"Ben" was a number-one hit recording by a teenaged Michael Jackson for the Motown label in 1972. The song, the theme of a 1972 film of the same name (the sequel to the 1971 killer rat movie Willard), spent one week at the top of the U.S. charts. It also reached number seven in the United Kingdom.
Ben was the second full-length solo album by teenage pop-soul music phenomenon Michael Jackson. Released in August 1972, seven months after his auspicious debut as a soloist, Got to Be There, the album showcased a Jackson in vocal and artistic growth. A number of the songs on the album are ballads, a genre which was rare in the main Jackson 5 repertoire, but would become a staple of Michael Jackson's over the course of his four-decade solo career.
Ben is a 1972 film about a young boy (played by Lee H. Montgomery) and his pet rat, Ben. This film is a sequel to Willard (1971).