On February 26, during Black History Month, the Estate of Michael Jackson and Sony Legacy Recordings will release exclusive CD/DVD and CD/Blu Ray editions ofMichael Jackson’s revolutionary 1979 recording, Off The Wall. The package will include the original version of the album bundled with the new documentary “Michael Jackson’s Journey from Motown to Off the Wall”, directed by Spike Lee. The documentary will make its world premiere at Sundance Film Festival on January 24, 2016, and its world television premiere on SHOWTIME on Friday, February 5th at9 P.M. ET/PT on-air, on demand and over the internet. After its premiere on SHOWTIME, it will be broadcast in territories around the world.
THE ALBUM – The importance of Michael Jackson’s Off the Wall cannot be overstated. Recorded when he was just 20 years old, the album heralded Michael’s stunning emancipation as a singular musical force and creative visionary. It smashed the ceiling on record sales for black artists, ushering in an exciting new era of R&B-to-pop crossover airplay, chart, marketing and sales trends not seen before in modern pop music. It’s the record that “invented modern pop as we know it,” wrote Rolling Stone. For fellow black artists of the day, Michael served as an illuminating inspiration.
To Black America, Off The Wall transcended music and entertainment altogether. The success of the album marked a level of national and international achievement that conjured pride in a culture that as late as the end of the 1970s was still fighting for the kind of social acceptance that Michael’s album received. Because of Off the Wall’s indelible influence, 21st century artists as disparate as Beyonce, Pharrell, Kendrick Lamar and The Weeknd all have a blueprint they turned to for creating their superstardom.
Written by Michael Jackson, the first single from Off The Wall, “Don’t Stop ‘Til You Get Enough”, was Michael’s first Grammy and first single to hit #1 in the U.S. and internationally as a solo artist. With the singles “Rock With You”, “Off the Wall”
