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Thriller might get all the love, but there’s a strong chance that Michael Jackson could never be crowned the King of Pop without Off The Wall. Released in 1979, the album established the 20-year-old Jackson as a solo star and proved that he was out to not only dominate the music world, but own it. The making of the album and the journey to making it is the subject of Spike Lee’s new documentary, Michael Jackson’s Journey from Motown to Off The Wall.

The film is actually what it sets out to be, which is more than just your standard making-of feature about an album. It begins at the very beginning of the Jackson 5, skipping a few details here and there to speed up to 1975, when the Jackson 5 left Motown (leaving Jermaine behind) and joined Epic/CBS Records. That deal allowed Michael to produce a couple of solo albums and the first one was Off The Wall. Without the album’s success with listeners and critics alike, there would have been no way Epic would have allowed Thriller to be made.

Lee spends the second half of the film going over the album, song-by-song. Obviously, “Don’t Stop ‘Til You Get Enough,” “Rock With You,” “She’s Out Of My Life” and “Workin’ Day And Night” earn more attention than others.

Motown to Off The Wall is not without its talking heads. Lee speaks with many of those who worked on the album and helped shape Michael’s career. However, it looks like he couldn’t get a hold of producer Quincy Jones, who is only heard from through archival interviews. Michael is also here, through sparsely used audio interviews. Lee doesn’t rely on those interviews, instead letting the music speak for itself.

While we could listen to The Weeknd, Pharrell Williams, Mark Ronson, John Legend and Questlove talk about the importance of Off The Wall all day, there are some questionable interviews in here. Kobe Bryant might have known Michael, but he doesn’t really add much to the discussion. Empire co-creator Lee Daniels is only here to admit that he danced to “Workin’ Day And Night” by himself. And Lee just had to interview himself so he could tell a story about why he didn’t see The Wiz on Broadway.

Lee also can’t avoid race, which he can’t when it comes to Off The Wall. It really is hard to justify how the Grammys could practically ignore the album. It was only nominated in R&B categories and still only won an award for “Don’t Stop.”

That said, this is a revealing film for anyone who just brushes off Off The Wall as the stepping stone to Thriller. It’s an incredible album on its own. Somehow, it still feels fresher today than anything made in the past decade.

Motown to Off The Wall is now airing on Showtime, but it will be included in a new edition of Off The Wall on DVD or Blu-ray. Unfortunately, there are no bonus features - you don’t even get the full music videos for “Don’t Stop ‘Till You Get Enough” and “Rock With You.” In addition, the CD drops the audio bonus material from the previous Special Edition of the album.

Michael Jackson’s Journey From Motown to Off The Wall comes out on DVD and Blu-ray on Feb. 26.