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Michael on Batman soundtrack?

DuranDuran

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According to a book reviewing Prince's albums called A Thief In The Temple by Brian Morton, Jack Nicholson wanted Prince & Michael to collaborate on the Batman soundtrack. I have never heard this before. I knew Jack & Tim Burton was responsible for getting Prince to do the soundtrack and that Prince had visited the Batman set. If true, this would have been more interesting than Prince singing on "Bad". This book has a copyright date of 2007, so it is fairly recent.
 
Yes, if it´s true what I´ve read the idea was to have Prince do the music for the "dark side", the bad guys, while MJ was to do the music for the good ones. It would have been amazing and very interesting indeed. However, I believe it didn´t happen because MJ was too busy with his Bad Tour. But honestly I doubt it would have happened anyway because I believe they both had so much respect for each other and none of them would want to lose face. But it would have been fantastic IF it had happened.
 
Mr. Norway said:
Yes, if it´s true what I´ve read the idea was to have Prince do the music for the "dark side", the bad guys, while MJ was to do the music for the good ones. It would have been amazing and very interesting indeed.
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Ahh, kind of like how Hans Zimmer made the music for the bad guys, and James Newton Howard did the music for the good guys in The Dark Knight.

But a Prince vs MJ collab would've been amazing - The beats were already pretty ill on the Batman Soundtrack. "The Future" is a favourite.

I wonder how many of these "what could've been stories" will pop up in the next coming years - I feel like there are some huge stories waiting to be told.
 
BruceWayne said:
Ahh, kind of like how Hans Zimmer made the music for the bad guys, and James Newton Howard did the music for the good guys in The Dark Knight.

But a Prince vs MJ collab would've been amazing - The beats were already pretty ill on the Batman Soundtrack. "The Future" is a favourite.

I wonder how many of these "what could've been stories" will pop up in the next coming years - I feel like there are some huge stories waiting to be told.
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I know Mike wanted to work with Kraftwerk in the mid 1980s. But they didn't like collaborating with other acts, so nothing became of it. Mike also wanted to do something with Nick Rhodes & John Taylor, but there was scheduling conflicts. Barbra Streisand and then Whitney Houston were asked to sing on "I Just Can't Stop Loving You", but both turned him down.
 
^ Didn't know that.

Man, Whitney on IJCSLY would've been epic.

EDIT: Speaking of Whitney and Michael - "If I Told You That" was a joint produced by Darkchild for Whitney and MJ, but it didn't pop off so George Michael jumped on it.
 
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DuranDuran said:
I know Mike wanted to work with Kraftwerk in the mid 1980s. But they didn't like collaborating with other acts, so nothing became of it. Mike also wanted to do something with Nick Rhodes & John Taylor, but there was scheduling conflicts. Barbra Streisand and then Whitney Houston were asked to sing on "I Just Can't Stop Loving You", but both turned him down.
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- Really? I´ve never heard about MJ wanting to work with Kraftwerk and Rhodes / Taylor before. Where have you read this?? The Streisand / Whitney stories I knew about. But I just don´t think it makes sense that either of them would turn MJ down. I think I´ve read that it was the record company that rejected for Whitney because they did not want her to be over-exposed. But why did Barbara turn him down????
 
^^^^It was from an interview long ago. Nick Rhodes said that Michael called them about working together, but they couldn't find a time that was convenient for everyone. The Kraftwerk was in a book about them I checked out from the library.
 
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Mr. Norway said:
- Really? I´ve never heard about MJ wanting to work with Kraftwerk and Rhodes / Taylor before. Where have you read this?? The Streisand / Whitney stories I knew about. But I just don´t think it makes sense that either of them would turn MJ down. I think I´ve read that it was the record company that rejected for Whitney because they did not want her to be over-exposed. But why did Barbara turn him down????
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I read somewhere, can't remember where though, but whitney is supposed to have something like "I didn't loose any sleep over it", she didn't like the song and Barbara said something about the age gap between her and MJ was too big. Don't know if it's true.

