I doubt it. The top 100 of all time are pretty set. And you can scream “producer” all you want-—see Felix Pappalardi with “Disraeli Gears,” or George Martin with the Beatles-—but it’s the artist, not the knob turner.
If you're talking album sales, of course. Thriller, Bad and Off The Wall sold more copies than any Jackson 5 album, whose output occurred during an era when 45s were the lynchpin of sales.
And you can scream “producer” all you want-—see Felix Pappalardi with “Disraeli Gears,” or George Martin with the Beatles-—but it’s the artist, not the knob turner.
Producers weren't knob turners in the sixties, seventies and eighties. They were creative art directors.
In addition, Pappalardi played viola, trumpet and tonette on Wheels Of Fire and Martin played piano on several Beatles recordings (he also provided orchestration).
In those days, engineers turned knobs. Producers chose which songs to record, they cut the songs down to radio playlength, they selected which instrumental and vocal takes made the album, and they had ultimate sayso over all the artistic decisions made in the recording and mixing of each record. The stereo left-to-right-and-back-again panning on Clapton's solo on "Politician" and the inclusion of "Mother's Lament" on Disraeli Gears? Pappalardi's call. Eight hands on the piano at the end of "A Day In The Life," the sax solo on "Lady Madonna" and the random tape splicing of the organ track on "Being For The Benefit Of Mr. Kite"? Martin's call. Solo trumpet (it might be solo flugelhorn) in the choruses of "Rock With You? Jones' call. It was so through each stage of each album's production.
All of Michael's albums with Quincy are halfway...and I mean halfway...decent. His other solo efforts are musical bologna. I know why.
Soon, the rest of the world will too.
By the way, who’s screaming?