Personnel: Michael Jackson (vocals, percussion); Mick Jagger, Paul McCartney, Siedah Garrett, Diana Ross (vocals); The Notorious B.I.G., Vincent Price (rap vocals); Chris Tucker (spoken vocals); Larry Carlton, Michael Sembello, Tito Jackson, David E. Williams , Marlo Henderson (guitar); Jim Horn (saxophone); David Wolinski "Hawk" (electric piano); Michael Boddicker (synthesizer); John Robinson , Nathan Watts, Bobby Watson (bass instrument); Ollie Brown, Bill Bottrell (drums); Paulinho Da Costa, Randy Jackson , Richard Heath (percussion); Jim Gilstrap, Augie Johnson (background vocals); Seawind Horns.

A year -- nearly to the day -- after Epic released the single-disc Number Ones compilation in November 2003, the long-awaited Michael Jackson box set finally saw the light of day. Entitled The Ultimate Collection, the 57-track set spans five discs -- four CDs and one DVD containing a live show in Bucharest shot on the Dangerous tour -- and runs his entire career, from the Jackson 5's early hits for Motown to Invincible in 2001. It's the first set to cover so much ground, which is eye opening. To hear Jackson evolve from the exuberant kid singing "I Want You Back" and "ABC" to the young adult behind the vibrant disco of "Shake Your Body (Down to the Ground)" and "Don't Stop 'Til You Get Enough" is exciting and instructive; even if you're familiar with this material, it's different to hear the music change over the course of one disc. Unfortunately, The Ultimate Collection doesn't contain too many more revelations (although the early, radically different version of "P.Y.T. (Pretty Young Thing)" is not only revelatory -- it's practically a different song -- it's also musically noteworthy). Since Jackson has had such a long career filled with so many hits, there are too many hits to fit into the four discs, and not all of them are nearly as invigorating or ageless as much of the music that comprises the first two CDs. These are the discs that are devoted to the Jackson 5, the Jacksons, and Michael's solo career through Thriller, and with only a few exceptions -- such as the ludicrous "Thriller" itself -- the music still sounds terrific. The set starts to downshift on the third disc, when Jackson's career started to wind into second gear, at least creatively. This covers Bad, a spotty but still effective gloss on Thriller that had several good singles, along with Dangerous, a similarly uneven record. Which leaves the fourth disc to chronicle Jackson's muddled '90s and 2000s, selecting hits and album tracks from the commercial disappointments HIStory -- the album of original songs included on that two-CD set, not the hits collection -- and Invincible. Throughout the four discs, there are a bunch of rarities scattered about, ranging from demos (including the original "We Are the World" featuring only Michael's vocals) and remixes to unreleased songs, selections from The Wiz, the Jacksons' duet with Mick Jagger on "State of Shock," "Someone in the Dark" from the hard-to-find ET's Storybook, the ridiculously stilted Captain EO theme "We Are Here to Change the World" (its production seems better suited for The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai than a Disney sci-fi flick), and "Someone Put Your Hand Out," an exclusive Pepsi-supported cassingle from the Dangerous tour. Some of this stuff is quite good -- "Sunset Driver" from 1982 and "Cheater" from 1987 are so funky, loose, and alive that it's hard not to wish that Jackson didn't fuss over his albums and just record like this all the time -- but a lot of this illustrates Michael's taste for MOR schlock (such as the children's tale "Scared of the Moon," a tie-in with his 1984 book of the same name). Since that schlock starts to surface halfway through disc two, it bogs down the set -- not enough to completely hurt it, but enough to make this pretty much the province of the hardcore fans, who will delight in the number and variety of rarities here (which is the primary attraction of the set, since the DVD is merely OK and the book is skimpy, offering only a Nelson George essay and a time line, along with many photos, most of which look fairly familiar). For the less dedicated, this is just a shade short of being definitive. It may be easy to carp about what's missing on any box set, but fans looking either for a concentrated dose of Michael at his best -- which would have been the Jackson 5 up through and including parts of Dangerous -- or a collection of all of his hits will find this somewhat unsatisfactory (for the record, the following hits are all absent on this set: "The Love You Save," "Never Can Say Goodbye," "Rockin' Robin," "Human Nature," "Say Say Say," "Another Part of Me," "Leave Me Alone," "In the Closet," "Will You Be There," "Scream," "This Time Around," "They Don't Care About Us," "Heaven Can Wait," "One More Chance"). Despite these problems, The Ultimate Collection comes close enough to getting it right to qualify as a successful box set. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine

By 2004, Michael Jackson's bizarre image almost completely obscured the talent that had made him an international superstar. However, he became a musical icon by simply being the best at creating and performing pop songs. The opening moments alone of hits like "Rock with You" and "Billie Jean" would make them classic, but every aspect of these songs adds up to perfect radio pop. Jackson's THRILLER, after all, didn't simply luck into being the biggest-selling record of its time; each of its seven Top 10 hits had unique charms and drew from different elements of the pop universe.

While there have been many previous Jackson hits collections, the four-CD/one-DVD ULTIMATE COLLECTION is just that--it represents Jackson's whole career, from his youthful days with the Jackson 5 to the early years of the 21st century. (The rare omissions--"Human Nature," "Heal the World"--show up live on the DVD.) Mixed in with his numerous hits are previously unreleased songs, demo versions of hits, album tracks, and odds and ends, most remarkably, one of the earliest versions of "We Are the World" with almost completely different lyrics. THE ULTIMATE COLLECTION expertly chronicles the career of one of the most important, if unusual, pop artists of all time.