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"New" Michael Jackson single a "mistake"
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – Michael Jackson didn't do it his way after all.
Hours after the pop singer's first posthumous single "This Is It" was released amid great hype on Monday, it emerged that the tune had been recorded 18 years ago by an obscure Puerto Rican singer.
Moreover the co-author of that tune, "My Way" songwriter Paul Anka, threatened to sue Jackson's estate for proper credit and his share of royalties.
The administrators of the estate quickly acknowledged Anka's claims and granted him 50 percent of the copyright, a potentially massive payday for the 68-year-old Canadian crooner. And an equally massive loss for the estate.
"They realize it's a mistake, they realize it's my song, they realize it's my production of his vocal in my studio and I am getting 50 percent of the whole project, actually, which is fair," Anka said in a video posted on the TMZ gossip Web site.
The song dates back to 1983, when it was known as "I Never Heard" -- a co-write between Jackson and Anka -- and intended for inclusion on an Anka album. But the pair fell out, Jackson took the master tapes and Anka got them back.
The song was eventually released in 1991 after Anka placed it with an unknown Latin singer named Sa-Fire.
Both "I Never Heard" and "This Is It" share the same vocal and piano line, although the latter track boasts new overdubs from Jackson's brothers.
But "This Is It" had been promoted as a new Jackson recording, one of a multitude of unreleased recordings likely to come out in the next few years.
It was released online around the world nearly four months after the singer died in Los Angeles of a prescription drug overdose at the age of 50.
Fans will be able to buy it when a two-disc album hits the shelves in two
weeks to coincide with the October 28 worldwide release of the Jackson rehearsal-footage movie "This is It."
LYRICS FIT THE BILL
"The song was picked because the lyrics were appropriate because of the name Michael gave his tour," said a spokesman for Jackson's estate. "We are thrilled to present this song in Michael's voice for the first time, and that Michael's fans have responded in unprecedented numbers. The song was co-written by the legendary Paul Anka."
A spokeswoman for Sony Music declined to comment. One of the estate's two administrators, John McClain, worked with Jackson at the Sony Corp unit. The other executor is music attorney John Branca.
McClain, who is also a co-producer of the "This is It" album, had said in a statement earlier on Monday that the song "only defines, once again, what the world already knows -- that Michael is one of God's greatest gifts."
Some critics begged to differ. Jon Pareles, the chief pop critic of The New York Times, said in a blog it "won't be on anyone's list of best Michael Jackson songs, even if it's a long list" and hoped there was something better in the Michael Jackson vaults of album outtakes.
The "This Is It" movie is based on rehearsal video shot in Los Angeles in the weeks before Jackson's planned 50 comeback concerts in London. It was the subject of a $60 million deal between Jackson's estate and closely held concert promoter AEG Live and Sony's Sony Pictures unit.
Sales of Jackson's records spiked after his death and the release of the movie and album will add to the value of the "Thriller" singer's estate, estimated at around $400 million.
Sony Music said the first disc of the album will feature some of Jackson's greatest hits plus two versions of the "new" single.
The second disc will include unreleased versions of some of the singer's classic tracks and a spoken word poem entitled "Planet Earth" performed by Jackson and never heard before.
(Reporting by Jill Serjeant and Dean Goodman; editing by Bill Trott) (To read more about our entertainment news, visit our blog)
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20091013/en_nm/us_jackson
Continue to vote for Michael here =) http://www.askmen.com/specials/2009_top_49/michael-jackson-6.html
2009 was supposed to bring some much-needed polish to Michael Jackson's career. In March, the King of Pop announced that he was preparing This Is It, an ambitious 50-date concert series in London, England. On June 25, everything changed.
A few weeks shy of his first comeback concert, the world was stunned to learn of Michael Jackson's passing. Search engines overflowed, entertainment blogs were overloaded and news networks ran tributes around the clock. A memorial celebration was watched by an estimated one billion people worldwide and featured all-star performances from the likes of Jennifer Hudson, John Mayer, Mariah Carey, and Usher, as well as a moving impromptu speech from his surviving daughter, Paris Katherine Jackson.
Michael Jackson and his much-publicized personal struggles were suddenly gone, but his musical popularity went through the roof. Within six weeks of his death, close to four million of his albums were sold in U.S. stores alone, while millions more songs were bought online.
As a curtain call to the concert series that never was, the rehearsal footage from This Is It was turned into a concert film and released worldwide in October, giving his fans a close look at just what he was working on in the days leading up to his untimely exit.
http://www.askmen.com/specials/2009_top_49/michael-jackson-6.html
Reminder:
unk:
MICHAEL JACKSON FAN TO DANCE FOR ICON
Fans of late pop star Michael Jackson can compete for the chance to dance at next year's official Michael Jackson tribute show.
Michael Jackson fans can compete for the chance to dance in front of his family.
New TV show 'Move Like Michael Jackson' will start filming in the UK later this month and contestants will battle it out for the chance to star in an official tribute concert for the late pop star in front of the Jackson family.
A spokesman for the BBC3 series said: "The winner won't necessarily be the dancer who mimics Michael Jackson's choreography, but rather someone who can move like him, creating and inventing iconic steps and styles."
Auditions will begin in the next few weeks in front of Mark Summers, the choreographer who chose the dance group for the singer's sold-out 'This Is It' London shows.
Once the thousands of contenders have been cut down, 16 finalists will be reduced to six by Michael's brother Jermaine, Mark and another as-yet unnamed judge.
The contestants will be trained by Michael's personal choreographer Lavelle Smith Jr and the show will be aired later this year.
The lucky six will then compete in a live final due to be aired later this year and again at the tribute concert being planned in London next June.
