Hypothetical: What Cover Songs Would You Like to Hear MJ Sing?

Yeah so, I already knew that a cover can use the same lyrics and change tempo and modify melody.
But you are saying that changing the lyrics and singing on the same melody in the same way as the initial lyrics is not a cover? Then what is it?
"Interpolation" like I mentioned above. A sample is not considered a cover either. Anyway with Place With No Name, unless you bought the deluxe version of the Xscape album, the remix on the regular version of the album does not really sound like the America song. It sounds more like Leave Me Alone on the Bad album.
 
Oh, if I ever listen to Xscape, I listen only to the original versions (except maybe for the title track)...
Is it only using a sample? I thought MJ and team had completely re-recorded it... and for me it sounds similar enough to America's song to call it a cover.
 
Here's a song by Tony! Toni! Toné! called Thinking Of You. On the remix, they use the music from Al Green's Love And Happiness, but don't use Al's lyrics. They replay the music, so it's not sampled. The credits use interpolation. If it was just a straight cover, then nothing would be noted other than the songwriting credits.
5bb05cd990827585ef079933ed5644f6de84f404.jpg
An interpolation does not have to be the entire song or even use the music from another, it can be a line or 2 sung in the melody of the original. Mike's Shout does not have much relation to the original Isley Brothers song other than the hook in the chorus.
[video=youtube;nEjLFpU2pJ4]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nEjLFpU2pJ4[/video]
 
One of my friends told me he always thought MJ would’ve sounded great on “Fallen Angel” by Frankie Valli, and I completely agree. It doesn’t really give me an MJ vibe as far as production, but I think his voice would’ve been like butter over this one.

[video=youtube;S_KRcBXdJds]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S_KRcBXdJds&feature=youtu.be[/video]
 
DuranDuran;4321253 said:
Here's a song by Tony! Toni! Toné! called Thinking Of You. On the remix, they use the music from Al Green's Love And Happiness, but don't use Al's lyrics. They replay the music, so it's not sampled. The credits use interpolation. If it was just a straight cover, then nothing would be noted other than the songwriting credits.
5bb05cd990827585ef079933ed5644f6de84f404.jpg
An interpolation does not have to be the entire song or even use the music from another, it can be a line or 2 sung in the melody of the original. Mike's Shout does not have much relation to the original Isley Brothers song other than the hook in the chorus.
[video=youtube;nEjLFpU2pJ4]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nEjLFpU2pJ4[/video]

Another example of an interpolation would be Kendrick Lamar's King Kunta - the lines from Smooth Criminal, 'Annie are you ok?' are repeated at one point.
 
If I understand right, and according to the definition of "interpolation" in other contexts, I think that interpolation is like a small piece of integrated in another song.
So you this seems like the right word for Shout (I had actually heard it was a cover and never check the original for that one). But yet not for A Place With No Name (original mix).
 
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king_of_style;4321012 said:
Simple as that. Which songs do you think he would've done awesome covers of in his lifetime or wish he'd been able to do had he lived? The only notable covers that I can think of are "Come Together", "Smile", and "Butterflies" -- although I do know that "Hot Fun In The Summertime" and "Strawberry Fields Forever" exist but remain unreleased.

I honestly think that if Michael Jackson had lived long enough, he would've taken Gotye's 2011 song "Somebody That I Used To Know" and blown it out of the park. I'm talking "I Will Always Love You" and "Hound Dog" level of covering that would make someone forget that it's even a cover of someone else's original. Sometimes I can almost hear in my mind how MJ would have sung the chorus. He already had a resonance and almost an eerie sort of echo to his voice on songs like "Another Day" and "Chicago" that I think would've fit really well.

I'm telling you, guys, us Moonwalkers in this timeline were ROBBED of the awesomeness that would've been Michael Jackson's "Somebody That I Used To Know".

Anyway, what songs do you people wish he had covered?

‘Hot Fun In The Summertime’ exists but in an incomplete state (which is why it did not make the ‘Xscape’ album in 2014, according to L.A. Reid).

Also, Michael Jackson never recorded a cover version of the ‘Strawberry Fields Forever’ song, according to certain producers and engineers.

Bill Bottrell is one of them and worked very closely with the singer in the period when that cover song was supposedly recorded, and he stated several times, even on online forums, that Michael Jackson never recorded that cover song.

