The BEST Moments from MJ's Greatest Run, Ranked

**Adam Maness** (0:01)
You know, I was... Mind-blowing.
That is a vocal performance that only Michael Jackson could do.

**Peter Martin** (0:06)
That's a perfect track.

**Adam Maness** (0:07)
It's a perfect track.

**Peter Martin** (0:07)
I'm going to put it out there.

**Adam Maness** (0:08)
It wasn't until I was a teenager that I discovered this specific track. I said, is that Michael Jackson?

**Peter Martin** (0:28)
Hey Adam, you know what we're doing today? What? We're going to look back at some of our favorite moments. Yep, no, no, over here.

**Adam Maness** (0:37)
Oh, yeah, okay, sorry, sorry.

**Peter Martin** (0:38)
But we're looking back in time.

**Adam Maness** (0:39)
Oh, okay.

**Peter Martin** (0:40)
You know, what would you say is our favorite period of Michael Jackson? The greatest run if we were to isolate three albums.

**Adam Maness** (0:46)
Off the Wall Thriller Band.

**Peter Martin** (0:47)
Yeah, that's what we're looking back on.

**Adam Maness** (0:49)
Every moment with these albums is amazing, but these are some that stand above the rest.

**Peter Martin** (0:53)
So stick around, you'll see it and you'll hear it.

**Adam Maness** (1:00)
Thriller, at the time, when it came out, was and still remains one of my all time favorite. I think Thriller is as close as a perfect pop record that's ever been made. I think we can all agree that it should be talked about in that sense, but I didn't really know Off the Wall because it was a little bit before my time. Thriller was so massive and then Bad was so massive. Those two specifically, and I love Dangerous too, by the way, don't get me wrong. But that run, Thriller and Beyond, just took over my early childhood. Michael Jackson was my favorite artist, danced in my kitchen every night to Thriller when it came out. And it wasn't until I was a teenager, like 16, 17, that I discovered this specific track. I forget where I heard it, but I said, is that Michael Jackson?
I was into jazz at the time, so I was like, this is a different sensibility than Thriller. This is less pop. This has more of the things that I'm into right now, and it was this.
Perfect.

**Peter Martin** (2:09)
Yep. The hand clap, the hand clap, yeah.

**Adam Maness** (2:54)
Big four hand clap.

**Peter Martin** (2:55)
Yeah, it is big four.
Second verse. Big ass verse.

**Adam Maness** (3:06)
Perfect disco track, perfect pop track. Again, the sea wind horns here, Jerry Hague.

**Peter Martin** (3:24)
It's like a, like a supper breeze coming from the sea wind. That bass drum sound, perfect. The sound of, oh my god.

**Adam Maness** (3:40)
The whole track is magical.

**Peter Martin** (3:41)
Yeah.

**Adam Maness** (3:45)
The harmony here, the horns.

**Peter Martin** (3:51)
The Brits, I know. Oh, the bass here, Lewis.
I love this little segway, little instrumental. I remember, I was like, damn, what is that?

**Adam Maness** (4:43)
There we go, yeah.

**Peter Martin** (4:45)
Lop off one beat, why not?

**Adam Maness** (4:54)
Man, you gotta, when they finished tracking that, they must have like just handshakes all around, break out the cigars. They had to know that they just killed that. Yeah.
This might be the best song on the album.

**Peter Martin** (5:09)
Are we at the apex of the album?

**Adam Maness** (5:11)
We might be at the apex. And this was not, again, not written by Michael.

**Peter Martin** (5:17)
And this was like the fourth or fifth single. I don't know if it was the biggest hit. I felt like at the time it was the biggest hit, but we're talking about Man in the Mirror, right?

**Adam Maness** (5:25)
We're talking about Man in the Mirror. It was written by, excuse me, Saeeda Garrett.

**Peter Martin** (5:28)
Yeah.

**Adam Maness** (5:29)
And Glenn, is it Ballard?

**Peter Martin** (5:31)
Yeah, Glenn Ballard. And they were like a songwriting team. Ballard?

**Adam Maness** (5:34)
Charlie, is it Ballard?

**Peter Martin** (5:37)
Ballard, he's a Ballard duck. Okay. Yeah. Saeeda Garrett, very interesting story because she, there's a little connection with friend of the pod, friend of Open Studios, John Beasley, who legend, well, really Saeeda Garrett said this, actually first coined the phrase, well, he didn't coin it, but he first brought it to Saeeda Garrett's attention years before.

**Adam Maness** (5:55)
Beasley?

**Peter Martin** (5:56)
Beasley, Bees!

**Adam Maness** (5:58)
Our Open Studio Mentor Session teacher, Beesley.

**Peter Martin** (6:01)
My number one sub in Diane Reeves for many years and now music director. Great jazz pianist from LA, yeah. He was doing some songwriting with Saeeda Garrett several years before this and was on the phone.