Michael Jackson, Commemorative TIME Magazine

Michael Jackson

TIME Magazine

This photo is amazing. Michael looks so good, happy and not in one of his stereotypical get-ups. The picture as taken by my favorite fashion photographer, the late Herb Ritts.

Via Extra:

The cover's shot is from Jackson's steamy "In the Closet" music video shoot in 1992. The video was directed by legendary fashion photographer Herb Ritts and features supermodel Naomi Campbell.

For the special commemorative issue, TIME spoke with Stevie Wonder, Whitney Houston, Tina Turner, Nancy Reagan, Lenny Kravitz, Jesse Jackson, Tommy Mottola, Berry Gordy, Spike Lee, Sheryl Crow, Anjelica Huston, Clive Davis, Al Sharpton, Deepak Chopra, Kobe Bryant, Lance Bass, Oscar De La Hoya, Savion Glover, A.R. Rahman, Peter Gabriel, John Mayer and others.

The magazine has also published commemorative editions during its regular schedule for Barack Obama's election and the deaths of Princess Diana, JFK, Jr. and others. The commemorative election issue for President Obama sold 575,000 copies at newsstand, nearly five times a typical issue.

The commemorative edition of the magazine that appeared after Princess Diana's death sold more than 1.1 million copies domestically.

The commemorative issue will hit newsstands Monday, June 29.

Take a second to watch this...gosh, it's been years since I've seen this video. I much prefer Michael with this look. I thought he actually looked pretty sexy. Leave it to Herb Ritts. He had to convince Michael that he would look fantastic wearing these clothes and with his hair slicked back in a ponytail. It's been said he was extremely shy during the shoot with Naomi Campbellyou .

Another bit of gossip regarding this song--it's Madonna you hear whispering on the track. She tried to convince Michael that perhaps it wasn't the best idea to name a song, "In the Closet". Whether Michael was being naive, or just plain didn't care, the title stuck.

It's one of his best videos. H O T.