The soundtrack for Michael Jackson’s posthumous concert film This Is Itarrived in stores today. Read on for EW’s review.
Michael Jackson This Is It: The Music That Inspired the Movie
Pop (Epic)
Legend has it that Michael Jackson left behind hours upon hours of unreleased music when he died this summer — an entire alternate discography lurking in a vault somewhere. His latest posthumous release includes exactly one of those mythical songs: “This Is It,” the uplifting ballad he co-wrote with Paul Anka under another title. If you’re feeling generous, you can count the minimally distinguishable “Orchestra Version” of “This Is It” as another new track. Either way, it’s a decent if slight addition to Jackson’s songbook.
A lot of questions got resolved yesterday about the new Michael Jackson single “This Is It” — in particular, exactly who wrote the tune. (The answer apparently being Jackson and veteran singer-songwriter Paul Anka.) But you may still be wondering just who is Safire, the singer who originally recorded the track when it was called “I Never Heard.”
Safire was born Wilma Cosme on the island of San Juan, Puerto Rico, and subsequently moved to New York’s Spanish Harlem. In the late ‘80s, she recorded a clutch of singles for Cutting Records and became a leading light of the on-the-rise Latin hip-hop/freestyle scene (a largely regional phenomenon whose ranks yielded stars like Stevie B, Exposé, and Lisa Lisa and Cult Jam).
After signing with Mercury/Polygram, Safire put out her first, self-titled, album, featuring the Marc Anthony-penned single “Boy I’ve Been Told.” Her big commercial break came with the slow-paced 1989 hit, “Thinking of You,” a song dedicated to her uncle, who had passed away from AIDS complications. Spin magazine put her on their cover (see left), and the singer was also featured in the pages of Vogue. In 1990 Safire released a less successful second album, I Wasn’t Born Yesterday, which featured the Jackson-Anka composition.
According to Safire’s current manager Sal Abbatiello, the song was originally intended as a duet between Safire and Anka, whose writing credits also include the English lyrics for “My Way.” “They thought Safire was going to be the next Gloria Estefan,” says Abatiello. “She had put out three big dance records and she was becoming a very well known artist. And then she put out the ballad ‘Thinking of You,’ which was one of the most played records of the year. But when Michael met her in California at the studio, he saw how young and beautiful she was. He told Paul, ‘You can’t do the record with her, she’s too young.’ And he gave her the song.”
Safire continues to perform, and following Jackson’s death earlier this year, she posted a tribute on her myspace page which concluded, “R.I.P. Michael you will truly be missed but you will live on in every song. Love always SAFIRE.”
Of course, one of the songs Jackson will live on through is “This Is It,” or, if you prefer, “I Never Heard.” Either way, you can hear Safire’s version of the track below as well as her biggest hit, “Thinking of You.”
Today in Los Angeles, Adam Lambert, Paula Abdul, and Snoop Dogg (what a delightful trio!) unveiled the nominations list for the 37th annual American Music Awards, and announced a preliminary list of performers, including Alicia Keys, the Black Eyed Peas, Jennifer Lopez and, yes, Glambert himself, making his pre-album, post-Idol performance debut.
Taylor Swift leads the pack this year with six noms, followed by Michael Jackson with five, Eminem with four, and Beyonce, Black Eyed Peas, Lady Gaga, Kings of Leon and T.I. with three apiece.
The show, set to air Sunday, November 22, will have its winners determined by voting at ama.abc.com, amavote.com, and mycokerewards.com. See the full noms list after the jump.
The manager of the singer Safire has weighed in on the growing controversy surrounding the new Michael Jackson single “This Is It.” Sal Abbatiello told EW earlier this evening that “This Is It” is “exactly the same” as the song “I Never Heard,” which was written by Jackson and Paul Anka and released by Safire in the early ’90s.
After “This Is It” was released last night it soon became clear to many listeners that the tune, which features on the soundtrack to the forthcoming movie of the same name and is credited to just Jackson, was very similar to “I Never Heard.” Late this afternoon TMZ reported that Jackson “stole” the tapes of “I Never Heard” after Jackson and Anka had written the song and only returned them once Anka threatened to sue. Meanwhile, the New York Times quoted Anka as saying, “It’s exactly the same song. They just changed the title.”
According to Abbatiello, “I Never Heard” was originally supposed to be duet between Anka and Safire. But the manager claimed that, after Jackson met with Safire, he “gave” her the song and told her to put it out with his blessing. Abbatiello also expressed amazement that no one at Michael Jackson’s record company Sony had seemingly bothered to research the possibility that the song had been been previously released. “This is a terrible mistake,” he told EW. “I’m pretty sure Paul Anka has a big case. I don’t know if Safire has any legal right as the artist. I’ll have to contact my lawyers. But, hopefully. They’re advertising this movie everywhere.” (Sony declined to offer any comment on the controversy.)
Check out the clip from Safire’s “I Never Heard” below and tell us if you agree with Abbatiello’s allegation that it is basically the same song.
UPDATE, October 12, 10pm ET: Jackson’s estate released a statement acknowledging Anka’s work as co-writer of Jackson’s new single and promised him 50 per cent of the profits from the song’s sales. “The song was picked because the lyrics were appropriate because of the name Michael gave his tour,” the statement read. “We are thrilled to present this song in Michael’s voice for the first time, and that Michael’s fans have responded in unprecedented numbers.”
This is it, MJ fans — the first posthumous single from the King of Pop, pegged to his upcoming two-disc CD and concert documentary of the 50-date London stand that he didn’t live to complete.
If you think the mid-tempo ballad, with its fingersnaps, soaring chorus and big-build strings, sounds like classic Michael, you’d actually be right — the song supposedly comes from sessions for his 1991 album Dangerous.
