Michael Jackson would have turned 56 this Friday. In celebration of his enduring legacy, we’re throwing it back to this iconic photograph by Annie Leibovitz that appeared on Vanity Fair’s December 1989 cover and introduced the 80s’ end-of-the-decade Hall of Fame. The list was a compendium of the Media Decade’s stars, at the top of which was—of course—the King of Pop, photographed in a flowing white shirt that would make American Apparel’s deep Vs look modest. More than a decade later, Jackson topped another chart, when readers voted this issue the best V.F. cover of all.