Michael Jackson Remembered: A Video Retrospective Jun 25, 200911:12 PDT

Despite a tumultuous public existence in recent years, Michael Jackson’s tremendous impact on our culture and music is undeniable.

Here are some of the greatest video moments of Michael Jackson’s career, along with a few memories of the ways that his music impacted those of us here at VideoSurf.

1966-1975:

Michael Jackson first appeared on the scene as the front man for his four brothers; just a small kid with a big voice and a ton of charisma. The Jackson 5 helped to define the Motown Sound and four of the group’s singles (“I Want You Back”, “ABC”, “The Love You Save”, and “I’ll Be There”) reached number one on the Billboard charts.

1978-1979:

Michael struck out on his own, starring in The Wizard of Oz update, The Wiz and released his solo album “Off The Wall”, which featured the number one singles “Rock With You” and “Don’t Stop ‘Til You Get Enough”.

VideoSurf remembers:
“I remember vividly that my career ambition at one point was to become Michael Jackson. So I bought all his albums from Off the Wall through Blood on the Dance Floor and started practicing. Needless to say, you can tell by my title that that didn’t work out as planned.”
– KT Karra, Senior Engineer

1982:

Michael’s early successes pale in comparison to the cultural tsunami that was “Thriller”. With seven Top Ten singles and 100 million copies sold, “Thriller” has gone down in legend as the top selling album of all-time.

VideoSurf remembers:
“MTV used to only play the short version of Thriller. It wasn’t until the internet that I realized there was a whole other part (the werewolf scene) to the video. I thought it was hilarious.” –Danny Leffel, VP of Revenue

“I remember skipping school with my cousins and my friends in the neighborhood to watch the premiere of Thriller on MTV. It was an event.” – Jeff Koenig, Social Media Manager

“All of the sleepover parties that I spent carefully finetuning the dance routine to Thriller with my girlfriends finally paid off when I was able to reenact the video in San Francisco’s Dolores Park. You can’t exactly see me on screen but I promise I’m there, dancing my zombie heart out” - Margo Brockman, Director of Marketing

1987:

While not as huge as “Thriller”, Michael’s follow-up, “Bad”, was an enormous commercial success, racking up a record five #1 hits and selling in excess of 30 million copies. Even the tabloid headlines that surrounded him during this period (plastic surgery, sleeping chambers, Bubbles the chimp, the Elephant Man’s bones), couldn’t diminish Michael Jackson’s hold on pop’s Regency.

VideoSurf remembers:
“It was 5th grade talent show… I stood up on the stage with pigtails and overalls, and sang the complete ‘free willy’ jam in front of the whole elementary school.” - Julie Oppenheimer, Office Manager

1991 and on:

Michael’s 1991 album, Dangerous, spawned 3 top 5 singles worldwide, including “Remember the Time” and the groundbreaking (for the video’s use of computer morphing) “Black or White”.

VideoSurf remembers:
“Black and White had everything – Norm from Cheers, Macaulay Caulkin rapping, Tyra Banks, and face morphing - what more could you ask for in a video?” – Dr. Eitan Sharon, CTO and Co-founder

In 1993, Michael performed in one of the most memorable Super Bowl Halftime Shows ever:

VideoSurf remembers:
“When he came to perform in Israel, the biggest mall in Tel-Aviv (the Dizengof Center) was closed, just so that he could check it out without fans interrupting him. ” – Ido Heskia, Engineer

He would spend the next decade embroiled in legal battles, tabloid scandals, and bankruptcy.

June 25th, 2009:

2009 and Beyond:

In addition to his amazing music, Michael Jackson leaves behind a huge collective of shared memories and experiences that bond together everyone who ever listened to a song, picked up a Thriller album, rushed home from school to see a video premiere, or waited for hours in the rain to get tickets to a concert. In one way or another, in every country in the world, Jackson’s life and work impacted us all. He will be missed, and remembered.