It's hard to remember that Michael Jackson was not always the biggest star in the world. Before he released Thriller, he was merely a star. Thriller sold more than 24 million, recalls its director, John Landis, before the title single and video sent the album running back up the charts to create the King of Pop's crowning statistic: 45 million albums sold. But if that number crowned him, it also incarcerated him.

Jackson's inspiration was simple: According to Landis, Jackson called and...

The first video from Jackson's album Dangerous and its unveiling on MTV, BET and Fox (after a Simpsons episode) was one of the most highly touted premieres of its kind. Reteaming Jackson with "Thriller" director John Landis, the video promised stellar guests (Macaulay Culkin, George Wendt) and mind-boggling special effects. It delivered those (the series of morphing faces as the song fades is indeed extraordinary) and something more — a coda that immediately made it one of the most...

"For 'Billie Jean,' I had to write a treatment for the video before I met Michael," says director Steve Barron. "They said he wanted to do some form of fantasy, something magical. I'd always read that he wanted to be Peter Pan in the movies, and he was sort of a Peter Pan character in real life. So I just wrote this concept about a magical character in which everything he touches would glow." After Barron sent Jackson the outline, things moved at warp speed. "I met with him on a Thursday, and we...

Growing up in show business is hard to do, especially if your last name is Jackson. For most of their childhood and teenage years, the song-and-dance prodigies Jackie, Tito, Marlon, Jermaine, Michael and Randy Jackson had been manipulated in the studio, groomed for the stage and chaperoned on the road. By 1981, despite more than ten years' worth of hits, worldwide acclaim for their precocious vocal and hoofing abilities and the two successful albums that they produced for the Epic label, the...