On his 60th birthday, Michael Jackson’s finest moments on stage

Throughout his career, Michael Jackson proved he could do it all. A voice that took us from Rockin’ Robin to Rock With You.

Feet that borrowed what Fred Astaire and James Brown began and moonwalked into a new dimension.

His songwriting brought us Billie Jean, The Way You Make Me Feel, Beat It, Don’t Stop Til You Get Enough, and more. So many more.

His legacy is a body of music that achieved something incredible in that it was at once wildly popular, critically flawless and universally loved.

In short, I don’t think we’ll ever see a human being so effortlessly gifted in portraying the joys of music as Michael Jackson.

To celebrate what would have been his 60th birthday, I wanted to share what I believe to be the finest live performances of his career.

The important word here, truly, is live. Michael, for reasons I’ll never fully understand, avoided singing live just about whenever he could.

The debut performance of Billie Jean (which you won’t see on this list) was mimed. His Grammy performance of Man in the Mirror was mimed, aside from a pretty hair-raising final minute that he ad-libbed. On his last world tour, in the mid-nineties, almost the entire show was mimed.

This is a list all about celebrating his raw singing talent. That means it skews towards the 70s and 80s, but I think it offers a breadth of Michael’s work that I think does the great man proud. I hope you enjoy it.

Who’s Lovin’ You, New York, 1969

The night the we met Michael Jackson and the Jackson Five.

On the Ed Sullivan Show, when Michael broke into Who’s Lovin’ You, ears pricked up the world over.

“The little fella in front is incredible,” Sullivan remarked.

Not yet a teenager, Michael sang with the soul of a man six, maybe seven times his age. On the same night, the boys sang I Want You Back, their first smash hit. A year later, Sullivan would invite the J5 back to sing ABC and The Love You Save— two more historic pop songs in their own right.

Music and Me, Mexico City, 1975

As he got older, and the dance moves got slower, I always hoped MJ would be tempted into an MTV Unplugged-style gig. It never happened. But this concert in Mexico in 1975 is probably the closest we’ve come to that kind of scenario — where Michael, and the J5, sang without the burden of the screaming stadium audiences that would greet them from here on in.

Truth be told, Music and Me isn’t a remarkable song. But when watched with hindsight on Michael’s life and career, this performance is given an extra significance, I feel.

Blame It On the Boogie, London, 1979

Blame it On the Boogie is the best song for pointing out the depth of the Jacksons’ back catalogue — it’s the one everyone forgets yet everybody knows.

In this clip, from a show in London (to me it looks like the Hammersmith Apollo), we see a young adult Michael begin to show hints of what he’ll later become: the effortless spin at 02:03, and the vocal improvisation in the middle of the track show an ease on stage.

Then again, perhaps it was his brothers making him relaxed on stage — his solo shows in later years never had the same atmosphere of playfulness. Certainly not the kind of moment half way through this clip when, apparently delighted by the police outside the hotel, Michael borrowed a British policeman’s helmet to wear on stage.

Medley, Motown 25, Pasadena, 1983

“Jackie, Marlon, Tito, Jermaine and Michael! The Jackson Five!”

This night was famous for what came after this clip. Michael nudged off his brothers, and made himself an icon: hat, socks, single white glove, moonwalk.

But that performance of Billie Jean, amazing as it was, was mimed. Don’t worry, we’ll get to a live Billie Jean later. But from this night, I prefer to enjoy what came before it. A reunion that only happened because Berry Gordy, the notoriously stubborn boss of Motown, allowed Michael to do a non-Motown song (Billie Jean) in this celebration of Motown music.

This medley of Jacksons hits was a staple of every Michael Jackson gig from this moment on, but never was it performed so well as on this night. Never Can Say Goodbye in particular was given an added edge thanks to Michael’s evolved, adult voice.

I’ll Be There had a beautiful significance partly by design, partly by fate. By ’83, the Jackson Five was no more — instead, the Jacksons were touring, but without Jermaine who had stayed with Motown thanks to the inconvenient fact he was in love with Hazel Gordy, the daughter of Berry Gordy, Motown’s charismatic but unforgiving boss.

