'I Want You Back'

Even with everything we know about Jackson as an adult, only a person with the hardest of hearts could hear the chord progression of the Jackson 5′s greatest song and not get up and dance. The effortlessness with which Jackson fuses the influence of Sly Stone and James Brown with his own innocent yelping is part of the appeal, but the whole song flies by with a whimsy and sweetness that was Jackson’s calling card well into his mid-20s.
'Billie Jean'

Based on a real-life incident in which a woman accused Jackson of fathering her twins (“She says I am the one/ But the kid is not my son”) the song almost didn’t make it onto Thriller because Quincy Jones hated its signature part: the bass line. Thumping and fraught, it feels like the soundtrack to a late-night walk through a bad neighborhood. It successfully makes Jackson sound dangerous, which is no small feat. Amazingly, the video was also one of the first by a black artist ever played on MTV.













