Life ain’t so bad at all when you live it Off The Wall with a track-by-track look at Michael Jackson’s 1979 super-selling album…
Don’t Stop ‘Til You Get Enough
By the late 1970s, Michael Jackson and his brothers had reinvented themselves as purveyors of disco funk. 1978 had already seen them score hugely with Blame It On The Boogie, shortly followed by Shake Your Body Down To The Ground. Looking to revitalise his own solo career, Jackson began to seek a new producer, and when working on The Wiz, he found the right meeting of minds with Quincy Jones. The two set to work on recording demos that would make up the new project called Off The Wall – the first single of which was Don’t Stop ‘Til You Get Enough.
Initially, it didn’t go down too well with Michael’s mum, Katherine, a religious woman who thought that the song was about sex. Jackson insisted that it could be about anything you wanted it to be – which I suppose could cover everything from running a marathon to scoffing as many pork pies as you can.
It became the first of Jackson’s singles to have his creative vision stamped all over it – although Don’t Stop is largely credited to Jackson, there has been some flim-flam over the manic synthesiser middle bit, which keyboardist Greg Phillinganes claims should have resulted in a co-credit. Many copies of the 45 printed both Jackson and Phillinganes on the label credits as writers.
Listeners evidently couldn’t get enough of Don’t Stop ‘Til You Get Enough as it hit Number One in countries such as New Zealand, South Africa, Norway and of course, the US. It didn’t fare too badly by any means in the UK, reaching Number Three in quite a lengthy chart stay. As a headliner for the album, it sums up Off The Wall to a tee, what with its infectious disco beat, vocal yelping and dazzling hooklines. Also apparently features Prince’s chum Sheila E playing the water bottle in the intro.
Rock With You
Two of the huge hits from Off The Wall come from the pen of Rod Temperton – this one and the title track. Temperton’s name might not immediately ring any bells, but if I put the classic 1977 groover Boogie Nights to you, it might fall into place.
Tenperton was keyboardist and chief songwriter for the group, Heatwave, who enjoyed a run of hits in the mid to late ’70s with the likes of Boogie Nights, Always And Forever and Mind-Blowing Decisions. If you’ve never heard the album Too Hot To Handle, stop reading this tosh and go and source a copy from your local record shop or Amazon – it’s a scorcher. As well as Heatwave, Temperton began to be an in-demand songwriter, penning hits for the likes of George Benson (Give Me The Night), The Brothers Johnson (Stomp) and Michael Jackson.
Jackson instantly takes to this great material like a puppy with a new chew toy. And it would be hard not to. There’s an infectious joy about Rock With You – despite it not sounding like a conventional rock song at all. The multi-dubbed Jackson vocals are a singular delight, Jerry Hey’s Seawind Horns add a bit of class, and I also love that whistling keyboard middle bit from Phillinganes and Michael Boddicker. It’s very rare that a song melody can stick in the brain after just one play, and yet Rock With You does this as casually as a finger click.
Working Day And Night
Jackson wasn’t fibbing when he claims that you got him working, working day and night. Somehow, it manages to pack in a pushy 128 beats per minute. By the time the session finished, the musicians must all have gone to sleep on the spot out of sheer exhaustion.
As an album track, it’s no slouch. The pace is non-stop, and a great workout for disco dancers too – their platform shoes must have been worn down to the level of plimsolls by the end. Like most of the other tracks on the album, it’s catchy – you’ll probably find yourself humming it when you least expect it.
Plus the lyrics are interesting. On the outside, it’s about a chap working day and night to keep a relationship afloat – “workin’ from sun up to midnight”. But a more interesting theory is that it’s about the strict workaholic regime imposed by his father, Joe, when he and his brothers were younger. The line “what is love girl, if I’m always out of sight” suddenly takes on a whole new meaning.
Get On The Floor
I do wonder what it was about my early record-buying habits that drew me more to bigger-selling albums. I first bought Off The Wall on tape from the local library which had a used cassette selection. I think I got this in Autumn 1993, along with other big-hitters, Rumours by Fleetwood Mac and A New World Record by ELO. I’m not sure why though – as an older and not so wiser chap today, I’ve come to find that the albums that didn’t do so well in the charts are the ones that I listen to the most.
Not that Off The Wall is a bad album. In fact, I’d still rank it as my favourite from Jackson’s catalogue. It has a kind of naïve charm to it that later albums lack. Get On The Floor is a good example – it’s not the most memorable cut by any means, but it’s simply a disco stomper about a boy asking a girl to dance with him. But I’ll take this over later stuff like Earth Song and Will You Be There any day of the week.