Bill Bottrell even implied that the only Beatles song that the singer ever recorded was ‘Come Together’:

“During the Bad sessions, Michael asked me to drive him home to Westwood one night. During the drive, we played lots of Beatles songs he had compiled on a tape, he was pretty interested in my opinion, and I told him we should pick Come Together” (Bill Bottrell)

king_of_style;4321238 said:
It's also unfortunate that Michael never made a Christmas album in his adult career, it's such a fun time of the year and I think that had he not been so tied to his JW upbringing he would've really loved the messaging and good vibes of the Christmas season. If he had lived I could also see him making a Christmas album in like 2014, maybe with a few reprises with his brothers from the Jackson 5 Christmas album.

In this regard, his Jehovah's Witnesses upbringing was not a problem for him after 1987.

After 1987 (when he withdrew from that religion) he was free to record Christmas songs or Christmas albums, or even to celebrate Christmas.

In 1994, he actually entered the studio in order to record a Christmas album (note, he had agreed with Sony in 1991 to deliver also one Christmas album in the following years).

The first Christmas song that he recorded in 1994 for that album was a duet song with his then-wife Lisa Marie Presley, and Michael Jackson was proudly wearing his wedding ring during those recording sessions (Brad Sundberg also confirmed that).

He even started to celebrate Christmas in his Neverland Ranch in the early ‘90s.
 
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Just for the fun of it I would have loved to have heard Michael sing the original Pokemon theme song.
 
Would have been really cool to hear MJ sing other Beatles songs. Shame he never recorded others. I wonder where the rumour of Strawberry Fields Forever came from. Probably the infamous Wikipedia page lol.
 
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I wonder where the rumour of Strawberry Fields Forever came from. Probably the infamous Wikipedia page lol.

It came from the tracklist of "Decade", which was printed in the last issue of "Black & White" magazine (November 2009).
 
Maxym;4321262 said:
If I understand right, and according to the definition of "interpolation" in other contexts, I think that interpolation is like a small piece of integrated in another song.
So you this seems like the right word for Shout (I had actually heard it was a cover and never check the original for that one). But yet not for A Place With No Name (original mix).
The Tony! Toni! Toné! record I posted above is exactly like Place With No Name in that the entire song song sounds like Al Green's song. It's still called interpolation in the credits. It doesn't matter how much or how little is used.
 
Ok, I think I start to get your point. ( I think I still want to called that type a cover-rewritten-different-lyrics... from what I read many definition for these vary according to people. )


Otherwise, I don't know precisely what I would have precisely to hear as cover...


- I think I would have liked more with his cinematic/classic/Disneyish-type voice (in styles When You Wish Upon A Star which I already mentionned, or yes Someone In The Dark, Little Susie and some other

- I think I would have like him covering some of Jacques Brel's most orchestral songs, but without keeping the French lyrics, rewriting something in English.) (Many of Brel's song also already have English translations, but rather something more in MJ's style of lyrics)
I would expect something in the style of "Seeing Voices", possibly with more punch.

- Possibly also some song the from they're lyrics are type of hymns for peace etc, in types ranging from "Heal The World" to "We've Had Enough". First that come to my mind would be "The call up" (the Clash), "Know your rights" (the Clash again, but this one would required some rework I think), "Power to the peaceful" (Anti-Flag). Closer to Michael's style I would have thought of Mariah Carey's "There's gotta be away" but I find this one a bit simplistic. There must be many many others. Some of Bob Dylan... "Masters of war"? "With God on our side"?. Some of Joan Baez ... I don't know... "Johnny I hardly knew you" (it's already a cover/traditional), "There but for fortune" (well so many of Baez are actually covers but there's usually great covers) ....
 
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Ok, I think I start to get your point. ( I think I still want to called that type a cover-rewritten-different-lyrics... from what I read many definition for these vary according to people.)
I'm not talking about what people call it, but the legal definition for copyright. A cover primarily refers to the lyrics, but can also be the music if instrumental like a jazz version. Only the original credited songwriters get a songwriting credit on a cover version, even if the music is totally different. Whoever wrote/composed the new arrangement does not get a writing credit. An interpolation is sort of like a sample, the difference is that the new song is replayed/resung rather than using an existing recording. With an interpolation (or parody/sample), the writers of the new lyrics get a songwriting credit.

Michael Jackson used the chant in Manu Dibango's Soul Makossa in Wanna Be Startin' Somethin'. He didn't just copy the melody to sing something else. Mike didn't credit Manu, so he was sued. Led Zeppelin has been sued several times for the same thing. The terms sampling & interpolation came about in the hip hop era, since that's primarily what made doing them popular. Although technically, there's a lot of songs before hip hop that could be interpolation. Songs with samples/interpolation started to become mainstream popular and made a lot of money, and laws were made so the original artists, record labels, and/or songwriters/publishing companies could make money and get credited. During the early days of sampling in the 1980s, nobody credited anything. James Brown even put out a song called I'm Real where he says "you better take my voice from off your records til I'm paid in full". :rofl: Rick James sued MC Hammer.
 
