John Landis-directed film, accompanying the album's title track, was a 16-minute big-budget extravaganza, featuring cutting-edge special effects and the voice of veteran horror actor, Vincent Price.The Thriller video, and its companion, Beat It, also ended MTV's neglect of black artists, while making the mini-musical blockbuster de rigueur for any self-respecting pop star.Besides his successful solo career, Jackson also recorded a series of hit duets with Paul McCartney, who had written the Off The Wall track, Girlfriend.The two stars appeared on one another's albums with songs like The Girl Is Mine and the chart-topping Say Say Say.Stripped-down soundThe relationship soured, though, in 1985, when Jackson outbid both McCartney and Yoko Ono to secure the ATV music-publishing catalogue, which included the rights to more than 250 Lennon/McCartney songs.Not for the first time, Jackson's ruthless business streak had asserted itself.The same year also saw the USA For Africa charity single, We Are The World, co-written by Jackson and Lionel Ritchie, reach number one in the US.The Jackson phenomenon showed no sign of slowing down when, in 1987, he released the third, and final, Quincy Jones-produced album, Bad.With five number one hits, including Man in the Mirror and Dirty Diana, the album also featured a 17-minute video, courtesy of Martin Scorsese, to promote the title track and a year-long world tour, at the time the largest-grossing in history.Dangerous, Jackson's 1991 outing, featured a more stripped-down sound than its three predecessors.But the magic remained, and tracks like Heal the World and Black and White soon became worldwide hits, despite the tabloid headlines and court cases which now threatened to damage the singer's reputation.But his 1995 album, a compilation of old hits and new material entitled HIStory, failed to ignite the popular imagination.ControversyDespite the biggest-ever publicity campaign for an album, estimated at $30m, HIStory enjoyed a brief appearance in the charts.Whether this was due to the star's increasingly erratic behaviour, continuing speculation about his private life or just the public turning increasingly to rap and hip-hop, is a matter for debate.But one track, in particular - They Don't Care About Us, with the lyrics, "Jew me, sue me" - outraged many people including Jackson's long-time friend and supporter Steven Spielberg, who saw it as anti-Semitic.And his appearance at the 1996 Brit Awards ceremony in London, surrounded by children and a rabbi, proved too much for some, most notably Pulp's Jarvis Cocker, who showed his displeasure by storming the stage and dropping his trousers.Michael Jackson's final album, Invincible (2001) was released at a time when he looked anything but.A swirl of controversy, including Jackson's repeated assertions that his record company, Sony, had asked for their money back - all $200m of it - and that the label's chairman, Tommy Mottola, held black artists back, effectively drowned out the music.It seemed an underwhelming end to what had been one of the most spectacular of all musical careers.But the star was due to begin a series of sold-out comeback concerts, starting with an appearance in London next month.