# Ben (Michael Jackson album)
**Ben**, the American singer [Michael Jackson](https://www.edgepedia.org/michael-jackson)'s second studio album, came out on Motown on August 4, 1972, at a time when he remained in the Jackson 5.[1](https://www.last.fm/music/Michael%20Jackson/Ben) Its title track, the theme from the 1972 film *Ben*, gave Jackson his first number-one single on the Billboard Hot 100 as a solo artist and was nominated for the [Academy Award for Best Original Song](https://www.edgepedia.org/academy-award-for-best-original-song).[2](https://www.allmusic.com/album/mw0000197848) • [3](https://albumism.com/features/michael-jackson-ben-turns-50-anniversary-retrospective) The album followed his solo debut *[Got to Be There](https://www.edgepedia.org/got-to-be-there)*, released in late January of the same year.[3](https://albumism.com/features/michael-jackson-ben-turns-50-anniversary-retrospective)
| Key fact | Detail |
|---|---|
| Release | August 4, 1972, on Motown; Jackson's second solo studio album, recorded while he was still in the Jackson 5[1](https://www.last.fm/music/Michael%20Jackson/Ben) |
| Length and format | Ten songs, 31 minutes 38 seconds; R&B and pop-soul with soundtrack material[2](https://www.allmusic.com/album/mw0000197848) • [4](https://open.spotify.com/intl-de/album/3ptDrRzgad76DCVrxtC555) |
| Title track | "Ben," written by Don Black and Walter Scharf for the 1972 film of the same name; his first solo Hot 100 number one[5](https://musicbrainz.org/release/6ee7cc35-564a-466d-901f-806e01790b80) • [2](https://www.allmusic.com/album/mw0000197848) |
| Awards | Golden Globe win and Academy Award nomination for Best Original Song for "Ben"[3](https://albumism.com/features/michael-jackson-ben-turns-50-anniversary-retrospective) |
| Chart peak | Number five on the Billboard album chart; the single also reached number 7 in the UK[6](https://los40.com/2025/01/16/cuando-jackson-fracaso-por-una-vez-en-su-vida-su-disco-forever-michael-cumple-50-anos/) • [7](https://hitslist.fyi/song/michael-jackson-ben-themp72dtx0d) |
| Production | Six different producers, with Berry Gordy as executive producer; the Motown songwriting-production team the Corporation handled the title track[3](https://albumism.com/features/michael-jackson-ben-turns-50-anniversary-retrospective) • [2](https://www.allmusic.com/album/mw0000197848) |
## Background and recording
Motown launched Jackson's solo career in 1971 while he continued to front the Jackson 5, and his debut solo album *Got to Be There* appeared in late January 1972.[3](https://albumism.com/features/michael-jackson-ben-turns-50-anniversary-retrospective) Both albums were recorded in 1971, less than seven months apart in their release.[3](https://albumism.com/features/michael-jackson-ben-turns-50-anniversary-retrospective) According to the album's 50th-anniversary retrospective, *Ben* was produced by six different collaborators and executive produced by Motown founder [Berry Gordy](https://www.edgepedia.org/berry-gordy), with compositions supplied by an array of songwriters including Jackson's labelmate [Smokey Robinson](https://www.edgepedia.org/smokey-robinson).[3](https://albumism.com/features/michael-jackson-ben-turns-50-anniversary-retrospective)
The album marked a shift in who shaped Jackson's records. The [Corporation](https://www.edgepedia.org/corporation), the Motown songwriting and production team behind most of the Jackson 5's early hits, contributed to Jackson's debut, but on *Ben* only the title track and the midtempo "We've Got a Good Thing Going" carry their production style.[2](https://www.allmusic.com/album/mw0000197848) The retrospective notes that *Ben* was the last album on which listeners would hear Jackson's voice before it began to deepen.[3](https://albumism.com/features/michael-jackson-ben-turns-50-anniversary-retrospective)
