Still the King: Michael Jackson is Back!
We saw the "King of Pop" Michael Jackson resurrected last week! His well-reviewed, new album "Xscape" ascended to the No 1 Spot of iTunes charts in 52 - yes! FIFTY TWO! - different countries, including in the U.K. and France, in it's first week of release. Xscape is running neck to neck with Black Keys for No 1 on the Billboard charts and MJ "starred" on last night's Billboard Music Awards in Las Vegas.
In the nearly five years since his passing, he has earned 700 million dollars according to Forbes estimates. That sum puts the top living pop stars to shame!
DJ Lee Dyson:
"While living a sometimes controversial life, Michael Jackson was undoubtedly a musical genius and truly the “King of Pop”. As a DJ he gave me more artillery for the dance floor than almost any other artists in the 80’s, 90’s through today. Maybe matched only by Prince and Madonna.
He really didn’t play instruments, so he wrote every song by singing all the parts to tape.
It’s impressive how Jackson wrote and arranged so many hit songs on his own even though he was not particularly proficient at playing instruments.
Rob Hoffmann, a sound engineer who worked with Jackson, describing the singer’s process:
“One morning Michael came in with a new song he had written overnight. We called in a guitar player, and Michael sang every note of every chord to him. ‘Here’s the first chord first note, second note, third note. Here’s the second chord first note, second note, third note,’ etc., etc. We then witnessed him giving the most heartfelt and profound vocal performance, live in the control room through an SM57.
He would sing us an entire string arrangement, every part. Steve Porcaro once told me he witnessed Michael doing that with the string section in the room. Had it all in his head, harmony and everything. Not just little eight bar loop ideas. he would actually sing the entire arrangement into a micro-cassette recorder complete with stops and fills.”
To get a feel for his raw talent check out this Acapella video of “Man in the Mirror”
"For this playlist I wanted to skip the obvious songs that are always played for the dance floor and focus on some of his arguably better but less played material along with a few of my personal favorites."
Such a sad, strange life - but as a singer and composer he touched all of us.
We are grateful for the music!
In the nearly five years since his passing, he has earned 700 million dollars according to Forbes estimates. That sum puts the top living pop stars to shame!
DJ Lee Dyson:
"While living a sometimes controversial life, Michael Jackson was undoubtedly a musical genius and truly the “King of Pop”. As a DJ he gave me more artillery for the dance floor than almost any other artists in the 80’s, 90’s through today. Maybe matched only by Prince and Madonna.
He really didn’t play instruments, so he wrote every song by singing all the parts to tape.
It’s impressive how Jackson wrote and arranged so many hit songs on his own even though he was not particularly proficient at playing instruments.
Rob Hoffmann, a sound engineer who worked with Jackson, describing the singer’s process:
“One morning Michael came in with a new song he had written overnight. We called in a guitar player, and Michael sang every note of every chord to him. ‘Here’s the first chord first note, second note, third note. Here’s the second chord first note, second note, third note,’ etc., etc. We then witnessed him giving the most heartfelt and profound vocal performance, live in the control room through an SM57.
He would sing us an entire string arrangement, every part. Steve Porcaro once told me he witnessed Michael doing that with the string section in the room. Had it all in his head, harmony and everything. Not just little eight bar loop ideas. he would actually sing the entire arrangement into a micro-cassette recorder complete with stops and fills.”
To get a feel for his raw talent check out this Acapella video of “Man in the Mirror”
"For this playlist I wanted to skip the obvious songs that are always played for the dance floor and focus on some of his arguably better but less played material along with a few of my personal favorites."
Such a sad, strange life - but as a singer and composer he touched all of us.
We are grateful for the music!
Comments
Post a Comment