Jermaine and Hazel went on to have three kids, but Jermaine was separated from the brothers— until this night. It was the TV moment the show was marketed around, but disaster almost struck. The failing of Jermaine’s microphone, which required Michael to quickly step in, offered a genuine, touching moment that showed the brothers did truly miss performing with each other.

Beat It, Toronto, 1984

By this point in his career, Michael had released two of the greatest albums of all time. In fact, depending on your point of view, by this point he’d released the greatest album of all time — Thriller.

Off The Wall was of course the soulful predecessor and both albums were paraded out in the Victory Tour, the last he’d do with his brothers.

Here, on what looked like a bitterly cold Toronto night, Michael performs Beat It.

The show is lacking the trademark “cherry picker” that Michael would later adopt in performances of Beat It (and later, to far less satisfactory effect, Earth Song) — but vocally, he didn’t belt out a better Beat It than this.

Billie Jean, London, 1988

When Thriller was released for its 25th anniversary, the discs came with some great bonus material — the most interesting parts being audio commentary from producer Quincy Jones.

When Jones talks about Billie Jean — arguably the greatest Michael Jackson track — he makes it sound like a truly painful process, one where Michael obsessed over every line that was recorded.

As such, I don’t think Michael felt he was ever able to perform it particularly well live, hence why he rarely did.

Later in his career Billie Jean became a concert highlight thanks to the dance break at the end which got longer and more abstract as tours went by.

This performance, in 1988, is the best fully-live Billie Jean I can find on tape.

A notable mimed Billie Jean, Motown 25 aside, came in 2001 at Madison Square Garden. Michael wasn’t at his best, but the Billie Jean he pulled out is one of my favourites — the culmination of various pieces of showmanship added to that original Motown 25 performance. The suitcase walk, snapped spotlight, dance break… 25 years of honing his greatest song, and in my view, the finest pop song ever made.

Another Part of Me, London, 1988

The Bad Tour was unquestionably Michael’s best solo tour — the only other two, Dangerous and HIStory, never came close to the energy he showed here.

Of all the show-stopping performances he gave around the world, this performance of Another Part of Me was the very best — as much for the simplicity of it than anything else.

Another Part of Me was never considered one of the Bad album’s strongest hits, but this live performance lifted it, so much so that it later became the song’s music video when it was eventually put out as a single, the sixth from the record-breaking LP.

Another Part of Me also provided the catchiest of all the 16-bit reworkings made for the brilliant Sega Megadrive game, Moonwalker. Let’s not mention the film.

You Were There, 1989, Hollywood

Here’s a performance so good it earned Michael an Emmy nomination.

The 60th Anniversary celebration for Sammy Davis Jr was choc with stars performing — as well as Michael, the night was graced by Ella Fitzgerald and Frank Sinatra.

But it was Michael’s performance of You Were There brought the great Davis Jr to tears.

Dangerous, 1995, New York

I’ve broken the rule I set myself at the start of this list. The MTV Video Music Awards performance in 1995 was almost entirely mimed.

But, I’m making an exception because that night marked the finest dance performance of Michael Jackson’s career, a display that put singing aside and instead put focus on choreography and artistry.

Inventive, loaded with charisma and technically flawless.

“Get the point? Good — let’s dance.”

Human Nature, 2009, Los Angeles

Not long after this was filmed, Michael Jackson died.

These performances, taken from the behind-the-scenes film, This Is It, showed a glimmer of what Michael may have been capable of had his London residency taken place.

The film also shows his fragility and faults, a man whose body was failing him. A dependance on painkillers had taken hold. His movements stilted, his energy drained — we see only small bursts of his talent.

This imperfect footage was never meant to be Michael’s final word. Sadly, it is. But try to see this performance — or rather, blend of three rehearsal tapes — for what it is: Michael Jackson doing something that sets this final highlight apart from the body of work that came before it.

Michael described Human Nature — written by Toto, of Africa fame — as having the most beautiful melody he had ever heard. In this, one of his final performances, we see him completely lost in it.