Once the Jackson 5 grew up and parted ways with Motown, they became the Jacksons -- and they knew all about the growing pains that come with young romance. The 1980 funk song "Lovely One" sees Michael, backed by brothers Jackie, Tito, Randy and Marlon, confronting a skeptical lover and trying to prove his dedication. The track peaked at No. 12 on the Hot 100 but hit No. 2 on Billboard's R&B songs chart and No. 1 on the Dance/Club Play chart.

Released as the sixth single from Jackson's "Bad" album in summer 1988, the synthy uptempo hit was actually first heard nearly two years earlier, in the most unlikely of places. On Sept. 12, 1986, visitors at the Epcot theme park at the Walt Disney World resort in Orlando, Fla. got the first public taste of the song, one of two new compositions recorded for Jackson's star turn in the 3D film "Captain EO," which premiered that day in the park. The song ultimately reached No. 11 on the Hot 100. By 1998, all of the "Captain EO" attractions had ended their runs at the assorted Disney Parks throughout the world. The company was moved, however, to return the show to its parks in 2010, starting with Disneyland's version Feb. 23.

"P.Y.T. (Pretty Young Thing)" was released Sept. 19, 1983, as the sixth single from the "Thriller" album and featured Janet Jackson and LaToya Jackson on backup vocals. The single peaked at No. 10 on the Hot 100, becoming the sixth consecutive top 10 song from the album. "P.Y.T." has been sampled by many artists, including Monica on "All Eyez on Me" and Kanye West on "Good Life."

Written and produced by The Corporation, a Motown collective assembled specifically for cranking out Jackson hits, "Sugar Daddy" peaked at No. 3 on Billboard's R&B songs chart. Older brothers Tito and Jermaine backed up Michael on the poppy, organ-filled ditty, which featured multiple food-related entendres ("I've got your lollipop/ Well, my flavor's long lastin', girl"). It was included as a new track on the group's 1971 "Greatest Hits" album.

When the public first got a listen of "In the Closet" on Jackson's 1991 "Dangerous" album, people immediately began to wonder who his female duet partner was on the song. She was billed only as "Mystery Girl" in the set's liner notes and some began to assume -- perhaps because of her whispery, come-hither vibe -- that it was Madonna. As it turns out, the mysterious woman was revealed to be, of all people, Princess Stephanie of Monaco. But folks weren't far off in their theories: "In the Closet" was initially conceived as a collaboration between the King and Queen of Pop. The pair, however, couldn't come to an agreement on the song's direction and the singers parted ways.

When the title track to his fifth studio album debuted on the Hot 100 dated Feb. 16, 1980, Jackson was following up back-to-back No. 1s for the first time in his solo career. The single could not match the success of the album's previous singles, but managed to land the album's third top 10 peak, reaching No. 10 in April 1980.

Quincy Jones used simple instrumentation to produce this ballad from "Off the Wall." Over the lyrics "I don't know whether to laugh or cry / I don't know whether to live or die," the song's tempo sounds nearly at a stand-still compared to his best-known dance jams. (Jackson is even heard crying at song's end). The cut peaked at No. 10 on the Hot 100 in 1980.

The double A-side single was released as the lead off Jackson's 1995 set, "HIStory: Past, Present and Future, Book I." "Scream" was his first duet with sister Janet Jackson; the song is an effort to retaliate against the media's obsession with his personal life and it resulted in a memorable video directed by Mark Romanek. "Childhood" was solely written and composed by Michael. The single peaked at No. 5 on the Hot 100.

This gospel-tinged track became the seventh song to reach the Hot 100's top 40 from Jackson's "Dangerous" album, peaking at No. 7 in 1993. The song was truly a whale of a hit: doubling as the theme to the film "Free Willy," it won the MTV Movie Award for "Best Song in a Movie" in 1994. Last month, season nine finalist Michael Lynche introduced the song to a new generation with his faithful rendition on "American Idol."

As one of seven consecutive Hot 100 top 10s from Jackson's "Thriller" album, "Human Nature" was the mellowest. It also spent the least amount of time on the chart of the set's seven singles (14 weeks), peaking at No. 7. Female R&B trio SWV carried elements of the song to No. 2 in 1993 with its "Right Here"/"Human Nature" mash-up sampling Jackson's original recording.

