You'll Hear It: Full Album Deep Dives with Jazz Musicians - The BEST Moments from MJ's Greatest Run, Ranked

Episode Date: June 8, 2026

Jazz musicians Adam Maness and Peter Martin review their three favorite songs from Michael Jackson's most iconic albums: Bad, Thriller and Off the Wall. And their choices aren't what you might expect. Plus - Adam, Peter and the Open Studio band play their jazzy interpretation of Michael Jackson's Smooth Criminal. -------------------------------Start your free Open Studio trial for ALLLLL your jazz lesson needs: https://openstudiojazz.com/------------------------------Off the Wall: https://youtu.be/jR9zxGueeq4Thriller: https://youtu.be/KZx6W3SI8JABad: https://youtu.be/XgcI9LkZqeo------------------------------About You'll Hear It:In this popular music series, Adam and Peter break down the greatest albums of all time. Stevie Wonder, Michael Jackson, Joni Mitchell, D'Angelo: Jazz is the foundation of the most GENIUS music in recent history. These seasoned jazz pianists bring their deep musical knowledge to every joyful episode to help you hear the hidden qualities that make music AMAZING. You'll never hear music the same way again.-------------------------------Sign up for the You'll Read It newsletter for little known stories about the artists you love: https://youllhearit.com/newsletter -------------------------------00:00 The Top 3 Songs on Bad, Thriller and Off the Wall00:55 #3 05:02 #212:23 #1 16:40 "Smooth Criminal" - Open Studio

mind-blowing. That is a vocal performance that only Michael Jackson could do. That's a perfect track. It's a perfect track. I'm going to put it out there. It wasn't until I was a teenager that I discovered. This specific track, I said, is that Michael Jackson? Hey, Adam, you know what we're doing today?

What? We're going to look back at some of our favorite moments. Yep, over here. Oh, yeah. Okay, sorry. But we're looking back in time. Oh, okay. You know, what would you say is our favorite period of Michael Jackson?

the greatest run, if we were to isolate three albums. Off the Wall Thriller Ben. Yeah, that's what we're looking back on. Every moment with these albums is amazing, but these are some that stand above the rest. So stick around. You'll see it and you'll hear it. Thriller at the time when it came out was, and still remains one of my all-time favorite.

I think Thriller is as close as a perfect pop record that's ever been made. I think we can all agree that it should be talked about in that sense. But I didn't really know off the wall, because it was a little bit before my time. Thriller was so massive, then bad was so massive. Those two specifically, and I love Dangerous too, by the way.

Don't get me wrong. Yeah. But like that run, Thriller and Beyond, kind of just took over my early childhood. Michael Jackson was my favorite artist, danced in my kitchen every night to Thriller when it came out. And it wasn't until I was a teenager, like 16, 17, that I discovered this specific track. I forget where I heard it, but I said, is that Michael Jackson? This was also, I was into jazz at the time. So I was like, this is a different sense.

ability than Thriller. This is less pot. This has more of the things that I'm into right now, and it was this. Perfect. Yep. Big four hand flag. Yeah, it is big four. Second verse. Big ass first. Perfect disco track. Perfect pop track. That's a classic. Again, the sea wind horns here. Jerry Hay. Some of a breeze coming from sea winds. That bass drum sound?

Perfect. The sound of, oh, my God. The whole track is magical. Yeah. The harmony here. The horns. The bridge. The bridge.

I know. Oh, the bass here. Lewis. I love this little segue. A little instrumental. I remember I was like, damn, what is it? You sparklies? Los Jansson.

Modulation. Oh, no. Second time. Wait for it. Save it. Beat. Why not? When they finished

tracking that, they must have like just handshakes all around break out the cigars. They had to know that they just killed that. This might be the best song on the album.

We might be at the apex and this was not, again, not written by Michael. And this was like the fourth or fifth single. I don't know if it was the biggest hit. I felt like at the time

it was the biggest hit. But we're talking about Man in the Mirror, right? We're talking about Man of the Mirror. It was written by Saida Garrett. Yeah. And Glenn, is it Ballard?

Yeah, Glenn Ballard. And they were like a songwriting team. Bilar? Charlie's a Boulard? Malar. He's a Milar d'Aard duck. Okay. Yeah. Saida Garrett, very interesting story because she, there's a little connection with friend of the pod, friend of open studios, John Beasley, who legend, well, really,

Siety Garrett said this, actually first coined the phrase, man, well, he didn't coin it. But he first brought it to Citi to Garrett's attention years before. Beasley? Beasley. Bees. open studio mentor session teacher Beezer my number one sub and Diane Reeves for many years and now Diane Reeves music director great jazz pianos from L.A., yeah, he was doing

some songwriting with Cydie Garrett several years before this and was on the phone. Baby bees. The bees knees. We got all sorts of names. And he said something about Man in the Mirror and that caught her attention. She wrote it down years later when Glenn Baller came in and he's like, I got an idea. Dung, ding, doong with that intro. She immediately was like, hold on.

