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Song(s) that MJ didn't write but captured his style the best

analogue

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Out of all the song(s) that other people have wrote for MJ over the years, which one(s) do you think captured MJ's style the best?

For me, it's defiantly Man In The Mirror. That song is so perfect for him, that it's hard to believe that he didn't write it himself
 
I would say 'Human Nature' most definitely! waves of pure divinity.
 
Definitely, its crazy to think he didnt write it.(MITM)

I think the same about She Was Lovin Me. Something about the sombre macabre synths throughout. It just captures the aura of Billie Jean, Heartbreak Hotel, Dirty Diana for me. The style, the chorus. (The original version obviously, not the duck orgy).

Gone Too Soon is another one. Reminds me of the style of You Were There.
 
^^ I like that you called it She Was Loving Me. I never understood why the estate chose to call it Chicago, especially seeing as there is another unreleased song in the vault with that very title.
 
MattyJam said:
^^ I like that you called it She Was Loving Me. I never understood why the estate chose to call it Chicago, especially seeing as there is another unreleased song in the vault with that very title.
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I thought that song is 'Chicago 1945'? it was recorded in 1984/5 i believe, it was played at Sundberg's seminar.
 
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MattyJam said:
^^ I like that you called it She Was Loving Me. I never understood why the estate chose to call it Chicago, especially seeing as there is another unreleased song in the vault with that very title.
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I think it's only right. Chicago, to me, is the duck remix. Or the "Massacre mix".
 
Human Nature and Man In The Mirror - some of the best songs ever made. - Also live they are some of the best.
 
I'd add Who's Loving You, One Day In Your Life and She's Out Of My Life. Michael owned those songs, even Who's Loving You is far superior than the original version.
 
Whatever Happens! Whenever i try to think about a song from Vince that encompasses MJ's style Whatever a Happens is the first song that pops up in my mind. Classic
 
Whatever Happens is one of my favorites songs written for Michael,
For All Time, Someone in the Dark

I also think Hold My Hand lyrics are great, personally I'm glad they gave it to Michael. I think it fits Michael more than Cry.
 
Man in the Mirror and Human Nature, definitely.

What about Smile?
 
dewey said:
Man in the Mirror and Human Nature, definitely.

What about Smile?
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Did Charlie Chaplin's version include lyrics? i thought it was just instrumental and Michael created lyrics from that? not sure though, not a big fan of Chaplin..
 
Zakk said:
Did Charlie Chaplin's version include lyrics? i thought it was just instrumental and Michael created lyrics from that? not sure though, not a big fan of Chaplin..
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Music written by Chaplin. Lyrics by John Turner and Geoffrey Parsons later.
 
I am a huge fan of Charlie Chaplin, not because Michael was but because I fell in love on my own with City Lights and the bun shoes dancing sequence from The Gold Rush when I was 16.

:lol: :wub:

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Smile is a song based on an instrumental theme used in the soundtrack for the 1936 Charlie Chaplin movie Modern Times. Chaplin composed the music, while John Turner and Geoffrey Parsons added the lyrics and title in 1954. In the lyrics, based on lines and themes from the film, the singer is telling the listener to cheer up and that there is always a bright tomorrow, just as long as they smile. Nat King Cole was the first artist who performed the song with Turner and Parsons lyrics.

Final scene from Modern Times.

 
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Snow White luvs Peter Pan;4075431 said:
I am a huge fan of Charlie Chaplin, not because Michael was but because I fell in love on my own with City Lights and the bun shoes dancing sequence from The Gold Rush when I was 16.

Smile is a song based on an instrumental theme used in the soundtrack for the 1936 Charlie Chaplin movie Modern Times. Chaplin composed the music, while John Turner and Geoffrey Parsons added the lyrics and title in 1954. In the lyrics, based on lines and themes from the film, the singer is telling the listener to cheer up and that there is always a bright tomorrow, just as long as they smile. Nat King Cole was the first artist who performed the song with Turner and Parsons lyrics.

Final scene from Modern Times.
Click to expand...

Love this post! Many thanks.

You can't underestimate the significance of the inclusion of Smile on HIStory.

I've posted this before:

Michael Jackson's Smile has always been one of my favourite records. Like many of my favourite MJ songs, I can remember hearing it for the first time, on the day HIStory was released when I ran to my room to play the album in its entirety.