I also read that MJ wanted to do the Batman soundtrack with Prince but was too busy with the BAD tour.
 
Aeneiden said:
I read somewhere, can't remember where though, but whitney is supposed to have something like "I didn't loose any sleep over it", she didn't like the song and Barbara said something about the age gap between her and MJ was too big. Don't know if it's true.

I also read that MJ wanted to do the Batman soundtrack with Prince but was too busy with the BAD tour.
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- Yes, you may of course be very right about this. It´s just a little strange to imagine that Whitney, who obviously was a good friend and had so much adoration for MJ, did not like IJCSLY and did not want to work with him. I guess somebody should ask her about it the next time she´s being interviewed.

About Barbara it could def be that she thought that. I mean, we all know that MJ didn´t care about age gap when we think about the friendship with Liz, but she might´ve. But I´ve never heard anything about Streisand and MJ being very close (I think) so it could be.

Aeneiden: What do you think about MJ and Prince doing the soundtrack together, do you really think it would´ve worked out between them considering the competition between them? (Notice that I write competition and not rivalry because there is no doubt there was competition) Don´t you think that it would be hard to make that collaboration happen anyway when we know that both wanted to have control over their music and none of them wanted to be the "losing" one on the album??

This is just thoughts. Personally I think it would have been fantastic if it had happened!
 
Mr. Norway said:
It´s just a little strange to imagine that Whitney, who obviously was a good friend and had so much adoration for MJ, did not like IJCSLY and did not want to work with him.
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I don't know what being friends with Michael has to do with Whitney not liking the song. Whitney did record 4 songs with Jermaine though.
 
DuranDuran said:
I don't know what being friends with Michael has to do with Whitney not liking the song. Whitney did record 4 songs with Jermaine though.
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No, you´re right about that. Wrong phrasing there. I guess it all comes down to that I just can´t believe how she could not like the song :)
 
Michael and Prince collaborating for Batman would have been really cool to see, but kinda crazy I think. I like the scene in the movie where the Joker and his gang trash that art gallery, while dancing to Prince's Partyman.
 
Me too...I like the end where Bob is about to slash a painting and Joker stops him and says..."I kinda like this one Bob.....leave it!" Makes me laugh every time.
 
Aeneiden said:
I read somewhere, can't remember where though, but whitney is supposed to have something like "I didn't loose any sleep over it", she didn't like the song and Barbara said something about the age gap between her and MJ was too big. .
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Don't know where this came from. The story I've heard over the years was that Whitney was asked by Michael and his people to do the song, and it was her record label Arista who said no.
 
Prince Of Pop said:
Don't know where this came from. The story I've heard over the years was that Whitney was asked by Michael and his people to do the song, and it was her record label Arista who said no.
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It came from 2009. Look at those early post dates. This thread is a time capsule. We've learned a lot.
 
This is a quote from a new interview by movie producer Lynda Obst in The Hollywood Reporter (not about Batman):

But moments on the clock were “phenomenal.” She recalls having a meeting with Prince one day and with Michael Jackson on another. Then there was the day they both were in her office at the same time, sitting across from her. “They happened to be visiting David [Geffen] and I had to entertain them while they waited,” she says. “I just sat there, and they barely looked at each other. I think they were both uncomfortable.”
 
DuranDuran said:
This is a quote from a new interview by movie producer Lynda Obst in The Hollywood Reporter (not about Batman):

But moments on the clock were “phenomenal.” She recalls having a meeting with Prince one day and with Michael Jackson on another. Then there was the day they both were in her office at the same time, sitting across from her. “They happened to be visiting David [Geffen] and I had to entertain them while they waited,” she says. “I just sat there, and they barely looked at each other. I think they were both uncomfortable.”
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The fact that so many uppity rich American business suits and moguls got to spend unlimited time with MJ, and Prince...
 
