Behind the Mask - Michael Jackson's rarest recording?

http://www.metafilter.com/82928/Behind-the-Mask-Michael-Jacksons-rarest-recording

July 1, 2009 10:40 AM

Michael Jackson penned and recorded lots of songs, many of which remain unreleased. Perhaps the most infamous, and rarest recording, is his version of Behind the Mask. Legend has it that upon hearing Yellow Magic Orchestra's original track, somewhen around 1979, Quincy Jones fell in love with the track, and he and Michael worked together on their own version. Jackson wrote new lyrics for it - adding to those of Ryuichi Sakamoto and Chris Mosdell - and eventually recorded it during his Off The Wall sessions. For unknown reasons the track never made the final cut of, arguably, Jones' and Jackson's greatest work. Not long afterwards Greg Phillinganes, Jackson's keyboard player, released his own version of the song, which was later taken up and re-recorded by Eric Clapton for his 1986, Phil Collins produced album, August. The track has since been recorded/remixed by Human League, Senor Coconut, Orbital and others. Does an original Jones/Jackson recording of the song even exist? Perhaps, as the world continues to mourn the star's sad death, someone will finally allow us a listen.



P.S that means eric clapton's hit "behind the mask" is a version of an mj song. wow, i never knew that

That was a nice article. I think you have posted it in the wrong section as it fits more into the News and Happenings section rather than This Is It.

i have behind the mask but michael doesnt sing on it, maybe its the same one lyrics wise ?

Pascal09 said:

P.S that means eric clapton's hit "behind the mask" is a version of an mj song. wow, i never knew that

Click to expand...

No, it isn't. IF MJ's version does exist in the first place, it's a cover. Yeah, maybe a few changes in the lyrics as mentioned, but still a version in first place, not an original song. So no, Clapton's version would not be a "MJ song". A song also recorded by MJ? Yes, sure. But not really a "MJ song". Specially because I pretty much doubt that Clapton used the new lyrics added by Michael (unless Phillinganes used Michael's lyrics and Clapton based his own version on it).