Twenty years ago this week, in November 2006, Michael Jackson walked into the London office of Guinness World Records.
Guinness is the famous record book, the one generations of kids have paged through to find the biggest and strangest things on Earth. And Michael was there to pick up eight of its records in one visit.
He was 48 and in London for the 2006 World Music Awards that same week. According to Guinness’s own announcement at the time, he arrived at about 4 PM, with fans who had followed him all the way from his hotel. Guinness said he had been a fan of the book since he was a child, and that he was honored to visit the office.
This archive footage, posted by a fan channel, is from the visit itself, the closest you can get to walking into that office alongside him.
Michael Jackson’s visit to the Guinness World Records office in London
The biggest of the eight was Most Successful Entertainer of All Time.
The rest read like a tour through his whole career. In 2006 Guinness listed him as the Youngest Vocalist to Top the US Singles Chart, from when he was 11 and singing with the Jackson 5. He was the First Vocalist to Enter the US Singles Chart at No. 1, with “You Are Not Alone.” “Thriller” brought two more: Most Weeks at the Top of the US Album Charts for a non-soundtrack album (37 weeks) and Most Successful Music Video (over 1 million units). He was also the First Entertainer to Earn More Than $100 Million in a Year and the Highest Paid Entertainer of All Time, with $125 million on the 1989 Forbes list.
Then there’s the record with a twist. He was the first entertainer to sell more than 100 million albums outside the USA.
American sales didn’t even count. That record was based on six albums, from “Off the Wall” in 1979 through “Thriller,” “Bad,” “Dangerous” and “HIStory: Past, Present and Future, Book I” to “Invincible” in 2001.
Guinness editor Craig Glenday showed him around the office and its oddities, including the shoes of the tallest man ever. “We always expect the unexpected here at Guinness World Records,” Glenday said.
But the staff had planned something just for him, too.
Along with his certificates, Michael was handed a copy of the newest Guinness book. And then he got the surprise. The news report from that day put it simply: he received “a copy of the latest edition of the book and a special edition from the year he was born (1958).”
So the man who had read the book as a boy got a copy from the very year his own story began.
Another camera caught the same visit, so here’s a second angle on the afternoon Michael got that book.
Another look at Michael’s Guinness visit in 2006
It’s a sweet moment when you think about it. Most of those records were about sales and money. The 1958 book was about him being a fan, the kid who loved the book long before he started filling its pages.
The certificates got the headlines, and they still make a great photo. But somebody at Guinness had clearly thought about who was walking through the door that day, and picked a gift with his birth year on it.