DuranDuran said:
This is a quote from a new interview by movie producer Lynda Obst in The Hollywood Reporter (not about Batman):

But moments on the clock were “phenomenal.” She recalls having a meeting with Prince one day and with Michael Jackson on another. Then there was the day they both were in her office at the same time, sitting across from her. “They happened to be visiting David [Geffen] and I had to entertain them while they waited,” she says. “I just sat there, and they barely looked at each other. I think they were both uncomfortable.”
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I wonder what year this was.

Odd to think they were both uncomfortable since they've known each other since the 70's. Probably because they're used to being around each other in the presence of mutual friends.
 
FFS why would they not look at each other, makes zero sense. I call it another bullshit story.
 
filmandmusic said:
FFS why would they not look at each other, makes zero sense. I call it another bullshit story.
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What would be the point of making that up? She was not asked about them. She was talking about things that happened when she worked for David Geffen. Maybe they didn't want to talk in front of her, a person they might not have known, but did when they saw Geffen. Prince was known to be very introverted around people he didn't know, in this case Lynda. Prince also did not want people to look at or interact with him when appearing on award shows. Several artists have mentioned this like Weird Al & some members of the rock band Loverboy. This is probably the reason he did not want to sing on We Are The World, which was a bunch of people he didn't know. Prince offered to play guitar on the song, which Quincy Jones declined. So Prince recorded a song for the USA For Africa album.
 
One source says Michael was friendly, another source says Michael was shy and yet another source says Michael was weird’ i even heard he was arrogant etc etc

I don’t know what to believe anymore and quite frankly I don’t give a damn
 
zinniabooklover said:
f&m, Prince barely talked to his studio techs!
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Jimmy Jam, who was in The Time, said that when the band was rehearsing for concerts, Prince would mostly give short instructions to them. Morris Day who played drums in Prince's high school band, said it was several weeks after joining before Prince said something to him. Before that, Morris mostly talked to André Cymone (who had asked him to join the band) and the other members. Morris said that Prince would just stare at him at first.
 
DuranDuran said:
Jimmy Jam, who was in The Time, said that when the band was rehearsing for concerts, Prince would mostly give short instructions to them. Morris Day who played drums in Prince's high school band, said it was several weeks after joining before Prince said something to him. Before that, Morris mostly talked to André Cymone (who had asked him to join the band) and the other members. Morris said that Prince would just stare at him at first.
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I know. I've listened to every interview I can find with Susan Rogers and Peggy McCreary, two of his studio techs. Prince was rude and horrible to his team. That said, he also sounds like he might have been on the spectrum (it was briefly mentioned as a possibility in one of the interviews) or maybe that he was so shy (in certain circumstances) plus so focused on his work that he just couldn't do the small talk thing and / or didn't want to waste time on it.

Tbf, I watched an interview with Morris Hayes recently. He seems to have got a bit of conversation out of Prince. Maybe he was just lucky.
 
zinniabooklover said:
I know. I've listened to every interview I can find with Susan Rogers and Peggy McCreary, two of his studio techs. Prince was rude and horrible to his team. That said, he also sounds like he might have been on the spectrum (it was briefly mentioned as a possibility in one of the interviews) or maybe that he was so shy (in certain circumstances) plus so focused on his work that he just couldn't do the small talk thing and / or didn't want to waste time on it.

Tbf, I watched an interview with Morris Hayes recently. He seems to have got a bit of conversation out of Prince. Maybe he was just lucky.
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Maybe he didn't have much to talk about. The people around him said Prince would spend most of his free time recording or performing. His band members said they were on call like a doctor. Wendy said Prince would call her 3 in the morning when she was sleep and tell her to come to the studio and then would be there until evening. He would do a concert at a stadium, and right after he would after do another full show at a club. The club shows would not usually be the popular hits like the main concert, but album tracks, B-sides and covers. Sometimes he would record new tracks after a concert because he carried a portable studio around. He didn't seem to have much of a life outside of recording. It's no wonder Prince wanted Warner Brothers to release more material than they were willing to. He didn't only have his own records, but he also played a lot of the music on his protégé acts albums. It takes a lot more time to play all the instruments himself, than if he used his band members.
 
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