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The Singles That Never Were

  • Thread starter Dangerous Incorporated
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Dangerous Incorporated

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There are a number of songs that were to be released as singles but for one reason or another, they never were.

Some known songs that were due to be singles are:


  • Speed Demon
  • Dangerous
  • This Time Around
  • Smile
  • Speechless
  • Unbreakable
Let's dig up any info on these mystery singles.

Speed Demon
speeddemoncover.jpg


Dangerous

  1. Was due to be the final single off the album after 'Will You Be There', but was first replaced with 'Gone Too Soon', and then dropped due to allegations.
  2. The choreography performed live was originally created for a music video of Dangerous.
  3. The remixes of Dangerous now found on the Blood On The Dance Floor single were originally commissioned for the Dangerous single but weren't released until 1997.
This Time Around
thistimearoundpromoartv.jpg


Money

Only info I know on this apart from the Fire Island Remix being originally comissioned for the single but later used on 'Blood On The Dance Floor: HIStory In The Mix':
moneyj.jpg


Tabloid Junkie

  • Acetates with an album edit exist.

Smile
290135898669.jpg

Tracklisting:

  1. Smile (Edit Version)
  2. Thriller (Danny Tenaglia Mix)
  3. Don' Stop 'Til You Get Enough (Roger S. Underground Solution Radion Mix)
  4. Off The Wall (Junior Vasquez LP Mix)
  5. Billie Jean (Tony Moran Mix)
'Private Home Movies' shows footage of the photo shoot for 'Smile' cover. Unknown if a music video was filmed at the same time.

Unbreakable

  1. Michael wanted it to be the 1st single off of Invincible but Sony nixed that idea. Sony chose 'You Rock My World' instead. Michael then wanted it as the 2nd single and Sony again nixed it and chose 'Cry'. Michael was upset by Sony's (more so Tommy Mottola's) decisions and refused to help promote 'Cry' which is why he is not in the music video.
  2. 'Unbreakable' was to be a 20min video starring Michael and Mel Gibson.
Speechless

A few Promo's of this exist which contained a retropective featuring 'Unbreakable'

Please feel free to contribute any info.
 
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Would have loved a video for Dangerous! That would have been awesome.........
 
Just Good Friends was another single that was planned for release then dropped.

2BAD was another single considered for release but nothing came of it.

Michael wanted Whatever Happens to be released as a single and he wanted to do a western style video. Also Butterflies was going to be released as a single but was pulled by Sony.

Michael wanted the video for Unbreakable to star Mel Gibson and he wanted it to be directed by George Lucas.
 
@Dangerous Incorporated
you could at least credit the forum you got the idea for this thread and some of the infos & scans from!


"This Time Around"
i dont believe this was ever planned to be more than a Radio/Club promo only release.
its not exactly a hit song.

"Speechless" and "Unbreakable" ...if there are any "promos" then they are fake / fanmade.

i'm also highly sceptical about those "Tabloid Junkie" "acetats"... that basicly means CD-Rs
...anyone could have done those... and cut an edit. no proof for all this... unless a Sony intern confirms it.
 
In 1990's and early 2000's magazine HIStory, I read Money was a planned future release form the HIStory album.
 
I thought he should have released "Come Together" as a single. The song is VERY radio friendly and would have been big...despite the fact it was on HIStory when it was recorded during the Bad days...but still..

I always thought Morphine would have been good......but now with everything that's transpired....I take that thought back.

"Is It Scary"...now there is a song that would have been great.
 
Heaven Can Wait, no? Wasn't it meant to come some time after Butterflies was meant to?
 
Heaven Can Wait was released on radio and was not a big hit at all. Don't think it cracked the top 50 of the Billboard Hot 100
 
Triumph said:
@Dangerous Incorporated
you could at least credit the forum you got the idea for this thread and some of the infos & scans from!
Click to expand...
What are you talking about? I saw someone post a thread here about Double A Side singles and this got me thinking. As for the scans....Ive collected them from different sites and forums over the years. Cant remember where I got every single picture from. Nobody owns them I know that much.

