The Wall Era

In October 1978, Michael’s first motion picture was released, called “The Wiz”. The Wiz was a Motown and Universal motion picture soul adaptation of the book “The Wizard of Oz”. Michael auditioned for and gained the role of the scarecrow in the film and moved to New York with his sister LaToya in October 1977 for filming. Michael’s good friend Diana Ross starred as Dorothy in the film.
On August 10th, Michael released the album Off The Wall. It was his fifth overall solo album, but his first ever for Epic records. The album was recorded between December 4 1978 and July 7, 1979. Michael contributed three songs to Off The Wall: “Don’t Stop Till You Get Enough”, “Working Day and Night” and “Get on the Floor” (co-written with Louis Johnson). Michael and Quincy sought top writers and musicians for the album, with Rod Temperton who contributed three tracks: “Rock With You”, “Off The Wall” and “Burn This Disco Out”, Paul McCartney contributed the playful “Girlfriend”, Tom Bahler gave the emotional “She’s Out of My Life” and Stevie Wonder and Susaye Greene offered the quirky “I Can’t Help It”. There was one duet between Michael and Patti Austin called “It’s the Falling in Love”, which was written by Carole Bayer Sager and David Foster.
In November 1979, the second single form the album, “Rock With You” was released. The music video, directed by Bruce Gowers, featured Michael in an all-sequinned suit and boots. The song quickly became a number one hit on the US charts.
Apart from “Rock With You” becoming one of 1980’s first number one hits, the Off The Wall album sales shot up and quickly became the third best selling album of 1980. The album also caught the attention of Michael’s peers and in January, Michael won his first Grammy award as a solo performer for “Best R & B Performance” for “Don’t Stop Till You Get Enough”. In the same month, Michael attended the American Music Awards and collected three more awards for the album: “Favourite Soul Album”, “Favourite Male Artist” and “Favourite Soul Single” for “Don’t Stop Till You Get Enough”. Michael also won four Billboard Awards for the album.