Number Ones

When Michael Jackson released Number Ones in November 2003, the tracklist was a survey of his most potent commercial moments. Fifteen of the eighteen songs had topped the Billboard Hot 100, and the three that hadn't, Thriller, Smooth Criminal, and Earth Song, were international number ones. The compilation opens with Don't Stop 'Til You Get Enough, the 1979 disco-funk blast that announced Jackson as a solo force, and closes with One More Chance, a ballad written and produced by R. Kelly. That song, released as a single four days after the album, became the last original Jackson single issued during his lifetime.

Unlike earlier compilations that used original album versions, Number Ones drew heavily from radio edits and single mixes. The result was a leaner, punchier listen, Billie Jean and Beat It appear in their familiar single forms, and Man in the Mirror runs at its shorter radio length. The US edition included Break of Dawn, a track from 2001's Invincible that had never been a single, while international versions swapped it for Blood on the Dance Floor and sometimes added Ben, Jackson's 1972 solo debut hit. The album debuted at number 13 on the Billboard 200 and sold over five million copies worldwide by the end of 2003.

Then came June 25, 2009. Jackson's death triggered a global wave of mourning and rediscovery. Number Ones shot to number one in the UK, Australia, and several other markets, and returned to the top ten of the Billboard 200. Its sales surged past ten million copies worldwide. For many listeners, it became the entry point to Jackson's catalog, a single disc that traced his evolution from Motown child star to the King of Pop, without the filler or experimental detours of his later albums. The compilation remains one of the best-selling greatest-hits packages of all time, a concise monument to a run of chart dominance that few artists have matched. [edit]