The swooping strings? The gurgling bass hook? Michael’s untethered falsetto? It’s nothing less than MJ eyeing the Bee Gees across a crowded nightclub and saying, “Game on.” (Obviously, “Don’t Stop ‘Til You Get Enough” is a hard 10.

Now Jackson’s previous #1 hit, the Off The Wall lead-off single “ Don’t Stop ‘Til You Get Enough”? That one is unabashedly, positively, one-million percent disco.

Many critics point to “Rock With You” as the last disco track to top the charts, but that’s a misnomer. With his beautifully natural Afro and a light dusting of teenage acne, he’s no different from a million other African-American teenagers in the late ‘70s. The former child star smiling in these photos looks calm and relaxed, totally unencumbered by the crushing fame that would eventually swallow his life whole. As seen in Spike Lee’s excellent 2016 documentary, Michael Jackson’s Journey From Motown To Off The Wall, pictures from this era are both deeply weird (Jackson sharing a booth with Woody Allen?) and shockingly unremarkable. Most days were spent on set, but nights often found him at Studio 54, just as the celebrity-infested nightclub was hitting its decadent, disco-drenched peak. Away from his family, his brothers, and his domineering father for the first time, 18-year-old Michael threw himself into work-and play. The year was 1977, and Jackson had relocated to New York City with his sister, La Toya, in preparation for his acting debut in Motown’s big-budget fiasco The Wiz. For one all-too-brief moment in time, Michael Jackson led a normal life.

Michael jackson rock with you