Triumph said:
"This Time Around"
i dont believe this was ever planned to be more than a Radio/Club promo only release.
its not exactly a hit song.
Click to expand...
You dont know what youre talking about as there where many remixes commissioned for the single and theyre available to download today. Whether it would be a hit song or not doesnt mean it wasnt going to be a single. There were even stickers which I posted put on some promo vinyls.
[/quote]
Triumph said:
"Speechless" and "Unbreakable" ...if there are any "promos" then they are fake / fanmade.
Click to expand...
No promos were made of Unbreakable but there are some real ones of Speechless.
 
Dangerous Incorporated said:
You dont know what youre talking about as there where many remixes commissioned for the single and theyre available to download today. Whether it would be a hit song or not doesnt mean it wasnt going to be a single. There were even stickers which I posted put on some promo vinyls.
Click to expand...

^ Exactly

Remember this was 1995/1996, Notorious BIG was HUGE (not only his BMI), and the style that was rotating in the Urban community (especially in the HipHop scene) was dark.
With the right promotion and video I definitely think This Time Around could've been a successful single.

At least for me, still today TTA is one of my favourite songs from HIStory.

And wow, "Unbreakable"... that would've been something.
I always wished they would've dropped it as the first single, that would've been something.
 
Dangerous Incorporated said:
What are you talking about? I saw someone post a thread here about Double A Side singles and this got me thinking. As for the scans....Ive collected them from different sites and forums over the years. Cant remember where I got every single picture from. Nobody owns them I know that much.
Click to expand...

;)

Dangerous Incorporated said:
You dont know what youre talking about as there where many remixes commissioned for the single and theyre available to download today. Whether it would be a hit song or not doesnt mean it wasnt going to be a single. There were even stickers which I posted put on some promo vinyls.
Click to expand...

i know. i got all 4 promo items (us 2x12", us 12", us CD, euro CD)... back then. :)
(that was before ebay :D)

i mean that this was all they planned for this song... just a Radio and Club promo.
(just like with Butterflies and Is It Scary etc)
i don't think they ever had in mind to make this a full blast single release with a video
and commercially available single CDs and 12"s. (it would have all been ready by
the time they started sending out the promo items.)
I think if it wasnt for Biggie rapping on it... they wouldnt even have
released it as Radio/Club promo. Its an album filler...



Dangerous Incorporated said:
... promos ... there are some real ones of Speechless.
Click to expand...

proof?
definitly no "promos" (=finished manufratured releases for promotional purposes only)
as there would be SOME traces of it findable in the net by now...

maybe there were CD-Rs that Sony people made for meetings to discuss
single release plans or whatever... but in that stage its really not worth the mentioning
(regarding "cancelled singles")
when an album is new probably every song is checked for potential Single release qualities... the best ones get all sent to remixers.... then the label works with it.. or not
..depending on how the whole album promotion is developing... etc.
 
Triumph said:
proof?
definitly no "promos" (=finished manufratured releases for promotional purposes only)
as there would be SOME traces of it findable in the net by now...

maybe there were CD-Rs that Sony people made for meetings to discuss
single release plans or whatever... but in that stage its really not worth the mentioning
(regarding "cancelled singles")
when an album is new probably every song is checked for potential Single release qualities... the best ones get all sent to remixers.... then the label works with it.. or not
..depending on how the whole album promotion is developing... etc.
Click to expand...

There are some Promos of Speechless. I will locate the pic for you. I know some fans here on MJJC who have it also. And on the Speechless Promo was the Unbreakable Retrospective Video which I have posted in 2000 Watts forum.
 
GeorgeDK said:
Seems like there at least was a promo single of Speechless for South Korea


http://www.discogs.com/viewimages?release=1425530

http://www.discogs.com/Michael-Jackson-Speechless/release/1425530
Click to expand...

thanks.
i'd say its a bootleg though.
just looks too weird...
-"Sony Music" big on the front cover?
-CD surface looking like a print-able CD-R?
-": Remix Vers." ??
-...why "Speechless" as a single anyway?

also see how warpy the back-inlay is...
all doesnt look very professional.

anyway... maybe im wrong.
in some countries the promo / single releases always looked a bit
amateurish... with horrible layout (like the promo cds from brazil etc)
but never that weird. :D
 
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what's the story with 'break of dawn'? was that ever considerd? as i always found it a bit odd it was included on #1's.
 
