The King

The King is dead.

Throughout a career equal parts charisma and chaos, Michael Jackson still somehow managed to heal the world.

"Weird Al" Yankovic wouldn't be "Weird Al" without those infectious Jackson parodies, like "Fat" and "Eat It." Tonight Yankovic tweets: "Oh man. Can't believe it. RIP Michael Jackson."

Another contemporary musician -- ?uestlove of The Roots -- posts on his Twitter account: "Elvis got revisionist media treatment. I expect the friggin same for my hero."

The media certainly never encountered a more intriguing icon-meets-spectacle personality. He was the original M.J. He was his own reality show. And he was only 50.

"He was a positive thinker," remembers Bruce Swedien, Jackson's recording engineer on every album since Off The Wall.

Reached at his Florida home tonight, the 75-year-old Swedien describes Jackson as "a joy to work with...totally prepared, always." During recording sessions Jackson would come to the studio with the music already memorized, Swedien says.

The men met in 1978 during the filming of The Wiz, an African-American adaptation of The Wizard of Oz, which features Jackson as the Scarecrow. The Off The Wall album would soon follow, and by 1982 Thriller would set the musical masterpiece bar to an all-time high.

Thriller isn't just the best-selling album; Thriller may well be the best album ever made.

Swedien couldn't predict the impact the record continues to inflict on the world. On Thriller's success, he remarks, "You can't go into it with that in mind. What comes out is what comes out."

The year 2001 would represent each man's final venture in music-making; the ironically-titled Invincible arrived post-9/11. The engineer claims Jackson had "no firm plans" to make another album when the two spoke last year.

"Michael kept things pretty close to his chest," Swedien recalls.

While recording the Bad album in 1987, Jackson struggled with his vocal on a song that demanded a higher key. He couldn't sing it. So he walked out of the studio.

Swedien found Jackson in the corner of his room, sobbing.

"He was totally upset that he couldn't perform it," Swedien says.

The men decided to take it down a key. And then the song sounded just right:

If you wanna make the world a better place, take a look at yourself, and then make a change.

"'Man In The Mirror,'" Swedien sighs. The single would hit number one in early 1988.

Tonight Jackson's musical partner and friend of 30 years chooses to remember that -- in spite of the controversy, the disgrace and the stigma -- Michael Jackson lived up to his loving lyrics.

"If you could think of the best possible situation, that was working with Michael."

-P.F.