Michael Jackson - Off The Wall (35th anniversary)

Welcome to another edition of Seventies Sunday.

Today (August 10th) marks the thirty-fifth anniversary of Off The Wall, the smash hit album by Michael Jackson. This Grammy winning release spent a total of one hundred and seventy weeks on the US Billboard Album chart and peaked at the number 3 spot.

For my full review, please click here.

Brothers Johnson - Out of Control

This month marks the thirtieth anniversary of Out of Control, the sixth studio album from the Brothers Johnson. George and Louis Johnson split back in 1982 to pursue solo careers but they reunited for this one. The 1984 release went to number 91 on the US Billboard Album chart (with a total of eleven weeks on the chart) and number 20 on the US Billboard R&B chart.

Michael Jackson - Off The Wall

1979 - the end of a decade and the year I transitioned from Junior High School to High School. It was a time to start being more mature, more serious about my future - the last years of youth before approaching manhood.

It is only fitting, in a way, that Michael Jackson's Off The Wall came out that year. This album - which appears on "the 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die" list and on Rolling Stone's Top 500 Albums of All-Time (it came it at #68) - was a coming of age album, if you will, for an artist who grew up in the public spotlight as I was going from a kid to a teenager. While not his first solo record (it was actually his fourth), it still was a big statement. This was his first huge, multi-platinum seller as an artist separate from the Jackson 5.