Not many 12-year-olds can maturely depict a romantic situation like Michael did in the Jackson 5's hit single, "Never Can Say Goodbye." Michael describes a situation where he is incapable of leaving his partner, no matter how close he gets. "There's that same unhappy feeling/ There's that anguish/ There's that doubt," Michael expertly croons in the ballad. The song struck a chord with a relating crowd, charting at No. 1 on Billboard's R&B songs chart and No. 2 on the Hot 100.

Michael Jackson's cover of "Rockin' Robin" by Bobby Day reached No. 2 on the Hot 100 and Billboard's R&B songs chart in 1972. 13-year-old Michael brings playfulness to the classic, with more advanced production including a bird-like melody. The star keenly reports on a popular local songbird, "All the little birdies on Jaybird street/ Love to hear the robin go tweet tweet tweet" -- not dissimilar from the effect Jackson's singing had on his audience.

While Michael had first topped the Hot 100 apart from the Jackson 5 with the ballad "Ben" at age 14 in 1972, his second No. 1 and first on Epic Records set in motion his monumental rise to superstardom as a solo performer, while introducing fans to a more mature artist in both sound and lyrical content. This song ushered in Jackson's "Off the Wall" album and became the first of the set's four Hot 100 top 10s.

In the world of stalky, creepy women in Michael Jackson's lyrics, "Dirty Diana" is right up there with "Billie Jean" and Susie from "Blood on the Dance Floor." The R&B/rock tune about a groupie gone all sorts of wrong features Steve Stevens on guitar and became the "Bad" album's fifth and final No. 1 on the Hot 100 in 1988. With the song's coronation, Jackson set a record that still stands for most Hot 100 No. 1s (five) from one album.

Smartly capitalizing on the group's immense success, Motown Records released Michael's debut single while the Jackson 5 was still enjoying chart achievements with its third album. "Got to Be There" peaked at No. 4 on the Hot 100 dated Dec. 11, 1971, the same date as the debut of the Jackson 5's "Sugar Daddy," which would later peak at No. 10.

Although braggadocious at first listen, Jackson's "Bad" was actually inspired by a real-life story about a boy who went off to a private boarding school and was murdered out of jealousy when he returned back home. The track was helmed by longtime producer Quincy Jones and released as the second single from the "Bad" album. The song peaked at No. 1 on the Hot 100, staying there for two weeks.

Despite the majority of uptempo tracks on "Bad," Epic introduced the follow-up album to "Thriller" with a sleek, sultry love song. This duet with Quincy Jones protÈgÈ Siedah Garrett soared to No. 1 on the Hot 100 in its seventh week in September 1987. The cut scaled Adult Contemporary even more quickly, reaching the summit in four weeks to become Jackson's second of two career leaders on the list, following "The Girl Is Mine," with Paul McCartney, in 1982-83.

The pop music landscape was shifting in late 1991, with Nirvana introducing grunge and rap gaining a larger foothold. Jackson's appeal, however, proved impenetrable with the first single from "Dangerous." Featuring guitarist Slash, "Black or White" tallied seven weeks atop the Hot 100, matching "Billie Jean" for Jackson's longest reign. The song's video remains memorable for its pioneering use of morphing technology and subsequently deleted scenes of Jackson violently smashing car windows against a backdrop of racist graffiti.

The third single from "Bad" became the album's third consecutive Hot 100 No. 1 in January 1988, marking Jackson's only set to yield more than two toppers ("Bad" would eventually yield a record five Hot 100 leaders; see No. 17, "Dirty Diana"). In 2005, veteran pop crooner Paul Anka stamped a lounge spin on the song on his jazz-inflected covers album, "Rock Swings."

Jackson knew all about growing up too fast and trying to preserve youth. That's why it comes as no surprise that 1970's "The Love You Save," by the Jackson 5, finds him, along with brother Jermaine, warning a "fast" girl to slow down atop an uptempo production. "The Jackson 5 was the only group in history to have their first four singles go to [No. 1]," Motown founder Berry Gordy wrote in the introduction to "Moonwalk." "For Michael, it was the inspiration to break all the rest [of the chart records]. And he did."