Ok, well if it's about legal terms, I guess it's also a question of country and translations. Did find legal texts do confirm or not after a quick search, so I just checked the French Wikipedia page about covers ("reprise") and they include "musical adaptations with or with the lyrics", and parodies. They cite Weird Al rewrites of MJ as lyric-wise parodies, And "My Way" covered by the Sex Pistols as music-wise parody.
Unless the Wikipedia page is wrong... (wouldn't be the firs time).

( I thought that "My Way" was covered by Sid Vicious as a solo work, but it appear on some Pistols compilations so I'm not sure... But I'm not too sure to what extent My Way is a parody or just a punk cover... I would have cited Black Eyed Peas parody by Alanis Morissette instead: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VJg4rwDkkBA )
 
As someone mentioned above I would have love to hear MJ sing more christmas songs.

The J5 Christmas album is great - and an adult MJ christmas album would have been amazing.
 
As someone mentioned above I would have love to hear MJ sing more christmas songs.

The J5 Christmas album is great - and an adult MJ christmas album would have been amazing.

It might have been cheesy, but I think Michael could've done justice to "All I Want For Christmas Is You". Can you imagine hearing "hee-hee" adlibs on that track? lmao

Also I could see him doing an ambient "Little Susie"/"Someone In The Dark"-esque cover of Nat King Cole's "God Rest Ye, Merry Gentlemen".
 
I just heard John Mayer's song "In The Blood" for the first time. Listening to the lyrics, all I was thinking was I would love to hear Michael singing this. It gives me chills just imagining him singing this in a video.
 
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Send One Your Love, by Stevie Wonder
Faith In Each Other, by Inxs
A Song For You, Donny Hathaway version
Father Figure, by George Michael
Sometimes, by Brand New Heavies (Jay Dee mix)

Probably a lot of others I'm not remembering, but they're some great songs I've listened to lately that I'd love to hear Mike's vocals on
 
I saw this yesterday. I love the way Michael sings Chaka Khan's "Automatic" and the Bee Gees' "How Can You Mend a Broken Heart".
I would have loved for him to do a full version of these songs. Basically, I think he could sing most songs in a superior fashion, if he put his mind to it.

[video=youtube;xXtu1_Szt1Y]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xXtu1_Szt1Y[/video]
 
Careless Whisper by Wham/George Michael
Lady- Kenny Rogers (written and also sang by Lionel Richie)
Forever- Kenny Loggins
Hello It's Me- Todd Rundgren
Call Out My Name- The Weeknd
You've Lost That Loving Feeling- The Righteous Brothers
The Lady In Red- Chis De Burgh
 
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Just to mess people up, I'd love for MJ to sing "Smile" by The Supernaturals.

I think this one would be VERY interesting. I'd like to see what Michael would do with it.
I can hear Michael in Garfunkel's high part of the harmony.
I presume you've heard the J5 cover of Bridge Over Troubled Water?

The only notable covers that I can think of are "Come Together", "Smile", and "Butterflies"
Well, as others have said, there are at least half a dozen different J5 albums that are almost entirely covers.

I just heard John Mayer's song "In The Blood" for the first time. Listening to the lyrics, all I was thinking was I would love to hear Michael singing this. It gives me chills just imagining him singing this in a video.
I'm sure you already know, but Mayer played the guitar solo on a cover of Beat It...
 
I would have loved to hear him sing this cover of Stevie Wonder's song. With some "Michael Jacksonese" ad-libs thrown in there, of course.


Or this one:

 
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MJ on a duet with Phil Collins or a cover would have been so amazing ! Some balades like Another Day in Paradise wow !
 
Thank you so much for your ideas, everyone! Let's keep this going!

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I would be amazed to hear an MJ cover of some Ralph Tresvant songs -- Ralph was influenced by MJ but obviously went in his own direction. I think his "You'll Remember Me" and especially "My Aphrodisiac" would be fun dance songs.

[video=youtube;rTLudzgxqbI]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rTLudzgxqbI[/video]

[video=youtube;rNe3l78H5P8]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rNe3l78H5P8[/video]
 
As someone mentioned above I would have love to hear MJ sing more christmas songs.

The J5 Christmas album is great - and an adult MJ christmas album would have been amazing.

MJ would have recorded Christmas songs from 1982 to 2004.
 
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