By CHRIS CONNELLY and MICHAEL S. JAMES

He first became a star as a young boy, then endured superstardom, scandals and a legal prosecution, but as he turns 50, Michael Jackson told “Good Morning America” in an exclusive interview, he is “having a wonderful time, just relaxing.”

Speaking by phone from his home in California, at times so softly he was barely audible, Jackson said he was listening to James Brown and preparing for his 50th birthday Friday, when he will “just have a little cake with my children and we’ll probably watch some cartoons” - before he gets right back to work.

Does turning 50 mean he now has an AARP card?

“Not that I know of! You never know. They can find you wherever you are.”

He said he still can do all his famous dance moves and “more.”

“I feel very wise and sage, but at the same time very young.”

Reflecting back, Jackson said the happiest time in his life was probably when he was recording his hit solo albums “Thriller,” released in 1982, and “Off the Wall,” released in 1979. Those albums - which were accompanied by a string of hit singles and videos and corresponded with the 1983 debut of his signature dance, the “moonwalk” - propelled him to the height of his stardom.

“That meant very much to me and seemed to be received so beautifully by the public and the world. I enjoyed it very much.”

Asked to pick a single song as his greatest achievement, Jackson went back to the same period.

“Oh boy, that’s a hard one,” he said, before singling out “We Are the World,” “Billie Jean” and “Thriller.”

But Jackson was not content to rest on his laurels:

“I am still looking forward to doing a lot of great things.”

He hopes to release new music and tour, though he doesn’t have dates set.

“I am writing all the time. I love composing and the whole thing. But I am also raising my children and enjoying it and teaching them to ride bicycles and how to read. I love it.”

He said he hopes to “be myself” in his future work, but also that he is “inspired by many great artists,” noting he wished he could have worked with Brown or Fred Astaire.

He sees his influence in some of today’s artists, specifically mentioning Chris Brown.

He said he sacrificed his childhood with “a lot of hard work,” and that he remembers “giving up your life for the medium.”

But he’d do it all again.

“I think I would. It is very much worth it. I have always loved show business and have always enjoyed making people happy through that medium. I love the celebration of music and dance and art. I just love it.”

Asked if he’d like his two sons and daughter to have the same sort of upbringing as him, he said he’d prefer to let them “enjoy their childhood as much as possible.”

“I let them go to the arcade and go to the movies and do things. I want them to get to do the kind of things I didn’t get to do. So, I fill them with a lot of enjoyment that way - a lot of amusement. You know?

I get pretty emotional when I see them having a wonderful time, when they are on a ride and they are screaming and they are happy. … It makes me emotional, ’cause I see they are having a real good time.”

Jackson said his kids “love music … they are very much into the arts,” but that, “I don’t push them.”

If he could go back and give himself some advice at age 9 or 10, the approximate age of his oldest children, he would advise himself, “if you are going to do it, commit yourself, know your craft and be really involved.” He’d say to be strong and to have “rhinoceros skin” when it comes to dealing with the pressures of fame.

Click Here to listen to the exclusive interview.

Source: ABC News

“It’s coming along slowly, but surely. They’re being very selective about what they keep, which they’re supposed to be. These are two very important albums. It’s the one that’s going to bring Whitney back and the one that’s going to take all the attention off of [Michael Jackson’s] personal life, hopefully, and put people back in the mindstate of why they love Michael in the first place.”

Ne-Yo also had this to say about Michael’s “comeback”:

“The entertainment side—the way he dances, the way he sings, and him being one of the greatest entertainers that got put on the stage—bring people back in that mind frame and away from thinking about when his last surgery was or if he still has the monkey or whatever the hell it is. He’s still Michael Jackson!”

Ne-Yo’s own album ‘Year of the Gentleman’ is due out on September 16th. Neither Whitney’s nor Michael’s album has a release date at this time.

Source: Rap-Up.com

“Our favourite poet in the world is Robbie Burns. Michael and I were originally going to do a musical on his life with Gene Kelly directing and Anthony Perkins as executive producer but, they both died.”

So, instead the pair decided to set the poems to pop music.

“So Michael and I put all the poems to contemporary music in his studio in Encino. We did [Burns poems] ‘Ae Fond Kiss,’ ‘Tam O’Shanter’ and all that. We turned his work into show tunes. It is beautiful and I still have the recordings.”

Robert Burns (1759 – 1796) was a Scottish poet and lyricist; largly regarded as the national poet of Scotland.

