Missed Opportunities

analogue

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I think some of the biggest missed opportunity's were a live performance of Give Into Me with Slash. I never understood why that never happened, and The Making Of Thriller having a DVD/Blu Ray release for Thriller 25. That one should have been a no brainer.

Can anyone else think of anymore missed opportunity's throughout Michael's career?
 
I think there are many missed opportunities. Especially because of the Estate. Such as STTR. They should have released the song when the hologram was revealed.

- Another one is that Remember The Time should have been released as the first single instead of BoW. Black or White was going to be a #1 hit single anyway. #1 is written all over that song. People were excited anyway when Michael Jackson released a new song. Remember The Time could benefit of the excitement and be #1.

- Earth Song should have been released as a single instead of This Time Around. That single was a #1 hit as well.

- Scream should have been performed together with Janet Jackson at least one time.

- Michael should have recorded more songs with Janet. Either on his album or her album. Especially after or during the Rhythm Nation era, because Janet was big during that time.

- Dangerous should have been released earlier as a single instead of planning it as the last release. That song is a killer, and the choreography makes the song even better.

I agree with Give In To Me. A live performance with Slash would be hyped. Michael’s performance with Slash was already amazing. Imagine performing it live!
 
Re: Missed opportunity's

The hbo special was one in my opinion.. perfect timing for a project like that!!


Obviously more advertising for invincible. Spent too much time/energy fighting Sony to promote it.
 
Re: Missed opportunity's

So many missed opportunities in Michael's career. Here are a few:

1) Not releasing Working Day & Night as a single. This is a sure top 5 hit at least and it remains one of his Michael's most popular non-singles. Unfortunately Girlfriend was released as the final single from Off The Wall, which kind of killed the Off The Wall era.

2) Thriller era was huge. but the only thing that was missing was a performance from Michael at an award show. I never understand why Michael never performed at Grammys 1984 or AMA 1984 or both. He attended both shows and won plenty of awards. Not performed at those shows is a missed opportunity imo.

3) Not performing Scream with Janet at the VMA awards 1995. Both attended the show and Michael performed. Surely him and Janet could have performed Scream that night.

4) Agree with Doggone that Dangerous should have been released as a single much sooner. I personally would have released as the 3rd single after Black or White and Remember the Time. Not releasing Dangerous as a single is a tragedy, because I'm sure we would have got a killer music video for it. Such a shame that Dangerous never got released as a single, because it's one of Michael's best songs and even critics give it a very positive reception.

5) Agree with the OP that Give in to Me should have been performed with Slash or without him. I personally would have dropped Beat It from the set list after the Bad Tour. I never liked Beat It live to begin with. I don't think Michael sounded that good when he sang it live and the whole cherry picker routine had gone stale by Dangerous Tour. It should have been replaced by GITM on Dangerous Tour as the rock song.

6) The whole Invincible era. The album isn't Michael's greatest but there are some brilliant songs on the album that are hit material. Just a shame that Michael and Sony had a falling out.

7) Michael not releasing a Christmas album. I know this one wasn't be very popular with most MJ fans, but I think MJ's legacy could have been so much bigger if he had a Christmas album as an adult. I know due to his upbringing, he didn't really celebrate Christmas until much later in his life, but I so wish he had released a Christmas album as an adult. That's how the likes of Elvis stays ahead of him in sales. Michael appears on charts throughout the year, while Elvis doesn't. Yet during the Christmas season, Elvis' many Christmas albums make a return to the charts and sell just as much as Michael does for the entire year. Not releasing a Christmas album is a massive missed opportunity imo.

8) Not releasing Slave To The Rhythm as a single. The hype for STTR was huge. after the hologram performance. The song made it #45 on the Billboard hot 100, despite it not being a single. Not imagine if it was released as a single and properly promoted, it was a top 10 hit. What a wasted opportunity that was by the Estate and Sony.

That's it for now. I might add some more missed opportunities later on.
 
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Re: Missed opportunities

Collabo with Prince
Kraftwerk turning down working with Mike
The Beatles covers album that was announced in the mid-1980s.
 
Re: Missed opportunity's

I think some of the biggest missed opportunity's were a live performance of Give Into Me with Slash. I never understood why that never happened, and The Making Of Thriller having a DVD/Blu Ray release for Thriller 25. That one should have been a no brainer.

Can anyone else think of anymore missed opportunity's throughout Michael's career?

I agree with the giving to me thing. It's such a amazing song and he never performed it live. I also believe he should have done a duet with Whitney. It would ahve been a real blow if he could've done it. And album invincible should have got more recongnition as the collection of songs in it reveals is a different side of muchaels musical capability.
 
Re: Missed opportunity's

Ohh - so many many missed opportunities.

HBO One Night Special - should have been re-scheduled.

