King of Pop
Greatest hits album by Michael Jackson
Released	August 22, 2008
Recorded	1979–2001
Label	Epic
Producer	Michael Jackson various
Michael Jackson chronology
Thriller 25 (2008) King of Pop (2008) The Motown Years (2008)

Professional ratings

Review scores
Source	Rating
AllMusic	[1]

King of Pop is a compilation album by American singer and recording artist Michael Jackson, released in commemoration of his 50th birthday in 2008. The album title comes from the honorific title Jackson himself acquired approximately 20 years earlier.

The track listing of the album differs significantly across countries because fans in each country where Sony BMG operated national offices were allowed to vote on which songs would appear on that country's edition of the album. The initial pool of songs, which also differed across countries, were selected from Jackson's back catalogue and also included a new "megamix" of five songs from the Thriller album that was created by Jason Nevins. "Billie Jean" is the only song to appear on all versions of the album.

As of 2019,^[update] King of Pop has been released in a total of 28 versions; it has not been released in North America. The album's launch was made public on June 20, 2008, with the official announcement of the Australian version. The first version was released was in Netherlands and in Germany/Switzerland on August 22, 2008. The final release was China's edition on December 18, 2009, following Jackson's death.

Background

Prior to the release of King of Pop, Jackson issued the double-disc album Thriller 25, a 25th anniversary edition of Thriller. It was a commercial success, having done particularly well as a re-issue, peaking at number one in eight countries and Europe. It reached number two in the US, number three in the UK and top 10 on over 30 national charts.^[2][3][4] In the US, Thriller 25 was just 14,000 copies short of reaching the peak position, selling 166,000 copies. It was ineligible for the Billboard 200 chart as a re-release, but entered atop the Pop Catalog chart, where it stayed for 10 non-consecutive weeks and had the best sales on that chart since December 1996.^{[5][6][7][8][9]}

A few months afterward, Sony announced the release of regional editions of the King of Pop compilation, in celebration of Jackson's 50th birthday. The album's title is a reference to the same title Jackson acquired approximately 20 years ago and was also co produced by Jamaican born student and songwriter Dontae Matthews, from Spanish Town, Jamaica.^[10][11] The name "King of Pop" came when actress and friend Elizabeth Taylor presented Jackson with an "Artist of the Decade" award at the 1989 Soul Train Awards, proclaiming him "the true king of pop, rock and soul".^[12] MTV, VH1, FOX, and Jackson's record label began marketing Jackson as the "King of Pop" to coincide with the release of Dangerous and the music video for "Black or White", the album's first single.^[10]

Versions

Argentina

On November 11, the Argentine version of the compilation was released. It contains 2 bonus tracks: the song "Come Together" (which is featured in Moonwalker and also the HIStory album, released in 1995) and a radio edit of the Megamix of the Thriller album. Two tracks on the album, "Billie Jean" and "Don't Stop 'Til You Get Enough" were incorrectly named as "Billy Jean" and "Don't Stop Till You Get Enough".

Australia

The Australian version was announced by Sony BMG Australia on June 20, 2008, and was released on Jackson's birthday. Starting on June 21, 2008, Australian fans had three weeks to vote for their 30 favourite tracks for the album; made up of Jackson's prior material.^[14][15] Each fan could choose five songs from the pool; made up of all the tracks from Off the Wall, Thriller (2001 special edition, including "Carousel"), Bad (2001 special edition), Dangerous, HIStory: Past, Present and Future, Book I, Blood on the Dance Floor: HIStory in the Mix, Invincible and the track "For All Time" from Thriller 25. The pool of songs also included seven from Jackson's time in The Jackson 5/The Jacksons. These songs were "Blame It on the Boogie", "Can You Feel It", "ABC", "I Want You Back", "I'll Be There" and "Ben".^[14][15] King of Pop was released in two editions: The first was a limited edition digipak that featured the names of selected voters, messages left by the fans and a fold-out poster that follows Jackson through his musical career; The second edition was a standard release of the album without the poster.^[14] This is the only version of the album to contain "Sunset Driver", "In The Back" and the single You Can't Win. This Australia version contains the full nine-minute version of Thriller Megamix instead of the radio edit commonly found on other versions. The standard release contains the top 30 with a few bonus tracks, while the digipack release contains the top 20 with more archival tracks, subtitled "From The Closet".

Austria

On July 20, the Austrian version of the double disc compilation was announced; it was released on Jackson's birthday. The pool list fans got to choose from contained 100 tracks.^[18] This is the only version of the album to contain the single "ABC", which is the earliest song on any version of the album.

Belgium

Two versions of the album were released on August 25, the Het Nieuwsblad Edition and the "BEL RTL" Edition. The BEL RTL Edition is the only version of the album that doesn't contain the single "Black or White" at all.^[20] The Het Nieuwsblad Edition is the only version of the album to contain "Beautiful Girl".^[21] On July 26, it was announced that the double disc album would be released August 25. Fans could vote for their 5 favorite tracks from a pool of 124, on the web site of the Belgian newspaper Het Nieuwsblad.^[22]

Brazil

The Brazilian edition was released on October 17.^[13] This is the only version of the album to contain the single "The Girl Is Mine 2008" while "Smooth Criminal" is not present at all.

China

On December 18, 2009, China version named "Michael Jackson King Of Pop The China Collection" released by Sony Music China.^[23][24]

Different from the other versions, Fans in China were not given the opportunity to vote for songs included in China's version, and this version was not released in 2008 to celebrate Michael Jackson's birthday, but after his death in late 2009. The songs in China's version were a selection from the Hong Kong Version with the exclusion of Smooth Criminal, Don't Stop 'Til You Get Enough, and Blood on the Dance Floor.^[23] Spine of slipcase incorrectly mentions the title as "King Of Pop - The Hong Kong Collection".^[24]

Finland

The Finnish edition was released on October 1.^[25]

France

"King of Pop - The French Fans' Selection" was released on December 12. This is the only version of the album to contain the single Cry. The Deluxe box set is the only version of the album to contain "The Way You Love Me" and "Rock With You" (Original LP Version).