Text: Dai Man

The question here is not, How does this music rate? Because we know that much of Michael Jackson’s music was ground-breaking in its day. The question here is, How good is this compilation? After all, there are loads of MJ compilations in the market. Well, this King of Pop collection was apparently put together after consulting the Hong Kong public, so in theory it’s a double CD that many here will love, given that they chose the songs included. And it’s quite telling really because Hong Kong apparently voted for quite a few of MJ’s more mushy tracks. But no-one asked ME what should be included. If they had asked me, there’s no way that I would have included the dreadful The Girl Is Mine duet with Paul McCartney, possibly the career low point for both men. And if the record company had asked me I definitely would have included songs from MJ’s first solo album as a man (he was 21) and first produced by Quincy Jones, Off The Wall, which came at the height of the disco era in ’79 and marked the beginning of MJ’s status as a mega-star. This collection is quite disjointed. A far better compilation is the chronological collection The Essential which is possibly why as I write this, it’s been number 1 in the UK for the last three weeks. So unless you’re one of the Hongkies that voted for this collection, buy The Essential, or better yet, buy Off the Wall, Thriller, Bad and Dangerous, the four CDs that actually made Michael Jackson into the King of Pop!