Track Listing

Disc 1:

1. Billie Jean
2. Way You Make Me Feel
3. Black Or White
4. Rock With You
5. She's Out Of My Life
6. Bad
7. I Just Can't Stop Loving You
8. Man In The Mirror
9. Thriller
10. Beat It
11. Girl Is Mine
12. Remember The Time
13. Don't Stop Till You Get Enough
14. Wanna Be Startin' Somethin'
15. Heal The World

Disc 2:

1. Scream
2. They Don't Care About Us
3. Stranger In Moscow
4. This Time Around
5. Earth Song
6. DS
7. Money
8. Come Together
9. You Are Not Alone
10. Childhood
11. Tabloid Junkie
12. 2 Bad
13. History
14. Little Susie
15. Smile

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #718 in Music
• Released on: 1995-06-19
• Number of discs: 2

Amazon.co.uk Review
HIStory's two CDs (one hits, the other new) were Jackson's attempt to connect his glorious past to a dodgy present and--given it's commercial and artistic performance--cast a shadow on his future. Conceived as his formal coronation as the "King of Pop", HIStory's second disc instead presents Jackson as an epauletted, single-gloved Richard III. By turns paranoid, angry, bitter, sentimental, and, in one instance, possibly anti-Semitic, HIStory was less a collection of songs than a case history. A few tracks--mostly those produced by Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis--are sleek, modern pop/soul, but too much of HIStory has the overblown vacuousness of a musician who knows his time is past, but is unsure as to how to react to the situation. --Steven Mirkin

CD Description
Michael Jackson's monumental collection HISTORY BOOK 1 seeks to make two points. The first disc--chock full of hits spanning Jackson's Epic Records solo career--tries to establishhow the so-called King of Pop earned that nickname in the first place; the second disc, featuring fifteen new, star-studded tracks, makes a case for him holding onto that royal moniker well into the next century. And though many may dismiss both directives as the product of Jackson camp hype, once the music begins it's hard to deny him any title he wishes to bestow upon himself.
All of the songs on HISTORY's first disc have already been ingrained in the minds of the radio-listening, MTV-watching public. From the funky disco of 1979's "Don't Stop 'Til You Get Enough", through the countless and diverse THRILLER hits ("Billie Jean", "The Girl Is Mine", etc.), to the anthemic peace-in-our-time ballad "Heal The World", Jackson's star-power-fueled singles invested the mainstream with black pop's soulfulness to the point where black pop became the mainstream. And Jackson, subsequently, became pop's king.
On the second disc, Jackson tries to retain a hold over his current empire while moving toward a more street-wise, hip-hop-tinged pop. "Scream", a duet with sister Janet, is prototypical. The beats are cold and stone-hard,and effuse grey noise electric discharges. Yet after multiple listens the song's simple chorus and minimalist melody imbed themselves in the cranium. Same goes for the mildly controversial "They Don't Care About Us", where Jackson near-raps a stream of nonsequiturs, amidst various urban-life samples, over a busy hip-hop beat. In fact, considering hip-hop's deep influence on HISTORY's new tracks, it seems the King has seen the future of his kingdom and has begun to act accordingly.

Customer Reviews

Fantastic album!
This is a great double album! In the first CD there are real classics from Michael, although I would have put some more in there, and the second CD is just amaizing new meterial! You can hear his atitude change in every single song. Earth Song is just beautiful, as is the video made for it, fantastic! I reccomend this album to anyone, fan or no fan!

Maybe not his best album, but by far his most important
HIStory starts with fifteen greatest hits, and has the curse that only genius can suffer; there aren't enough! Where is Smooth Criminal, Will You Be There, Leave Me Alone, Who Is It... Some greatest hits albums resort to fillers, but HIStory Begins could have been bigger and better and still left you complaining that it wasn't enough!

HIStory Continues, the second disc, has fifteen new tracks, inlcuding the cover of the Beatles' Come Together, previously only available as a B-side to the Remember The Time single. It's slightly more hit-and-miss than his last two albums; of Bad's eleven tracks, nine were released as singles - how's that for quality? But the best songs on the album are among his best ever. Scream is a monumental comeback single. While it was expected he would brush the recent controversies under the carpet, here he is at his angry best, fighting back. The same can be said of They Don't Care About Us, and potential buyers should be aware that the alleged anti-semitism is a myth. Here, any racist words that appear in the lyrics are used to show the stupidity of racism, not to endorse it. Stranger in Moscow is his most adult song to date, a beautiful and haunting ballad that shows how far this album has moved from his 80s heyday. These first three tracks are by far the best on the album, but there are other highlights: the title track is a messy epic; Childhood is MJ at his most open and honest; Tabloid Junkie and 2Bad kick ass; and Earth Song doesn't need anything more written about it!

His previous albums had a little more balance between the best and the slightly-less-best songs, but this is the most important album Michael Jackson has made. It has an honesty in the lyrics which makes his earlier work seem slightly empty, and will make you realise that "King of Pop" is too narrow a title for this guy. I would recommend this album to everyone. The greatest hits and the new tracks are stunning.

Micheal Jackson History
For micheal Jakson fans this album is a must, a compliation of his very best tracks as well as some new ones.
The early stuff such as 'Billie Jean', 'Thriller' and'Bad' are still classics to this day.
My personal favourite track is 'rock with you', it shows to me, how good vocally Jackson really was.
Id recommend this album to anyone who likes his stuff, im sure you wont be disappointed, i know i wasnt.