To put Smile into perspective, you need to put the HIStory album into perspective. After the 1993 allegations, nothing about Michael Jackson would ever be the same, and that includes his music. Dangerous had already seen Michael move into darker territory; from light, pop melodies to a more sinister, anguished, socially conscious terrain.

With HIStory Michael went into full victim mentality, I've said before that if you want to know exactly how he felt following the occurrences of 1993, just listen to this album, it's the most auto-biographical he's ever been. In essence, it's a concept album with at least 8 of the tracks dealing directly with the allegations.

As such, it's a brilliant but very angry album. It's filled with hurt, hate, anguish, defiance and distress. Press play and after the initial distortion the first sound you hear is Michael Jackson screaming, setting the scene for songs like Scream, They Don't Care About Us, the beautiful but haunting Stranger in Moscow, D.S. This Time Around, 2 Bad – all songs answering his critics but all following the same themes. Only You Are Not Alone provides the listener with a respite from the album's theme, even songs not dealing directly with 1993 still show Michael's anger & feelings about the state of the world; Earth Song, Childhood & Little Susie.

Then we come to Smile, notable in itself being a cover version which up until Come Together had been absent on an adult Michael Jackson album, but also a song that the vast majority of listeners will not have heard.

After 70 minutes of Michael revealing himself to be tormented, lonely, fragile and hurt, he tells us that actually, life ain't so bad. The theme of anger is replaced by beauty. Beauty in the instrumentation, production and that sweet, sweet voice.

Lyrically, it's painfully obvious why Michael finally chose to record Smile for HIStory. He's telling us, and reminding himself, that despite all that's happened to him, he's the eternal optimist.

"Smile, though your heart is aching
Smile, even though it's breaking
When there are clouds in the sky
You'll get by...
If you smile
With your fear and sorrow
Smile and maybe tomorrow
You'll find that life is still worthwhile if you just smile"

Michael sings the song like his life depends on it; he brings out the optimism and the beauty of the lyric whilst revealing a melancholy that can only be shown when the song means the world to you and resonates in your very soul.

The song ends by showing Michael's more playful side, as previously seen on songs such as The Girl is Mine, P.Y.T and The Way You Make Me Feel. He whistles and hums and then finally as the album's final seconds die out, Michael laughs.

The listener finishes the album smiling, I must have heard the song a thousand times since 1995 and I smile every time I heard the end of the song. It brings the album full circle. Yes, Michael has been treated abominably and the world is a messed up crazy place, but you know what? – we'll get there, it's not so bad.

Smile serves to remind us that no matter how bad life can get, even in it's darkest moments, we should find something to smile at, some light at the end of the tunnel. If Michael could do it after being slandered and having a terrible fall from grace, then we all can.

The first sound you hear on HIStory is Michael screaming and the last sound is him laughing, and its beautiful.
 
Your posts are wonderful Snow White and Tony! I absolutely love his laugh at the very end of Smile. I pointed that out to my youngest son just today. I turned it up in my car and said, "Listen to Mike laugh at the end!" We both looked at each other and well, smiled. :D
 
“Butterflies” is one of my most favorite songs Michael ever sung. I consider his vocals on it amongst THE greatest he has ever done, in the only recorded performance of his, from “Invincible.” The same thing applies to “Human Nature” (from Michael’s “Thriller” album), his own unique version of “SMILE” (from the “HIStory” album) and many of the ballads he recorded, a lot of them going as far back as the Early-Motown years, when songs were either previously written, produced and sung by other artists long before Michael recorded his version, or songs were especially written and produced for him and his brothers.

He should have been considered one of the best interpreters of other songwriters’ material - similar to what Luther Vandross was mostly known for, in his case - especially, since he learned that skill before he ever signed with Motown and had been doing it from childhood/youth onwards, throughout his career. As he started writing, producing and singing his own songs, Michael recorded fewer and fewer interpretations of others’ work. However, the song, “Butterflies” (beautifully written by Marsha Ambrosius, who was once part of Floetry) proves that Michael still had that interpretive ability in him, and he never lost it.
 
Many of the Invincible era songs and demos weren't really written my MJ but suit his clippped, percussive, staccato and rhythmic singing style perfectly. "Heartbreaker" for example.
 
pretty much everything they did at Motown...too many songs to mention them all, since they didn't write anything themselves
 
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