And she went back and found in her notebook. Cool. And that's how the title came about. The panning of the shakers. Yeah. And these are real claps, I think. It's going to feel real good. Which makes a difference.

Going to make it right. As I turned up the collar. My favorite. This wind is a blow in my mind I see the kids This was a little sharp too Yeah, sharp It's like the 442s

They push everything up Oh Man, the little harmonic backgrounds What a melody man This here That's what's sighty Garrett's singing Gorgeous Yeah

And then here. Fill a game. Enter the filling game. Don't worry. This is a superhero. And then bring the blues into it. Let's bring a little diminished. If you want to make a world,

I bet the place, take a look at yourself, then make a change. I got to, sorry. This is a perfect track. I got to back it up. So we talk about the snare drum. The entrance of the snare drum after the first chorus is one of the great moments.

This might be my effects. So there's a little, There's a little piccolo snare. Yeah. That's playing on all four beats. Right? Dot. Dot.

Yeah. Dot. Oh. It's coming in hot. Incredible. Incredible. The lyrics are killing all this, too. I want to talk about the lyrics.

Yeah. Because I think it's interesting. Yeah. Oh. Controversy. What's that? Controversy. That's next.

Next level of this is controversy. The pre-chorus is magical. Yeah. This here? Back down. Man, what a melody. Yeah, unbelievable. Start to get in there.

He's like, he started to add some stuff, see if anyone notice. He's like, cool, I got it. Every time Michael performs this live here, we're going to spin. The dance moves come out. Oh, yeah. You know what I mean? Check out filling games. Let's take our time.

Let's take our time. You change that up to you. Antichoir. We're at a lift. Maybe the greatest lift ever. Oh, so good. And it's an effortless lift, right? It's not like, it's just, it's on,

it's on I Will Always Love You. It is. It might even be above. We're feeling, I can do the apex. You can chair. No. You know what the apex is on, right? Oh, yeah.

You know what they are. Oh, yeah. If you want to make the problem, I bet. But this is like, it sets it up. Here it is. Bill and Gaines sitting on that four. Oh, sit on it. Sit on it.

Man. Sam on indeed, Peter. This is so much longer than should work. And it's worse. Every second work. Oh. Michael Jackson's gospel chop. Shit.

We did. In lesser hands, all this. Damn. Man. That's a perfect track. So we close out the album with easily the most underrated track of the album. Best track of the album. And it is probably the best song on the album.

Can we get to, can we just, let's move right into Desert Island tracks? We might as well. Yeah, so your Desert Island track is? The Lady of My Life. I would like to listen to this whole thing. Another Rod Temperton classic. A Quiet Storm. This intro, totally quiet storm.

Almost smooth jazz-ass. We got some more Greg I mean the The band here is insane Jeff Pecorah's drumming on this Greg Philan Gaines Paul Jackson Jr. on guitar Jeff Piccoro on drums

David Paiich on Since Steve Pecoro on Since Louis Johnson on since Yes Unbelievable band And this is easy for them This is easy Hey

Like Oh Man those lines Man, this is such a romance. I remember when I heard this song, I was like, I'm a romantic. I'm a romantic. I've tried to write this song at least 30 times. I've heard it a couple times.

But the balance of the arrangement is so great. And it's kind of, oh, it's that one to four. That's the smooth jazz, major one to minor 11-4. Oh, bridge! So the one minor? Oh, man, come on. Imagine there's just rain on the road. It's nighttime.

Getting down through the loop. Yeah, 1984. Only halfway through the track, but we're about to vamp the second half. The whole melody is almost over. Yeah, we're all good with that, though. Yeah. Like that's the end of the thing.

It's like a George Benson track. I mean, I know I wrote for George Benson too. The rest is, He's just jamming. Oh. Paul Jackson. Hold up. I'm about to give you some perfect rhythm guitar.

Bam! You got it. Lewis. Two minutes of heaven here. Oh. Yes. Organic climaxing of it. I thought out to Jeff Baccaro, too, on the drums.

It's unbelievable. Perfectly controlling. Percolating. Oh. Filleng gays. Fillenghaze knows what's to do.