Source: Contact Music

Michael was dressed in a dark colored, hooded sweatshirt and the children were dressed very casually in jeans and baseball caps. Little ‘Blanket’ however, sported a Mystère hat instead of the ball cap (the family had also attended ‘Mystère’ by Cirque du Soleil on July 29).

The family snacked on popcorn as they watched the show from center seats. Afterwards Michael reportedly commented that it was the best production he has ever seen and that ‘KÀ’ is his favorite of all the Cirque du Soleil shows.

Source: TheVegasEye.com

Starting Friday 22nd August you can add the Michael Jackson Dance application to Facebook, Bebo or MySpace. Players will compete for hourly, daily and overall prizes including King Of Pop iPod Nanos, a PS3 with 32″ LCD TV and 2 round the world flights! Play the brand new Michael Jackson dance game for your chance to win a pair of around the world flights, plus hundreds of other prizes. You will be pitched against other players from all over the world in a battle to be crowned the ultimate champion of this fantastic new game.

A full set of Terms & Conditions for the competition will be available tomorrow.

Check it out here.

Source: www.michaeljackson.com

The full tracklisting is as follows:

CD1

* 1 Billie Jean
* 2 Beat It
* 3 Thriller
* 4 Smooth Criminal (Radio Edit)
* 5 Bad
* 6 Dirty Diana
* 7 Black Or White
* 8 Man In The Mirror
* 9 Earth Song
* 10 Heal The World
* 11 They Don’t Care About Us
* 12 Who Is It
* 13 Speechless
* 14 The Way You Make Me Feel
* 15 We’ve Had Enough
* 16 Remember The Time

CD2

* 1 Whatever Happens
* 2 You Are Not Alone
* 3 Say Say Say
* 4 Liberian Girl
* 5 Wanna Be Startin’ Somethin’
* 6 Don’t Stop ‘Til You Get Enough
* 7 I Just Can’t Stop Loving You
* 8 Give In To Me
* 9 Dangerous
* 10 Will You Be There
* 11 Scream
* 12 You Rock My World
* 13 Stranger In Moscow
* 14 Rock With You

Bonus Tracks

* 15 Got The Hots (Thriller 25th Anniversary, previously unreleased)
* 16 Thriller Megamix (by Jason Nevins)

Source: SonyBMG Switzerland

Since the “Hot 100″ didn’t begin until the year 1958 (with Ricky Nelson’s “Poor Little Fool” as its first No. 1), the all-time list will not include the first three years of the “Rock ‘n’ Roll” era. That means that there will be no “Rock Around the Clock;” few doo-wop artists and only a small segment of the contributions of Elvis Presley on the all-time list.

The various lists are quite entertaining and, of course, the King of Pop can be found on several different ones. For example, three of the various lists can be found below:

*Songs that reached No. 1 by different artists:

“Go Away Little Girl” - Steve Lawrence and Donny Osmond
“The Locomotion - Little Eva and Grand Funk Railroad
“Please Mr. Postman” - The Marvelettes and the Carpenters
“I’ll Be There” - Jackson Five and Mariah Carey
“Lady Marmalade” - LaBelle and Christina Aguilera & Company
“Lean On Me” - Bill Withers and Club Nouveau
“Venus” - The Shocking Blue and Bananarama
“When A Man Loves a Woman” - Percy Sledge and Michael Bolton
“You Keep Me Hangin’ On” - The Supremes and Kim Wilde

*The most No. 1 songs by the same artist:

With Elvis ineligible, the Beatles are tops with 20 No. 1 singles, followed by Michael Jackson with 13. The rest of the list includes Madonna and the Supremes with 12, Whitney Houston with 11, Janet Jackson and Stevie Wonder with 10, the Bee Gees, Elton John and Paul McCartney with 9 and the Rolling Stones and Usher with 8.

*The 100 artists with the best “Top 100″ average (To qualify for this list, the artist had to have a minimum of 20 hits, so these are truly the heavy hitters of pop music.):

Three Dog Night came in first. They released 21 singles that, on average, placed No. 12 on the ‘Hot 100′ chart. Rounding out the top 10 on this list are Madonna (53 singles/No. 14 average), George Michael (28/14.9), Mariah Carey (39/15.3), Janet Jackson (41/16.3), Huey Lewis & the News (22/17.8), Michael Jackson (46/19.2), Hall & Oates (34/21), Bryan Adams (27/21.2) and Lionel Richie (20/21.3)

The big ‘Hot 100 of All Time’ chart is due out next month and should be fascinating reading for all of you true music fans out there!

Source: Observer-Reporter, MJFC-USA

Source: ARIA