New Three-Book Series Traces Michael Jackson’s Recorded Work Song by Song

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By Mockulus Editorial
October 13, 2026

A new three-volume series from London-based music historian Raphael A. Stone is aiming to walk through Michael Jackson’s recording career one song at a time, from the Jackson 5’s Motown debut through his solo catalog. Titled “King of Pop: The Definitive Song-by-Song History of Michael Jackson,” it is available in Kindle and paperback editions on Amazon.

The Three Volumes

According to the Amazon listings and a September 26 report from MJVibe, the series is divided into three eras:

Book One: The Motown Years covers the Jackson 5’s 1969 debut for Motown and follows the group through its increasingly complicated relationship with the label until its 1975 departure. The Amazon listing runs 275 pages.

Book Two: The Jacksons Years picks up from there. After leaving Motown, the group signed with Epic Records in 1976, and the book runs from that debut through what Stone describes as the group’s “quiet, valedictory close” in 1989.

Book Three: The Solo Years starts with “Off the Wall” in 1979 and continues through “Thriller,” “Bad,” “Dangerous,” “HIStory,” “Blood on the Dance Floor” and “Invincible,” before looking at the legacy of MJ’s recorded work. Its Kindle listing runs 210 pages.

What the Books Promise

Each volume is billed as a track-by-track history, with the stories behind the songs, the performances that helped make them famous, and their place in the culture around them. The listing for Book Three describes it as a critical history of MJ’s solo Epic Records catalog.

Stone says his approach is inspired by Ian MacDonald’s “Revolution in the Head,” the well-known track-by-track study of The Beatles’ recordings, according to MJVibe. His stated aim is to connect each song to its cultural, political and personal context while keeping a critical voice alongside his perspective as a lifelong fan.

About the Author and Availability

Amazon’s author biography describes Stone as a music historian and editor based in London, who lives there with his wife and three children. MJVibe says he specializes in track-by-track companions to major discographies. The Kindle editions of Books One and Three list a September 6, 2026 publication date, and paperback editions are also listed. Books Two and Three appear in Kindle Unlimited.

A Crowded Shelf

MJVibe was candid about the market this series is entering. The site noted that fans already have no shortage of biographies, album-by-album analyses, recording-session guides and song-by-song explorations of MJ’s catalog, and asked what another one can add. Its answer was that different researchers bring different sources and interpretations, and that songs can look different when placed alongside the circumstances of their creation. Whether Stone’s approach delivers something new is a question readers will have to decide for themselves, since the books are too new for much critical response.

Why It Matters

The release lands in a year of heightened interest in MJ’s music, with the biopic crossing $1 billion at the box office and the catalog charting widely. For fans who want to go deeper into the recordings, a structured, era-by-era guide gives a way to follow the story chronologically, from the Motown singles to “Invincible.” As with any book about a catalog this heavily documented, the value will depend on how well it handles familiar material.

Sources: Amazon product listings for Books One, Two and Three & MJVibe