Off The Wall
I love the spooky introduction of the title track. It sounds like the intro to a completely different song as Jacko cackles evilly over ghostly wailing harmonies that build in intensity to the song’s proper launch. It sounds like the long-lost father of Thriller.
Off The Wall itself is another of Jackson’s best, and another winner from the pen of Rod Temperton: an irresistible good-time boogie that insists that you leave all your troubles behind. “Life ain’t so bad at all,” he beams. “If you live it off the wall.” It’s one of my Top 3 tracks of this album, and dare I say it, better than Don’t Stop ‘Til You Get Enough?
Chart positions weren’t quite as strong, with no Number Ones this time. However, it still achieved respectable Top 10 placings in the US, UK, Norway and Sweden. For me though, this may well be one of Jackson’s finest four minutes. Karen Carpenter must have been crazy to turn this down.
Girlfriend
While Off The Wall did feature more writing input from Michael Jackson, some of the tracks were penned by some high-pedigree contributors. They don’t come much more high calibre than Paul McCartney himself – although curiously Girlfriend is one of the album’s weaker offerings.
It’s inoffensive enough, just maybe not as dynamic as the surrounding material. A cover of a Wings track from 1978’s London Town album, I’m not sure that even the original was universally welcomed with open arms. I think some dismissed it at the time as no more than fluffy Macca filler. This is a perfectly pleasant way to spend three minutes of your time, but I think Epic were pushing their luck by releasing it as yet another single from the album. I’m not sure it even managed to break the UK Top 40.
She’s Out Of My Life
This was also a single release – the fourth track to be released from the album, although it did do very well in the UK, racing to Number Three in Spring 1980.
In theory, this was quite a risky move as it’s the most atypical song on Off The Wall, an emotive ballad penned by Tom Bahler. The writer had originally envisioned it as being crooned by Frank Sinatra, but having heard it, Quincy Jones persuaded him to give it to Michael Jackson. Bahler was reluctant at first, claiming that it needed someone with more life experience than a guy who was barely in his 20s. Jones countermanded by claiming that the track would give Jackson the chance to showcase emotional maturity, an argument that eventually won the day.
I’m glad it did. And not only does it afford Jackson that extra emotional depth, it’s one of his best vocal performances, really getting to grips with the material and adding a degree of emotional vulnerability to an otherwise good-time party album. I’m sure I can hear his voice break by the song’s end.
I Can’t Help It
It’s Music Month at my blog, and already some of the major players of my album collection are making a swift comeback. Having reviewed The Beatles’ Revolver, I’m presented with another Macca ditty. And after the review of Innervisions last week, here’s Stevie Wonder again.
Selecting Wonder to write for the album shows that Jackson and Jones were serious about adding a bit of kudos to Off The Wall. And while I Can’t Help It isn’t as instant as some of its bedfellows, it’s still a nice change of pace after the emotional torture of She’s Out Of My Life.
Co-written with Susaye Greene, I Can’t Help It has a more jazzy feel to it, with some neatly oblique chord choices and progressions. In the pretentious world of music reviews, you’d call this one a grower. The more you spin the album, the more you latch on to I Can’t Help It’s many charms.
It’s The Falling In Love
Carole Bayer Sager is probably best known in Blighty for her curious 1977 novelty hit, You’re Moving Out Today, the choruses of which comprise a quirky list of things for the ex to take with him, which include a rubber duck, funny cigarettes and 61 cassettes. If you’ve ever heard her eponymous album – pretty good, as it happens – you’ll swiftly realise that it’s an anomaly in a ballad-heavy set.
However, like Rod Temperton, Bayer Sager had a formidable reputation as a successful songwriter. She’d already penned hits for The Mindbenders (A Groovy Kind Of Love), Leo Sayer (When I Need You) and Carly Simon (Nobody Does It Better), so an invitation to pen a Michael Jackson track was just a drop in the ocean.
It’s The Falling In Love is another slow-burner, but once it works its way to you, it sticks like glue. It’s a duet with Patti Austin (who’d go on to duet with James Ingram on Baby Come To Me) and again, offers some fantastic quick chord changes – most notably between the verse and chorus. I’ll even overlook the fact that it was co-written with the King Of ’80s Mullet Rock Cheese, David Foster.
Burn This Disco Out
The final chance to dance, although this final Temperton-penned mover and shaker is maybe a little bit to close to Boogie Nights’ sound for its own good.
Still, Off The Wall itself has had considerable staying power in the charts – despite only reaching Number One down under. As of August 2026, in the US and UK alone, it’s spent a whopping 202 and 235 weeks in the respective album charts. Thriller and Bad may be the most popular Jackson picks for some, but for me, Off The Wall remains the high point of his career.
(Cover design art direction credited to Mike Salisbury, photography credited to Steve Harvey)
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