More shows like HBO special - maybe something like MTV Unplugged - would have given him a legacy as a good live singer too.

More performances at awardshows and TV shows. - with NO playback.

Singing live is a missed opportunity really.

Christmas album - MJ could have dominated the charts every Christmas had he released 1-2 good Christmas albums. And since I love Christmas from a very selfies point of view I would have loved him to release an adult Christmas album or 2.

Better promotion of Invincible, more concerts and more performances at awardshows, TV-shows etc. - maybe a litle tour.

It was a shame he didn't change more songs in his tours. BAD is almost the same as the tour he did before with his brothers - especially 1st leg. Dangerous had some changes - but he could have changed the set-list a lot more from concert to concert so he at one point performed all his songs live.

So many of his great songs were never performed live.
 
Re: Missed opportunity's

Get On The Floor should have been released as a single. That song has dance floor filler written all over it

A live performance of The Girl Is Mine, Say Say Say, and The Man with Paul McCartney
 
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Re: Missed opportunity's

Singles released after 1987 sung live.
 
Re: Missed opportunity's

So many...

Who Is It, Give In To Me, Stranger in Moscow, 2Bad, Is it Scary, Butterflies, Whatever Happens and other songs sung live...
 
Re: Missed opportunity's

- Thriller 25 was a terrible release. Michael messed up by not releasing any unreleased songs on T25. Bad 25 was a very good release as it featured 6 unreleased songs from the Bad sessions. Thrilled 25 had one new song that was from the Dangerous era. Songs such as Behind The Mask, Nite Line, Hot Street, Best of Joy (Thriller version) should have been on T25.

- Speaking of Thriller 25, it was a commercial success and I do wish Michael had used its success as inspiration to release a new album in 2008. I do think that was a missed opportunity. I also didn't like the idea of This Is It, doing concerts without a supporting album.
 
Re: Missed opportunity's

This thread is already making me angry and sad! :(
 
Re: Missed opportunity's

Christmas album - MJ could have dominated the charts every Christmas had he released 1-2 good Christmas albums. And since I love Christmas from a very selfies point of view I would have loved him to release an adult Christmas album or 2.
The Jackson 5 Christmas album still sells and the songs get airplay at Christmastime. It'll be like Johnny Mathis if Mike has several. They'll cancel each other out. Christmas albums don't usually chart high on the Billboard 200 albums other than a few acts like Mannheim Steamroller. Mike could have did a song or two. Wham!'s most popular song is Last Christmas and it was not from a Christmas album, it was on a regular album Music From The Edge Of Heaven. It was originally just a non-album single.
 
Re: Missed opportunity's

A Christmas album - I know people will be quick to point out the J5 one, but it would've been amazing if he did one as an adult solo artist.

I will also agree that there are many songs of his that I wish were done live. Closest we can get now are fan-made versions, which I'm grateful for.

Had he lived to see it, it would've been cool if Sega brought him in to compose a song or two for Sonic Generations. They brought back nearly every composer who worked on past Sonic games for that one, so I think it would've been neat if that had happened. Not just to hear new music but also as a confirmation of him having kinda worked on Sonic 3 years prior.
 
Re: Missed opportunity's

This thread is already making me angry and sad! :(

YES.

Me too...... I'm not gonna comment on what people write here...... perhaps the word "ungrateful" comes to mind....

Double yes.



I always placed my faith and trust in Michael and assumed that he made his choices and decisions for a reason. I never presumed that I knew better than he did, about "killer number ones" and so forth.....and I still don't presume this. I didn't live his life....I didn't have to deal with his problems and issues and whenever something didn't happen, although I might have been a little disappointed, I always understood that it was for a reason and not just on a whim.

The main thing I miss is HIM. I wish that he had lived to perform the 50 TII shows and then had gone on to embrace all of the wonderful opportunities that would have opened up for him, afterwards.
 
Cool thread dude, this style thread is nice to see what could have been
Totally agree with you MJ and Slash should have performed Give In To Me Live at least once.

I'm satisfied with nearly all of MJ's decisions in his career, he definitely knew best.
With that said, I would make little changes, add Who Is It, Remember The Time and Give In To Me to the Dangerous tour, Tape the HBO special, more live singing on the tours and MTV unplugged would have cemented MJ even more as the phenomenal singer he was, (look at what George Michael's has done for his legacy as a singer)

I understand certain decisions though,
No live performance with Janet for instance, makes the Scream short film even more iconic
No adult cover albums, makes the next album more special and more excitement
MJ's motto was less is more, which is true
 
Were really most of the above things (that have been mentioned) missed opportunities?

Without getting into trivial details, I will just say that there was a reason why MJ did not do this, or he did not do that, during his career.

