MJ’s ’Off The Wall’ released as bundle with Spike Lee doco
Sony Music Entertainment Australia is releasing Michael Jackson’s ground breaking Off The Wall album as a CD/DVD and CD/Blu Ray bundle with Spike Lee’s documentary Michael Jackson’s Journey From Motown To Off The Wall.
The set, in association with Legacy Records, is out on Friday February 26.
The documentary makes its world premiere at Sundance Film Festival on January 24 and screens on America’s Showtime on February 5.
It uses archival material from Jackson, looks at the making of the album, the start of his rise to solo mega-stardom and his important relationship with the album’s producer Quincy Jones. They met on the set of The Wiz, a black version of The Wizard Of Oz, for which Jones was doing the score and Jackson played The Scarecrow. Jones was impressed by the way Jackson watched videotapes of gazelles, cheetahs and panthers to learn graceful movements for his part.
Journey From Motown includes interviews with Kobe Bryant, Pharrell Williams, The Weeknd, John Legend, Smokey Robinson, Gladys Knight, Mark Ronson, Questlove, Misty Copeland among others.
In a 2012 interview aired on CNN, Lee explained that he was disappointed at the negativity aimed at a performer who brought the world together through music. “We learned once again that life is very fleeting and that you can’t take it for granted. Michael was a world artist. He was beloved by the world … I’m real dismayed by the negative slant where people are, the media, they’re, you know, they’re, I think there’s a more gracious way to tell about his life without talking about the other.”
It is Lee’s second documentary on the self-styled King of Pop. In 2012, he made Bad 25 for the 25th anniversary of the Bad album
Michael Jackson was only 20 years old when he completed Off the Wall, his fifth solo record, and on which he showed himself to be a visionary force.
To distance himself from his earlier Motown records, he worked with pop craftsmen as Paul McCartney (Girlfriend), Stevie Wonder (I Can’t Help It) and Carole Bayer Sager & David Foster (It’s The Falling In Love). Funk band Heatwave’s British-born keyboard player Rod Temperton, who impressed Jones with his arrangement skills on the Heatwave record, gave them Rock With You, Off The Wall and Burn This Disco Out from which to choose one. They took all three.
Jackson & Jones’ Don’t Stop ‘Til You Get Enough, which managed to convey both the drama and the ecstasy of being on the dancefloor, went on to give him his first Grammy. Veteran US composer Tom Bahler, who had written hits for surf act Jan & Dean, Cher and Bobby Sherman, had sent Jones She’s Out Of My Life three years before.
The album blended R&B, funk, disco and pop in a way that appealed to the mainstream, and went on to sell 30 million worldwide by 2014. Gaining crossover airplay and marketing, Jackson became the first solo artist in history to have four singles in the US Top 10.
Off The Wall drew a blueprint for 21st century pop and opened doors for black artists as Beyoncé, Pharrell, Kendrick Lamar and The Weeknd.
In Australia, Off The Wall has moved 401,855 units and been certified 5 x platinum, according to Sony Music Entertainment Australia.
Jackson’s influence on 21st audio-visual music continues. Since his death, he has sold 50 million albums, has almost 60 million Facebook friends and is the biggest selling artist on iTunes. The Jackson-themed Cirque du Soleil show went on to notch up $300 million at the box office globally.
Watch the trailer below:
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