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"The ballads were what made Off the Wall a Michael Jackson album," Jackson remembered of his big solo splash. "I'd done ballads with [my] brothers, but they had never been too enthusiastic about them and did them more as a concession to me than anything else." The heartbreaker here is "She's Out of My Life," where Jackson actually broke down and cried at the end of a take, feeling like one of the loneliest people in the world. But the record also features undeniable up-tempo tracks such as "Don't Stop Till You Get Enough" -- state-of-the-art dance music in 1979, now a poignant snapshot of a time before Jackson was a national punch line.
Total album sales: 7 million
Peak chart position: 3