MJ, The Loverman Playlist

Written By Kensedeobong Okosun

In his famous lyric on the song “The Girl is Mine”, Michael Jackson tells Paul McCartney and his audience present and future that he is a lover and not a fighter. His song themes varied from social consciousness to dance/party songs, inspiration and motivation. However, this playlist beams the light on his romantic side to discover how the lover in him ticked and swayed amidst romantic snares. What kind of lover was he? Sensitive, attentive, pushy, misogynistic, stubborn, easy, well, let the songs on this playlist reveal the lover man that was MJ!

  1. “Ain’t No Sunshine” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mSxy1LjNiJQ‍ ‍Got To Be There (1972).

  2. “I Wanna Be Where You Are” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tu_TUrTsyPk‍ ‍Got To Be There (1972).

  3. “Girl Dont Take Your Love From Me” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YF8wUKlkxh8‍ ‍Got To Be There (1972).

  4. “Love Is Here And Now You Are Gone” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5IYrc86wLWo‍ ‍Got To Be There (1972).

  5. “Greatest Show On Earth” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p3oP7pJQEew‍ ‍Ben (1972).

  6. “My Girl” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C3sjkfVNgPc‍ ‍Ben (1972).

  7. “We’ve Got A Good Thing Going” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e63CbvVrby8‍ ‍Ben (1972).

  8. “What Goes Around Comes Around” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZU_xhdij6mA‍ ‍Ben (1972).

  9. “Up Again” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=414dWsr0qg8‍ ‍Music & Me (1973).

  10. “All The Things You Are” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qdZ58AUs4Fc‍ ‍Music & Me (1973).

  11. “Happy” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s8U620ovLDE‍ ‍Music & Me (1973).

  12. “Too Young” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DqOJ3Cyxh8g‍ ‍Music & Me (1973).

  13. “Johnny Raven” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4ieeG87E7ug‍ ‍Music & Me (1973).

  14. “We’re Almost There” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DaWUm4GS3ac‍ ‍Forever, Michael (1975). ‍

  15. “Take Me Back” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1SFf4jv_uaI‍ ‍Forever, Michael (1975).

  16. “One Day In Your Life” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SXX6TB6S6J8‍ ‍Forever, Michael (1975).

  17. “We’ve Got Forever” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UtNhQcGlmZU‍ ‍Forever, Michael (1975).

  18. “Just A Little Bit of You” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ypY8hhSeals‍ ‍Forever, Michael (1975).

  19. “I’ll Come Home To You” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LVkgWSzZWLU‍ ‍Forever, Michael (1975).

  20. “Rock With You” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OvzJZTkWYoY‍ ‍Off The Wall (1979).

  21. “Workin’ Day and Night” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MWnyCxva6bAOff The Wall (1979).

  22. “She’s Out Of My Life” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BtjO1gyBzPg‍ ‍Off The Wall (1979).

  23. “I Can’t Help It” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_3h7wQxdM3A‍ ‍Off The Wall (1979).

  24. “It’s The Falling In Love” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D8DE_cvnGXQ‍ ‍Off The Wall (1979).

  25. “The Girl Is Mine” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8GB9BULxZ8c‍ ‍Thriller (1982).

  26. “Billie Jean” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kr4EQDVETuA‍ ‍Thriller (1982).

  27. “P.Y.T. (Pretty Young Thing)” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1ZZQuj6htF4‍ ‍Thriller (1982).

  28. “The Lady In My Life” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cJLH5yXoqi8‍ ‍Thriller (1982).

  29. “The Way You Make Me Feel” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VtM-rHPwN7o‍ ‍Bad (1987).

  30. “Liberian Girl” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7UoONw5ABpE‍ ‍Bad (1987).

  31. “I Just Can’t Stop Loving You” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GAmVuYEeSSg‍ ‍Bad (1987).

  32. “In The Closet” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D6pELkXYt6YDangerous (1991).

  33. “Remember The Time” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qM19eRgOK1Q‍ ‍Dangerous (1991).

  34. “Who Is It” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cMsQhR07fsQ‍ ‍Dangerous (1991).

  35. “Give In To Me” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dqjP5rTOQFc‍ ‍Dangerous (1991).

  36. “You Are Not Alone” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=02dMNQxwy48‍ ‍HIStory: Past, Present and Future, Book I (1995).

  37. “You Rock My World” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MiE1inuK5tE‍ ‍Invincible (2001).

  38. “Speechless” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=csARzcsjark‍ ‍Invincible (2001).

  39. “Break of Dawn” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O8ELJ_Eh8A0‍ ‍Invincible (2001).

  40. “Butterflies” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=csvNBRZfFpo‍ ‍Invincible (2001).

  41. “You Are My Life” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1KE0YkNusew‍ ‍Invincible (2001).

Kensedeobong Okosun

Kensedeobong Okosun is a music enthusiast, music researcher, music journalist with expertise in music selection & planning, vocalist and an author. Her academic article “Sisterhood and Soul Music as expressions of Black Power” is featured in the edited volume, Black Power in Hemispheric Perspective (Raussert & Steinitz, eds, 2022). She has reviewed Dorothea Gail’s Weird American Music for the Forum for Interamerican Research (fiar, 2019). Her work has appeared on Nigeria’s Sun News Online and The Nigerian Observer.

Kensedeobong’s blog highlights music’s interconnectivity with society and comprises personal music experiences, researched information, concept playlists for multiple themes, etc.

A hard-core 90s R&B fan, she utilises the vehicle of memory, to position long forgotten music of yesteryears on the front-burner.

She is persuaded that music is a core conduit of collective harmony, equanimity, vitality and healing. And as such requires criticality in the filtration process, in order to disseminate meaning. Her blog promotes music equality and diversity.

She resides in Germany.

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MJ’s Message songs Playlist