Prince Of Pop said:
"Is It Scary"...now there is a song that would have been great.
Click to expand...

This was supposed to be the big theme song for "Adams Family Values", which I'm sure would have beeen a single had that happened. I don't know why, but it never materialized.
 
Don't forget the song "Men In Black". That was scheduled to be either the first single off Dangerous or included on the "Decade" album that never happened.
 
Hi,
Thanks for those infos. I never heard about some things posted here.
So, i can add, that i saw years ago that Speechless promo at e-bay, but unfortunately, i don't have it. I wasn't able to bid for it. Expensive one!.
I've never see it again...
 
Triumph said:
yep. instead they included a little MJ bash scene in the movie.
Click to expand...
:mad: at Paramount for doing that.

Dangerous Incorporated said:
Smile
290135898669.jpg

Tracklisting:

  1. Smile (Edit Version)
  2. Thriller (Danny Tenaglia Mix)
  3. Don' Stop 'Til You Get Enough (Roger S. Underground Solution Radion Mix)
  4. Off The Wall (Junior Vasquez LP Mix)
  5. Billie Jean (Tony Moran Mix)
'Private Home Movies' shows footage of the photo shoot for 'Smile' cover. Unknown if a music video was filmed at the same time.
Click to expand...
I want those "Billie Jean" and "Thriller" remixes. :( I hope they will be released someday.
 
This was the version of Is It Scary apparently that was to be used for Addams Family II:
http://www.megaupload.com/?d=SSAZFOKG

Michael was supposed to do a song for the movie TOYS which didnt happen for some reason and there was also a dig at Michael much the same way there was a dig @ MJ on ADFII.
 
Yes, there was a song recorded for the movie "The Toy" starring Richard Prior back in 1982. The song for whatever reason, was never released. No idea if the song was ever finished or not. Yet another song in the vault...
 
Derek1984 said:
Don't forget the song "Men In Black". That was scheduled to be either the first single off Dangerous or included on the "Decade" album that never happened.
Click to expand...

Yeah. Actually there's one collector on this forum that owns this song "Men In Black".

He tried selling the "flight only promo" cd on ebay this time last year, but never got a good offer for it. He claimed he was selling it on behalf of someone else, but research would tell you he was infact the one that actually owns it (I have been told he lists CDs just to see their value, then pulls them before the cut-off timeframe).

Whether the flight only promo he listed was authentic or not is another issue completely.
 
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"Addam's Groove"/"Family Thing" were the demo titles of the song Michael was working on for Paramount's Adam's Family Values film.
 
I always wanted to hear songs like Buffalo Bill and Men In Black because MJ has at one time thought that they were sure-fire hits. Yet in the end, they never made it on the final albums. Maybe they are really good songs that we haven't heard yet. Or maybe they pale in comparison to what was on the final albums. Who knows.
 
Dangerous Incorporated said:
This was the version of Is It Scary apparently that was to be used for Addams Family II:
http://www.megaupload.com/?d=SSAZFOKG
Click to expand...

from my listening experinces i would say this is an unreleased remix from
the time (~1997) when also all the other remixes were done of Is It Scary for the BOTDF album promo.
this just sounds way too cheap / uninspired for an MJ original / demo.
the beat going through the whole song nonstop... like in one of those urban dance/hiphop remixes. also that one tr-303 like sound, reminding on the Tony Moran HIStory remix
sounds not very ~1993'ish. anyway.. just my 2 cents.

ps:
from discogs.com
"The "Is It Scary (Downtempo Groove Mix)" is the rarest of the lot becasue it's only released on the 5 track CD Maxi Single.
No one knows who made the remix because it's uncredited, but rumors say that Paul Oakenfold did the remix, others say that Eddie Arroyo did this remix. "
http://www.discogs.com/Michael-Jackson-Smile/release/916851
 
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