I believe the only missed opportunity that rightfully deserved that title was the cancellation of the 1995 HBO Special (because of his unexpected health problems at the time).

Many people were left disappointed by that cancellation.

Especially MJ himself was devastated (as he confessed to Bob Jones) mainly because he let down those fans who traveled from all over the world to New York to see him live.

Also, that HBO Special would have boosted his career during a very critical point for him.
 
Not touring America in early 1993 was a mistake. MJ was on top of the world at that point. AMA's, he reinvented the Super Bowl HT show, Oprah etc etc. If he toured America with the same energy and show that ruled the world in 1992, it would be a different story. Who knows how far his star would've risen. Definitely an opportunity to capitalise on that hype.

One Night Only would've been incredible, although I feel most fans would complain he didn't sing every song live and it would be looked at similar to the HIStory Tour. But boy, was that an exciting time to be a fan. The adverts were so cool!!
 
Not touring America in early 1993 was a mistake. MJ was on top of the world at that point. AMA's, he reinvented the Super Bowl HT show, Oprah etc etc. If he toured America with the same energy and show that ruled the world in 1992, it would be a different story. Who knows how far his star would've risen. Definitely an opportunity to capitalise on that hype.

One Night Only would've been incredible, although I feel most fans would complain he didn't sing every song live and it would be looked at similar to the HIStory Tour. But boy, was that an exciting time to be a fan. The adverts were so cool!!
As I know, after the Super Bowl he had balloon under scalp, then removed it in the summer
 
I think Moonwalker was a missed opportunity. This goes hand in hand with what I really want to talk about that is acting. I really wish Michael honed and perfected his acting skills (took classes and what not) and really gave it a try. Watching the Variety Show, The Wiz and his short films MJ really had the potential to be a serious actor and a damn good movie producer and director on top of that. I believe MJ had so much to give when it came to movies. He was such a natural in front of the camera with a lot of charisma. I think he would excel taking on roles as a method actor.

Moonwalker I feel is such a missed opportunity.. Don't get me wrong, I love moonwalker, but he could have done so much more with that and made a movie 2 hour movie with a real plot and real characters with himself as the leading role. On top of that he could have recorded/produced a soundtrack for that movie. I know, that would have been hard considering the tour and everything.
 
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Not touring America in early 1993 was a mistake. MJ was on top of the world at that point. AMA's, he reinvented the Super Bowl HT show, Oprah etc etc. If he toured America with the same energy and show that ruled the world in 1992, it would be a different story. Who knows how far his star would've risen. Definitely an opportunity to capitalise on that hype.

One Night Only would've been incredible, although I feel most fans would complain he didn't sing every song live and it would be looked at similar to the HIStory Tour. But boy, was that an exciting time to be a fan. The adverts were so cool!!

I thought the HBO show was never rescheduled because Michael wasn't happy with the show, the reinvented routines for songs that Michael felt weren't as good as the original routines with the exception of the clock work orange slant added to Dangerous, if Michael had have set dates Dangerous tour dates for the USA it would have been amazing but we know the devil was at work that year and the dates wouldn't have been played due to what happened.
 
Not touring America in early 1993 was a mistake. MJ was on top of the world at that point. AMA's, he reinvented the Super Bowl HT show, Oprah etc etc. If he toured America with the same energy and show that ruled the world in 1992, it would be a different story. Who knows how far his star would've risen. Definitely an opportunity to capitalise on that hype.

The allegations put a stop to all that.. MJ had big plans for 1993.
 
Not touring America in early 1993 was a mistake. MJ was on top of the world at that point. AMA's, he reinvented the Super Bowl HT show, Oprah etc etc. If he toured America with the same energy and show that ruled the world in 1992, it would be a different story. Who knows how far his star would've risen. Definitely an opportunity to capitalise on that hype.

One Night Only would've been incredible, although I feel most fans would complain he didn't sing every song live and it would be looked at similar to the HIStory Tour. But boy, was that an exciting time to be a fan. The adverts were so cool!!


Can ya blame the man for not wanting to tour the USA ,THEY TREATED HIM LIKE DIRT THERE!
 
dam2040;4232673 said:
Not touring America in early 1993 was a mistake. MJ was on top of the world at that point. AMA's, he reinvented the Super Bowl HT show, Oprah etc etc. If he toured America with the same energy and show that ruled the world in 1992, it would be a different story. Who knows how far his star would've risen. Definitely an opportunity to capitalise on that hype.

Themidwestcowboy;4232709 said:
The allegations put a stop to all that.. MJ had big plans for 1993.

Robbsaber01;4232735 said:
Makes sense why he never toured in the U.S after that...

MJ never planned to tour in US during the Dangerous Tour (not before, not after the allegations).

His main goal at the time was to increase the sales of the ‘Dangerous’ album (apart from expanding even more his international success as an artist).

