Off the Wall (Special Edition CD)

Released August 10, 1979 via Epic, Off the Wall is the album that made Michael Jackson an adult artist, his first full collaboration with Quincy Jones, recorded in Los Angeles between December 1978 and June 1979, and the record that gave disco a singer's inner life.

"Don't Stop 'Til You Get Enough" opens on a whispered spoken intro and a bassline from Louis Johnson that has been sampled for four decades since. Jones brought in Rod Temperton of Heatwave to write three songs so Jackson could pick one, and Jackson kept all three: "Rock with You," "Off the Wall" and "Burn This Disco Out." Jackson cried at the end of every take of "She's Out of My Life," eight to eleven of them by Jones's count, and when they came back to it two weeks later it happened again, so Jones left the tears on the record.

This is the 2001 European Special Edition, remastered by Bernie Grundman and housed in a slipcase. Bonus material compiled by Bruce Swedien: the original 1978 demos of "Don't Stop 'Til You Get Enough" and "Workin' Day and Night," plus new interview commentary from Quincy Jones and Rod Temperton on the making of the record, and an expanded booklet.