## The title track
"Ben" was written by the English lyricist Don Black and the composer and arranger Walter Scharf as the theme for *Ben*, the 1972 film sequel to the killer-rat thriller *Willard*.[5](https://musicbrainz.org/release/6ee7cc35-564a-466d-901f-806e01790b80) • [8](https://www.allmusic.com/song/ben-mt0027007126) The song's solution to its unpromising subject, as AllMusic's Ed Hogan describes it, was to make the rat a sympathetic character, and Jackson's sensitive reading of the lyric made the sentimental tribute to a pet rat a hit.[8](https://www.allmusic.com/song/ben-mt0027007126) In the film, the song plays during the final scene and the closing credits, and Jackson later said it was one of his favorite songs.[9](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0068264/trivia/?item=tr1720875)
Issued as a single in July 1972, "Ben" reached number one on the Billboard Hot 100, where it spent one week at the top during a 16-week chart run.[10](https://classic.motown.com/artist/michael-jackson/) • [7](https://hitslist.fyi/song/michael-jackson-ben-themp72dtx0d) It was his first chart-topper as a solo artist, and at 14 years of age he became the third-youngest solo artist to score a number-one single, after [Stevie Wonder](https://www.edgepedia.org/stevie-wonder) with "Fingertips" and [Donny Osmond](https://www.edgepedia.org/donny-osmond) with "Go Away Little Girl."[3](https://albumism.com/features/michael-jackson-ben-turns-50-anniversary-retrospective) The song won a Golden Globe and was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Original Song, and Jackson performed it on the Oscar telecast the following year.[3](https://albumism.com/features/michael-jackson-ben-turns-50-anniversary-retrospective) • [10](https://classic.motown.com/artist/michael-jackson/)
## Songs
The album mixes original material with covers in a way typical of the era.[11](https://www.subjectivesounds.com/ranked/michael-jackson-solo-albums-ranked-from-worst-to-best) The ten tracks are "Ben," "Greatest Show on Earth," "People Make the World Go 'Round," "We've Got a Good Thing Going," "Everybody's Somebody's Fool," "My Girl," "What Goes Around Comes Around," "In Our Small Way," "Shoo-Be-Doo-Be-Doo-Da-Day," and the closing "You Can Cry on My Shoulder."[4](https://open.spotify.com/intl-de/album/3ptDrRzgad76DCVrxtC555)
**Covers and originals.** Jackson's take on "My Girl" revisits the Temptations classic that the Jackson 5 had used to win a talent contest at Roosevelt High School in [Gary, Indiana](https://www.edgepedia.org/gary-indiana), in 1965.[10](https://classic.motown.com/artist/michael-jackson/) "People Make the World Go 'Round" was released within weeks of the [Stylistics](https://www.edgepedia.org/stylistics)' more familiar hit version of the song.[2](https://www.allmusic.com/album/mw0000197848) "Greatest Show on Earth" stands out for its cinematic quality and an arrangement by James Anthony Carmichael, one of several he contributed to the project.[2](https://www.allmusic.com/album/mw0000197848) The retrospective notes that "What Goes Around Comes Around" is essentially a Jackson 5 song, with his brothers' harmonies audible in the background.[3](https://albumism.com/features/michael-jackson-ben-turns-50-anniversary-retrospective)
## Commercial performance and reception
The album reached number five on the [Billboard](https://www.edgepedia.org/billboard-magazine) album chart, a stronger showing than *Got to Be There*, and the title track's success was the main driver.[6](https://los40.com/2025/01/16/cuando-jackson-fracaso-por-una-vez-en-su-vida-su-disco-forever-michael-cumple-50-anos/) • [3](https://albumism.com/features/michael-jackson-ben-turns-50-anniversary-retrospective) In the UK, the single peaked at number 7 and spent 17 weeks on the chart.[7](https://hitslist.fyi/song/michael-jackson-ben-themp72dtx0d)
