jackson wrote 8 of the 10 songs on Bad himself? In my opinion the Bad album is an essential part of the Jackson discography.

Dangerous - Dangerous was actually his biggest selling album as far as first week sales. It’s also second (only behind Thriller) as far as total worldwide album sales with over 32 million copies sold in the world. That being said, it only had one #1 hit (”Black or White”) which after an album with five #1 hits (Bad) that was something of a disappointment.

HIStory - HIStory included one disc which was a “greatest hits” collection up to that point and a second disc which included all new material. Each disc had 15 songs on it. Among the 15 new songs the most well known are “You Are Not Alone” which hit #1 in the US (and in many other countries around the world) and “Earth Song” which hit #1 in the UK and sold more copies than any other MJ single there.

Invincible - While I do agree with the critics that Invincible is Michael Jackson’s worst studio album, I disagree with just how lowly many people rate this album. I think it has quite a few redeeming moments that make it worthy of a listen. “Break of Dawn,” “Butterflies,” “Speechless,” & “Threatened” are among my favorites.