When was "Little Susie" actually recorded?

[Maxym]

There is a "so-called" 1978 demo of it out there on YouTube and some YouTuber(s) relayed this fact, but it's disputed.
A very old post on this forum say that it's a "Dangerous" leftover which was recorded in 1991
Other sources mention 1994 or 1995.

After believing in the 1978 theory for a while... re-listening to the song, the voice, I would say that anywhere from 1991 to 1995 makes more sense.
Especially listening and switching between "She's out of my life", "The lady in my life", "Goon too soon", "Little Susie" and "Childhood". I think the voice in "Little Susie" feels closer to "Childhood"

Any better reliable info?

[SmoothGangsta]

There is in fact a very early version Little Susie from that period. It hasn't leaked so any on youtube are fake. The version as presented on HIStory was very likely completed in those sessions and the vocals are clearly from that time imo.

[NatureCriminal7896]

I believe that's fake. even though there is little story about little girl at the time who died. it could be a chance michael got his idea for little susie from that story. i think little susie was recorded during the dangerous era but didn't get released until the history album.

[NatureCriminal7896]

Michael has alot unrelease songs especially during the dangerous era. he wanted to release them so bad but they kept getting decline. like someone put your hand out. awesome song but didn't get release on to the album.

like many fans, i hope we will get all his unrelease songs on an album one day.

[Maxym]

I know the theories that is came from newspaper.

J.D. from "HIStory in the mix" had some hypothesis:
https://youtu.be/MLLIJWmN2iw?t=274

According to him, it would be inspired by that song from the Beatles:

I'm not sure, it could make sense...

That doesn't exclude that there may have been a (newspaper) story as well.

There are other songs by rock and rock-n-roll bands name Wake up Little Susie, Little Suzi, but I see no relation with Little Susie.

Also, Little Susie conspiracies and theories... there as some parts that I don't get and I need to go to sleep:


But, digressing...

[Maxym]

someone put your hand out. awesome song but didn't get release on to the album.

There is actually a more technical reason why "any song" wasn't added to the album ... Dangerous is already 77 minutes. Maximum length for standard CDs is 80 minutes.
Some longer CDs may exist, probably CD-Rs I guess, but they are not guaranteed to work on CD players.
Maybe he wanted to put it on the album, but he should have removed something...

I also remember an interview where he said that he would have had enough song to make HIStory a triple CD, but that he wanted "the kids" to be able to afford it.
I must say that when I heard that, I was disappointed, I was young (not sure the age limit for "kid"), but I would have happyly afforded a 3-CD HIStory :-)

I don't remember hearing that his songs got refused.

[NatureCriminal7896]

he wanted to do it for Bad too. alot michael songs are longer than their actually are. they had to cut some songs from thriller as well because they where too long like billie jean. michael mostly got upset when he had to cut his songs and short films short.

[SmoothGangsta]

There is a 1978 song called "Susie" that has a copyright registered, I assumed that was the earliest version of Little Susie which is why I said it exists in my first post, but I guess it could also be a totally different song. It's possible MJ wrote it back then and then didn't record in until HIStory.

[SmoothGangsta]

Someone on another forum also pointed out to me that MJ took some of this poem for the lyrics as well.

Take her up tenderly,
Lift her with care;
Fashion’d so slenderly,
Young, and so fair !

https://www.poetsgraves.co.uk/Classi...e_of_sighs.htm

[NatureCriminal7896]

oh wow i didn't know that. michael was fan of poetry so he probably got some his lyrics from that poem.

[Fuzball]

There is a 1978 song called "Susie" that has a copyright registered, I assumed that was the earliest version of Little Susie which is why I said it exists in my first post, but I guess it could also be a totally different song. It's possible MJ wrote it back then and then didn't record in until HIStory.

Correct. Handwritten lyrics for LS from ca. 1977/78 do exist. The 1978 registered song is most likely LS we know - but have we no proof for this yet.

[OnirMJ]

Susie - recorded 1978

Little Susie - recorded 1994

It's the same song. Susie never leaked so everything you find online is fake. This is what Damien Shields who heard it said about the songs. He is very credible source.

"It's interesting which vault tracks got revisited and which didn't. Like Little Susie. Originally done in 1978, yet it never made Off The Wall, Thriller, Bad or Dangerous, but found its way onto HIStory. The original Little Susie is practically identical to the 1995 version too. It’s the same song. Everything was re-done for HIStory, but the 1978 version is almost identical. It’s on a black TDK cassette with “Susie, Michael Jackson © 1978” on the label. Copyrighted by Karen Langford on behalf of Mijac Music in 1984."

[NatureCriminal7896]

so this means little susie was probably was based off the little girl murder during that time. michael claim he got some of his songs ideas from the newspaper. like bad.

[Hess]

Would be very interesting to hear Little Susie sung with MJ's vocals in 1978. Would have sounded a lot different I think. His singing style was also a bit different in 1978 than it was in 1994/1995 when I guess the song we know was recorded.

[mj_frenzy]

Michael Jackson drew inspiration for his ‘Little Susie’ song from the works of Gottfried Helnwein.

Gottfried Helnwein used to depict in his visual works abused, wounded and neglected children.

Michael Jackson felt the pain of these children and he was moved by Gottfried Helnwein’s dark, visual arts and paintings (about children) due to his own very difficult childhood, so he began to create that song based on these works.

Look, for example, at the artwork of ‘Little Susie’ (in the ‘HIStory’ album booklet) which was clearly inspired by Gottfried Helnwein’s ‘Beautiful Victim’ painting.

The original song (written in 1978-1979) has a slightly different title (‘Little Suzy’), and the singer recorded the song for the first time in the early '90s for inclusion on the ‘Dangerous’ album (he did not consider the song for inclusion on earlier albums, like, ‘Off The Wall’, ‘Thriller’, or ‘BAD’.