Essential [Import]

This is the best Michael Jackson greatest hits you'll find for a reasonable price (unless you want to shell out money for "The Ultimate Collection"). It's the only collection on a single or double CD that contains hits from The Jackson 5, The Jacksons, and Michael's solo career released in North America.

Pretty much all of the big hits are on here, although some are mysteriously missing such as "I'll Be There", "Dancing Machine", "Mama's Pearl" and "Scream" (which is strange because the full album version of "Dangerous" is on here when it wasn't on even a single). Its inclusion is most likely because Michael performed "Dangerous" quite a bit and it is a well-known song amongst his fan base for that reason. But for this to take precedence over the aforementioned missing hits is a bit odd.

I also agree with other reviewers that some more hits from "HIStory" and "Invincible" could have been included on here for a more well-rounded perspective.

But as with all greatest hits packages, this is marketed towards casual fans and not hardcore fans like me. And it contains all of the huge signature MJ hits that need to be on here, so on that note it succeeds.

I buy every Michael Jackson release, and even though I own all of these songs on other releases, this is a nice addition to my collection. I personally like the use of radio edits for a lot of songs because the album versions for some (such as "Will You Be There") are a little too long for my liking.

I never really appreciated MJ in the past, I've always been into the hard rock/metal but I now realize how great he is and was with the Jackson 5, holy crap he could sing back then! This 2 disk cd has all his great feel good hits and a few others. If you can't afford all his albums, this disk has a good chunk of awesome MJ and Jackson 5 music.

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Michael Jackson's latest hits compilation, tries to correct problems of past greatest-hits albums by putting all of his biggest hits in one place, including his time in the Jacksons, and it comes close. The first cd of this compilation is really the essential one. Starting with some of his greatest hits with the Jackson 5, later the Jacksons, while throwing in early solo hits, then finally finishing with all the hits from Off The Wall and Thriller, it's very nearly the greatest hits cd to end all greatest hits cds. Had that first cd been released in 1985 at the height of Michael Jackson mania, it might have gone on to become one of his best selling albums ever.

The problem is really only with the second cd, which covers 1987-onward. Eight songs from the album Bad and another seven from Dangerous seems a bit overkill, especially when only one song is included each from HIStory and Invincible, and nothing from Blood On The Dance Floor. Those three albums may not have been his best, but should have been represented better for a more rounded career overview (The European version of this album fixes this somewhat by adding two extra songs from HIStory while removing the non-hit Dangerous). But why Scream, his duet with sister Janet and one of his biggest hits from the 90's, is missing is a mystery. And including the full length version of Heal The World, with it's childrens' voices intro to the song, seems borderline creepy given MJ's troubles, despite whatever intention he had with the song originally.

However, there are a lot of good songs on the second cd, and tracks like The Way You Make Me Feel and Black Or White still hold up well. But if you own the set, you'll probably find yourself listening to the first cd much more than the second.