Michael Jackson Makes History With Top 10 Hits in Six Different Decades

The numbers are in, and Michael Jackson’s “Thriller” has climbed from Number 32 to Number 10 on the Billboard Hot 100 after Halloween, cementing the King of Pop’s place in music history once again.

On Monday, Jackson officially became the first artist to earn Top 10 hits in six separate decades — the ’70s, ’80s, ’90s, 2000s, ’10s, and now the ’20s. Originally released in 1984 in the United States, “Thriller” peaked at Number Four during its initial run and remains one of Jackson’s most defining songs.

Jackson first entered the Hot 100’s Top 10 as a solo artist with 1971’s “Got to Be There” and went on to collect 30 Top 10 singles, including 13 Number One hits. His catalog features classics like “Beat It,” “Billie Jean,” “Bad,” and “Man in the Mirror.” As Billboard noted, Jackson last reached the Top 10 in 2018 as a featured artist on Drake’s track “Don’t Matter to Me.”

This achievement surpasses the record held by Andy Williams, who appeared in the Top 10 across five decades before his death in 2012.

Jackson’s latest chart milestone follows the release of the first trailer for Antoine Fuqua’s upcoming biopic Michael, which drew attention for its upbeat depiction of the singer’s childhood. Jackson had previously described his early years in the Jackson 5 as marked by strict discipline and unhappiness under his father’s control.

Although filming for the biopic wrapped in May 2024, reports surfaced that the Jackson estate discovered the finished film violated an old legal agreement with the family of Jordan Chandler. Chandler accused Jackson of molestation in 1993 at age 13 and later received a $20 million settlement. According to Puck, the original script featured Chandler’s story in the film’s third act, which breached the agreement prohibiting his case from being portrayed in dramatized form.

Jackson, who died in 2009 at the age of 50, was never convicted of any criminal charges related to those allegations, though he was tried in 2005.

The film, originally slated for an April 2025 release, faced several delays due to extensive reshoots. It is now scheduled to hit theaters in April 2026.