Even then, it was clear he was the better dancer! Great act.

You can easily see the countless hours in rehersal, not hanging out in nightclubs and then "sampling" others hard work.

I love this clip. Michael is 19. His voice has changed, and he can't really sing this song any more -- they should have transposed it to a lower key. But it doesn't matter. He and his brothers take it over from a sparkly Motown nostalgia number and turn it into something much funkier.

Look at 1:00 to 2:00 on the video. Watch Michael's feet when the camera is smart enough to show them to us. Stunning.

The tragedy, of course, is that his handlers (especially his father) refused to acknowledge his genius, telling him he was ugly and pointing out every flaw in his work. My goodness. Look how beautiful he was, with his real skin and hair and nose. And that face at 2:09...

The other thing I love about this is the synchronization with his brothers. Michael had a lot of dancers on stage and in video with him in his later years -- the chorus of "Beat It" is such a killer -- but for me nothing will match the Motown moves with his brothers. What a wonderful moment. God bless all of these kids.

And you talk about fame and fortune just waiting to happen -- this is like the Beatles in Hamburg. Amazing things were right around the corner.

This reminds me of my coworker's kid who, when shown a picture of MJ as a child, didn't believe it was the same person as the one who died.