Critical assessments have generally treated *Ben* as a stronger album than its predecessor. A contemporary-style review quoted by Album of The Year judged that it contains a good deal more original material and is on the whole a much stronger album than *Got to Be There*, even if it lacks a song as luscious as "Got to Be There" or "I Wanna Be Where You Are."[12](https://www.albumoftheyear.org/album/17051-michael-jackson-ben.php) AllMusic's reviewer Lindsay Planer credits the title track's multimedia exposure and crossover appeal for the chart success, while noting that Jackson was otherwise not involved in the film itself.[2](https://www.allmusic.com/album/mw0000197848) Later rankings describe the album as best known for its title track, which became one of Jackson's earliest signature tunes.[11](https://www.subjectivesounds.com/ranked/michael-jackson-solo-albums-ranked-from-worst-to-best)
## Place in Jackson's catalog
*Ben* belongs to the run of four Motown solo albums Jackson released while still a group member: *Got to Be There* (1972), *Ben* (1972), *Music & Me* (1973), and *Forever, Michael* (1975).[2](https://www.allmusic.com/album/mw0000197848) The title track has remained his most durable early solo recording: it appears on compilation albums such as *The Essential Michael Jackson* and in an Immortal Version on the 2011 [Cirque du Soleil](https://www.edgepedia.org/cirque-du-soleil) album *Immortal*, and it has been remade many times since 1972.[13](https://www.michaeljackson.com/the-artist/albums) • [3](https://albumism.com/features/michael-jackson-ben-turns-50-anniversary-retrospective) The album itself has been reissued repeatedly, including a 2009 LP reissue on Motown and inclusion in the three-disc Motown solo collection *Hello World* (2009).[14](https://www.allmusic.com/album/release/ben-mr0002858936) • [15](https://www.allmusic.com/album/release/ben-clear-light-blue-vinyl--mr0007092138)
## References
1. [Ben – Michael Jackson, Last.fm](https://www.last.fm/music/Michael%20Jackson/Ben)
2. [Michael Jackson: Ben Tracks & Reviews (review by Lindsay Planer), AllMusic](https://www.allmusic.com/album/mw0000197848)
3. [Michael Jackson's 'Ben' Turns 50 | Anniversary Retrospective, Albumism](https://albumism.com/features/michael-jackson-ben-turns-50-anniversary-retrospective)
4. [Ben – Album von Michael Jackson, Spotify](https://open.spotify.com/intl-de/album/3ptDrRzgad76DCVrxtC555)
5. [Release "Ben" by Michael Jackson, MusicBrainz](https://musicbrainz.org/release/6ee7cc35-564a-466d-901f-806e01790b80)
6. [Cuando Jackson fracasó por una vez en su vida: su disco 'Forever, Michael' cumple 50 años, Los40](https://los40.com/2025/01/16/cuando-jackson-fracaso-por-una-vez-en-su-vida-su-disco-forever-michael-cumple-50-anos/)
7. [Ben by Michael Jackson: chart & list history, hitslist](https://hitslist.fyi/song/michael-jackson-ben-themp72dtx0d)
8. [Ben – Michael Jackson (song review by Ed Hogan), AllMusic](https://www.allmusic.com/song/ben-mt0027007126)
9. [Ben (1972) – Trivia, IMDb](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0068264/trivia/?item=tr1720875)
10. [Michael Jackson | Classic Motown Artists](https://classic.motown.com/artist/michael-jackson/)
11. [Michael Jackson: Solo Albums Ranked (From Worst To Best), Subjective Sounds](https://www.subjectivesounds.com/ranked/michael-jackson-solo-albums-ranked-from-worst-to-best)
12. [Michael Jackson - Ben - Reviews, Album of The Year](https://www.albumoftheyear.org/album/17051-michael-jackson-ben.php)
13. [Albums – Michael Jackson Official Site](https://www.michaeljackson.com/the-artist/albums)
14. [Ben - Michael Jackson | Release Info, AllMusic](https://www.allmusic.com/album/release/ben-mr0002858936)
15. [Ben [Clear Light Blue Vinyl] - Michael Jackson, AllMusic](https://www.allmusic.com/album/release/ben-clear-light-blue-vinyl--mr0007092138)
---
*Topic: Encyclopedia › Arts and culture › Music › Musical works and recordings › Albums and recorded releases › Studio albums › Pop albums › 1960s and 1970s albums*
*Initially written Sep 17, 2026 · Reviewed: Sep 30, 2026; Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Sep 30, 2026; Oct 25, 2026 · Last review: Oct 25, 2026*
*Copyright 2026 EdgeChat AI, a subsidiary of Biostate AI.*
License: Edgepedia Community License 1.0, https://www.edgepedia.org/edgepedia/license