

"Ben" is an earnest ode to a pet rat, recorded for the 1972 horror movie of the same name and written by composer Walter Scharf of "Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory"-scoring fame. 1 track with the Jackson 5's charts-topping hit "I Want You Back," Jackson scored his first solo No. 1 spot, the song's inclusion on this list feels like a fluke.Īfter becoming the youngest artist to collaborate on a No. There's nothing egregiously wrong with "I Just Can't Stop Loving You" – it's just that, when it comes to the many superior Jackson hits that missed the No. The first single from Jackson's "Bad" album is also its weakest one. Co-written by Jackson and Lionel Richie, "We Are the World" may have raised more than $75 million for the USA for Africa organization, but it's less a real song than a star-studded and hopelessly overblown PSA and doesn't deserve to be counted as an official Michael Jackson No. Where to start with "We Are the World," the biggest charity single of all time, which recruited 46 singers to contribute a few words each to raise funds to combat poverty in Africa. 1, and judge for yourself which were the best – and worst – of his most-popular songs.

29, revisit Jackson’s 14 songs that reached No. In honor of what would’ve been Jackson’s 60th birthday on Aug. 1, while a good number of arguably lesser singles managed to reach the Billboard Hot 100’s peak. (Pretty Young Thing),” “Got to Be There,” “Smooth Criminal” and his “Scream” collaboration with sister Janet Jackson all failed to reach No. Bona fide classics such as “Thriller,” "Wanna Be Startin' Somethin,’ ” "P.Y.T. Yet for all his record-holding achievements, listeners may be surprised which of Jackson’s singles hit No. 1s – more than any other artist that decade. 1 hits in the 1970s, ’80s and ’90s and that during the ’80s alone, at his creative peak, he earned 10 No. His catalog has both legendary breadth and depth, considering Jackson was the first artist to score No. 1s – and one more to which he contributed vocals – Jackson leads the list of male artists with the most chart-topping hits. 1 hits than most artists could ever dream of charting – combined. Michael Jackson, the King of Pop, has more No.