Some listeners may pick up shades of “Will You Be There” (also from Dangerous) in the melody, but the song still stands alone as a new release — and reminds us of the singular pop talent Jackson possessed. Listen below (after a 30-second ad for the film), and tell us what you think:
The first 43 seconds of Michael Jackson’s long-awaited “This is It” song has leaked before tonight’s official debut at midnight EST.
The song, which TMZ released ahead of schedule, will be a part of the two-disc album of music inspired from the film “This Is It,” which opens October 28.
What do you guys think of the song? Will it give MJ a new number one?
Rap’s foremost MC pays tribute to the King of Pop in British music magazine NME’s new issue, which is dedicated to lost musical icons. Jay-Z begins his written remembrance of Michael Jackson by trying to find some good in the legendary singer’s unexpected death.
“I think it gave Michael a chance to be celebrated for the genius he was without all the other stuff in the way,” Jay-Z writes, “and I don’t know if that would ever have happened had he been alive.”
Shawn Carter also mentions the little-known fact that Jackson sang on the remix of “Girls, Girls, Girls” back in 2001, which went mostly unnoticed because MJ wasn’t credited on the single. But take a listen to the song below—once you know what to expect, you can totally tell it’s Michael’s silky voice on the hook.
“I remember him calling me and him just talking about, you know, ‘syncopation’ and musician stuff like that,” Jay-Z says at the end of his piece. “The Michael Jackson I knew was just a musician who loved music.”
Did you know this was the real Michael, and not a sample? What other collaborations do you wish the King of Pop had lived to do?
Despite the impressive showings of pop-industry giants — Michael Jackson and the Beatles sold a combined 6.3 million albums this quarter alone — album sales are down 13.9% so far from last year. And that’s after a 14% dip in 2008 from 2007′s numbers, according to Reuters (via Rolling Stone).
Part of the problem? Dependable marquee acts aren’t holding up like they used to; Eminem’s Relapse has hit a respectable 1.4 million, but U2’s No Line on the Horizon only reached platinum two weeks ago, seven months after its release; neither Green Day’s 21st Century Breakdownnor the Dave Matthews Band’s Big Whiskey and the GrooGrux King have hit the million-copies mark yet.
Of course, 2009 isn’t over yet; we’ve got the Simon Cowell Army — Carrie Underwood, Kris Allen, Adam Lambert, Susan Boyle and Leona Lewis — all releasing albums in the next six weeks, along with Shakira, Lil Wayne, 50 Cent, Alicia Keys, and John Mayer.
Either way, it’s a tough market out there. According to the Chicago Tribune, more than 115,000 albums were released last year; out of those, only 110 sold more than 250,000 copies.
This is just album sales, of course; it doesn’t account for touring, merch, ring tones, etc. But what do you think, readers — who or what can reverse the record industry’s steady downswing, in which sales have decreased in eight of the past nine years?
Is the future in digital singles? Reduced record prices? All Glambert, all the time? Tell us what you think in the comments section below.
Sony Music announced today that it will release a new Michael Jackson song, “This Is It,” on October 12, two weeks before the concert documentary of the same name makes its limited run in theaters.
The track will appear on a two-disc album; according to the press release, “Disc one will feature the original album masters of some of Michael’s biggest hits arranged in the same sequence as they appear in the film. The disc ends with two versions of the never-released ‘This Is It.’ This song is featured in the film’s closing sequence and includes backing vocals by Michael’s brothers, the Jacksons.”
As for disc two? It will offer “previously unreleased versions” of some of the Jackson’s classic songs, plus “a touching spoken word poem from Michael Jackson entitled ‘Planet Earth’ that has never been heard before,” and a 36-page commemorative booklet featuring “exclusive photos of Michael from his last rehearsal.”
In one sense, this feels inevitable; the enormous bump in album sales since his death (his greatest-hits comp Number Ones appears on track to be 2009′s best-selling album, overtaking Taylor Swift’s Fearless, according to Nielsen SoundScan), combined with his reported debts and the inborn capitalist (and capitalizing) nature of the music business almost guarantees it.
Still, does anyone else feel kind of … icky? The King of Pop already has multiple greatest-hits materials available (heck, Thriller is its own greatest hits), comps, and remasters, as well as an upcoming Michael Jackson: The Remix Suite; where does honoring a late legend become mere milking of a cash cow?
On the heels of last week’s full-trailer preview at the VMAs, a brief clip from the upcoming Michael Jackson concert doc This Is It recently hit YouTube. Watch the late superstar perform a snippet of his Thriller classic “Human Nature,” below:
Besides being painfully thin, the King of Pop looks and sounds surprisingly on-point in the footage — which is, clearly, a run-through rehearsal, and not meant to showcase a full-on performance of the song.
What do you think, readers — does it bode well for the movie (which will premiere simultaneously at 25 spots across the globe on October 27, before going wide for a two-week limited run the next day), and the live show that might have been?
The soundtrack for Michael Jackson’s posthumous concert film This Is It arrived in stores today. Read on for EW’s review.
A lot of questions got resolved yesterday about the new Michael Jackson single 
Today in Los Angeles, Adam Lambert, Paula Abdul, and Snoop Dogg (what a delightful trio!) unveiled the nominations list for the 
The manager of the singer Safire has weighed in on the growing controversy surrounding the new Michael Jackson single “This Is It.” Sal Abbatiello told EW earlier this evening that “This Is It” is “exactly the same” as the song “I Never Heard,” which was written by Jackson and 
Despite the impressive showings of pop-industry giants — Michael Jackson and the Beatles sold a 
Sony Music 
