On September 2, 1995, pop star Michael Jackson’s song “You Are Not Alone” reaches No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100, his 13th and final chart-topper.
Jackson’s incredible run of No. hits began in 1972 with the release of his fifth single, “Ben,” from the motion picture of the same name. A touching ballad about a sensitive boy’s devotion to a rat, “Ben” might seem a strange pop-cultural artifact in retrospect, but it raised few eyebrows at the time, when it made Jackson the third-youngest recording artist (after Stevie Wonder and Donny Osmond) to earn a solo No. 1 hit. It would be another seven years before Jackson again reached the top of the pop charts, but when he did, it marked the beginning of a 10-year run as great as any in pop history.
“Don’t Stop ‘Til You Get Enough” and “Rock With You” were Jackson’s second and third No. 1 hits, both from the Quincy Jones-produced 1979 album “Off The Wall,” a triumphant release that would be dwarfed by the success of the 1982 follow-up album, “Thriller.” That album yielded Jackson’s fourth and fifth chart-topping hits in “Billie Jean” and “Beat It” while becoming one of the biggest-selling albums of all time and causing Time magazine to call Michael Jackson “a one-man rescue team for the music business.”
In 1983, Jackson teamed up with Paul McCartney on “Say Say Say” for McCartney’s album “Pipes of Peace.” That song, too, rose to No. 1.
Four years later, Jackson anointed himself the “King of Pop” and released the album “Bad,” which gave him his sixth through 10th No. 1s with “I Just Can’t Stop Loving You” featuring Siedah Garrett, “Bad,” “The Way You Make Me Feel,” “Man in the Mirror” and “Dirty Diana.” “Black or White,” from the album “Dangerous,” became his 12th chart-topper in 1991.
Jackson died in 2009.
