Who would have ever thought Michael Jackson would die in this era?  It doesn't seem real, he wasn't supposed 2 die.  This collection of hits is almost as good as buying all of his solo works.  I actually would rather have each individual album but I don't have time for all that and I already own hundreds of cds, so The Essential Michael Jackson makes the most sense, for content and consolidation reasons.  But I still would like the artwork and other tracks from the other cds but I just don't feel like buying them, so i just bought this.  I went to 5 different stores and they were all SOLD OUT.  I finally got the last copy but I had to pay $25.  I think alot of people are just buying this cd as a trinket, I actually want to LISTEN to the music, so stop buying it if you are just going to hold it in your hand and stare at it and drool over it.  As for the music, I don't like any of the Jackson 5 stuff, it sounds dated and all the songs are overplayed.  I like "Ben", in my oppinion, that's the only good song MJ did when he was really young. They left out "Never can Say Goodbye" which is about the only good Jackson 5 song, so that sucked.  All MJ's other hits are on here from ALL the albums.  The only other song I'm pissed about is "Jam".  I wish they would have included that song, but I don't want to have to go out and find a copy of "Dangerous" just for that song.  Life is complicated and the music industry always makes it complicated for music fans. I wasn't really impressed with the pics in the liner notes, they could have included better, unreleased pics of Michael.  I am a Michael Jackson fan even though I disconnected with him and his music during the child molestation stuff.  Now that he died, I can feel better about paying him tribute and listening to his music again.  After all, I did a lip sync of "Bad" in full costume in high school drama class.  MJ was a part of my life.  God Bless u Michael, this world loved u.  *One last note...."Farewell My Summer Love" should have been included on this cd, that song is probably impossilble to find.  I used to have it on 45.