JichaelMackson;4282641 said:
What was MJ thinking when he thought this was a nice publicity stunt? Well it was a good stunt but it was also very arrogant. You just know you're gonna get negative press for doing something like that.
That cover art is HIStory is just awful.
Michael Jackson did not care if the HIStory Statue was a good or a bad publicity stunt.
He only cared about the desired result of that publicity stunt, which was to gain people’s attention.
He wanted everybody’s attention around him and also to create controversy about him with the HIStory Statue on the album’s cover and generally with the overall promotion of that album.
He admitted that to Diane Sawyer in 1995, when he also expressed his satisfaction that he achieved that goal and people fell into his trap.
JichaelMackson;4282657 said:
The greatest hits inclusion was just done out of fear the new material would flop.
dethorro;4282676 said:
So, the inclusion of the greatest hits has nothing to do with anybody having doubts about the new material.
Actually, Sony Music had serious doubts about the quality and commercial potential of the new songs, and they forced him to include the first disc with his 15 greatest hits songs.
JichaelMackson;4282663 said:
The album should have opened with "childhood" and the ending with "smile" was perfect closure.
‘Scream’ is the perfect choice as an opening track on the ‘HIStory’ album, because it sets the tone for the rest of the album (an album which is generally aggressive and energetic).
Besides, if you see his opening tracks on his adult studio albums, you will realize that Michael Jackson always wanted to open his albums with energetic tracks.
But it should be noted that the American producer Jimmy Jam helped him a lot with the order of the new songs on the second disc.
Michael Jackson only knew where to place three songs: ‘Scream’ (first position), ‘Come Together’ (in the middle), and ‘Smile’ (final position).
The rest of the songs’ order on the second disc was due to Jimmy Jam’s help, who also helps a lot his sister Janet Jackson with the order of her songs in her studio albums.
As Jimmy Jam also revealed in his interviews, he even comes up with the order of songs (on certain studio albums that he works on) during his very long driving hours in the American highways.