He knew that if he toured in US, the technically smaller US arenas would not really have boosted the sales of that album.

So, instead of touring in US, he decided to perform on the Super Bowl Halftime (because he mainly wanted people to see him through TV in countries that he never performed before), but also to appear on Oprah Winfrey’s Special.

MJ eventually did the right thing because the ‘Dangerous’ album climbed significantly on the Pop albums charts (along with the increase of its sales), but also he increased more his international success after those two appearances (the subsequent Dangerous Tour Asian performances helped, too).

Not touring in US at that time was not seen as a missed opportunity.

Zeus7;4232708 said:
I thought the HBO show was never rescheduled because Michael wasn't happy with the show, the reinvented routines for songs that Michael felt weren't as good as the original routines with the exception of the clock work orange slant added to Dangerous, if Michael had have set dates Dangerous tour dates for the USA it would have been amazing but we know the devil was at work that year and the dates wouldn't have been played due to what happened.

dam2040;4232673 said:
One Night Only would've been incredible, although I feel most fans would complain he didn't sing every song live and it would be looked at similar to the HIStory Tour. But boy, was that an exciting time to be a fan. The adverts were so cool!!

MJ did not re-schedule the HBO ‘One Night Only’ performance because he had other, more important projects under way (shooting new music videos for the ‘HIStory’ album, preparing for an upcoming giant world tour, among others).

By the way, a little bird told me that people who run MJ’s Estate do not know where the tape of those HBO rehearsals is located.

This, of course, is really sad for his fans because it makes the chances of watching that footage even slimmer.
 
Can ya blame the man for not wanting to tour the USA ,THEY TREATED HIM LIKE DIRT THERE!

I am 100% agreement with your statement. As per my personal opinion US never treated Michael well. (I am not talking about the fans) He was such a asset, they should have protected him. He did what ever possible as a responsible citizen to his country by various charities but what he got in return? Therefore we can not blame him for not touring much in US. But I agree that it was a miss opportunity for him in his career which was beyond his control due to circumstances.
 
mj_frenzy;4232743 said:
MJ never planned to tour in US during the Dangerous Tour (not before, not after the allegations).

His main goal at the time was to increase the sales of the ‘Dangerous’ album (apart from expanding even more his international success as an artist).

He knew that if he toured in US, the technically smaller US arenas would not really have boosted the sales of that album.

So, instead of touring in US, he decided to perform on the Super Bowl Halftime (because he mainly wanted people to see him through TV in countries that he never performed before), but also to appear on Oprah Winfrey’s Special.

MJ eventually did the right thing because the ‘Dangerous’ album climbed significantly on the Pop albums charts (along with the increase of its sales), but also he increased more his international success after those two appearances (the subsequent Dangerous Tour Asian performances helped, too).

Not touring in US at that time was not seen as a missed opportunity.





MJ did not re-schedule the HBO ‘One Night Only’ performance because he had other, more important projects under way (shooting new music videos for the ‘HIStory’ album, preparing for an upcoming giant world tour, among others).

By the way, a little bird told me that people who run MJ’s Estate do not know where the tape of those HBO rehearsals is located.

This, of course, is really sad for his fans because it makes the chances of watching that footage even slimmer.

Yes, it seems like it. Those HBO rehearsals were confirmed to be filmed and given to Michael. The whereabouts of these rare footage is still a mystery. I guess it'll be a big discovery if ever it will located...in this lifetime.
 
mj_frenzy;4232743 said:
MJ never planned to tour in US during the Dangerous Tour (not before, not after the allegations).

His main goal at the time was to increase the sales of the ‘Dangerous’ album (apart from expanding even more his international success as an artist).

He knew that if he toured in US, the technically smaller US arenas would not really have boosted the sales of that album.

So, instead of touring in US, he decided to perform on the Super Bowl Halftime (because he mainly wanted people to see him through TV in countries that he never performed before), but also to appear on Oprah Winfrey’s Special.

MJ eventually did the right thing because the ‘Dangerous’ album climbed significantly on the Pop albums charts (along with the increase of its sales), but also he increased more his international success after those two appearances (the subsequent Dangerous Tour Asian performances helped, too).

Not touring in US at that time was not seen as a missed opportunity.





MJ did not re-schedule the HBO ‘One Night Only’ performance because he had other, more important projects under way (shooting new music videos for the ‘HIStory’ album, preparing for an upcoming giant world tour, among others).

By the way, a little bird told me that people who run MJ’s Estate do not know where the tape of those HBO rehearsals is located.

This, of course, is really sad for his fans because it makes the chances of watching that footage even slimmer.

LaVelle Smith has the tapes. He's already shared some of it. He's the one behind some of the recent concert leaks.
 
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