Meanwhile, it has been revealed Michael's new track 'This Is It' - the first song released since his death - was co-written by Paul Anka.
It was originally called 'I Never Heard' and was recorded by artist Safire, who released it in 1990.
John Branca - a co-executor of Michael's estate - has acknowledged the track was co-written by Anka, who will reportedly get 50 per cent of the publishing rights.
Branca told website TMZ: "We acknowledge that Michael and Paul wrote this song together."
Anka said: "They did the right thing. I don't think that anybody tried to do the wrong thing. It was an honest mistake."
http://www.contactmusic.com/news.nsf/story/michael-jackson-fan-to-dance-for-icon_1118869
The rest of the news is basically about the SONG! But we have more than many enough threads about that issue...
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – Michael Jackson didn't do it his way after all.
Hours after the pop singer's first posthumous single "This Is It" was released amid great hype on Monday, it emerged that the tune had been recorded 18 years ago by an obscure Puerto Rican singer.
Moreover the co-author of that tune, "My Way" songwriter Paul Anka, threatened to sue Jackson's estate for proper credit and his share of royalties.
The administrators of the estate quickly acknowledged Anka's claims and granted him 50 percent of the copyright, a potentially massive payday for the 68-year-old Canadian crooner. And an equally massive loss for the estate.
"They realize it's a mistake, they realize it's my song, they realize it's my production of his vocal in my studio and I am getting 50 percent of the whole project, actually, which is fair," Anka said in a video posted on the TMZ gossip Web site.
The song dates back to 1983, when it was known as "I Never Heard" -- a co-write between Jackson and Anka -- and intended for inclusion on an Anka album. But the pair fell out, Jackson took the master tapes and Anka got them back.
The song was eventually released in 1991 after Anka placed it with an unknown Latin singer named Sa-Fire.
Both "I Never Heard" and "This Is It" share the same vocal and piano line, although the latter track boasts new overdubs from Jackson's brothers.
But "This Is It" had been promoted as a new Jackson recording, one of a multitude of unreleased recordings likely to come out in the next few years.
It was released online around the world nearly four months after the singer died in Los Angeles of a prescription drug overdose at the age of 50.
Fans will be able to buy it when a two-disc album hits the shelves in two
weeks to coincide with the October 28 worldwide release of the Jackson rehearsal-footage movie "This is It."
LYRICS FIT THE BILL
"The song was picked because the lyrics were appropriate because of the name Michael gave his tour," said a spokesman for Jackson's estate. "We are thrilled to present this song in Michael's voice for the first time, and that Michael's fans have responded in unprecedented numbers. The song was co-written by the legendary Paul Anka."
A spokeswoman for Sony Music declined to comment. One of the estate's two administrators, John McClain, worked with Jackson at the Sony Corp unit. The other executor is music attorney John Branca.
McClain, who is also a co-producer of the "This is It" album, had said in a statement earlier on Monday that the song "only defines, once again, what the world already knows -- that Michael is one of God's greatest gifts."
Some critics begged to differ. Jon Pareles, the chief pop critic of The New York Times, said in a blog it "won't be on anyone's list of best Michael Jackson songs, even if it's a long list" and hoped there was something better in the Michael Jackson vaults of album outtakes.
The "This Is It" movie is based on rehearsal video shot in Los Angeles in the weeks before Jackson's planned 50 comeback concerts in London. It was the subject of a $60 million deal between Jackson's estate and closely held concert promoter AEG Live and Sony's Sony Pictures unit.
Sales of Jackson's records spiked after his death and the release of the movie and album will add to the value of the "Thriller" singer's estate, estimated at around $400 million.
Sony Music said the first disc of the album will feature some of Jackson's greatest hits plus two versions of the "new" single.
The second disc will include unreleased versions of some of the singer's classic tracks and a spoken word poem entitled "Planet Earth" performed by Jackson and never heard before.
(Reporting by Jill Serjeant and Dean Goodman; editing by Bill Trott) (To read more about our entertainment news, visit our blog)
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20091013/en_nm/us_jackson
Continue to vote for Michael here =) http://www.askmen.com/specials/2009_top_49/michael-jackson-6.html
2009 was supposed to bring some much-needed polish to Michael Jackson's career. In March, the King of Pop announced that he was preparing This Is It, an ambitious 50-date concert series in London, England. On June 25, everything changed.
A few weeks shy of his first comeback concert, the world was stunned to learn of Michael Jackson's passing. Search engines overflowed, entertainment blogs were overloaded and news networks ran tributes around the clock. A memorial celebration was watched by an estimated one billion people worldwide and featured all-star performances from the likes of Jennifer Hudson, John Mayer, Mariah Carey, and Usher, as well as a moving impromptu speech from his surviving daughter, Paris Katherine Jackson.
Michael Jackson and his much-publicized personal struggles were suddenly gone, but his musical popularity went through the roof. Within six weeks of his death, close to four million of his albums were sold in U.S. stores alone, while millions more songs were bought online.
As a curtain call to the concert series that never was, the rehearsal footage from This Is It was turned into a concert film and released worldwide in October, giving his fans a close look at just what he was working on in the days leading up to his untimely exit.
http://www.askmen.com/specials/2009_top_49/michael-jackson-6.html
Reminder:
unk:MICHAEL JACKSON FAN TO DANCE FOR ICON
Fans of late pop star Michael Jackson can compete for the chance to dance at next year's official Michael Jackson tribute show.
Michael Jackson fans can compete for the chance to dance in front of his family.
New TV show 'Move Like Michael Jackson' will start filming in the UK later this month and contestants will battle it out for the chance to star in an official tribute concert for the late pop star in front of the Jackson family.
A spokesman for the BBC3 series said: "The winner won't necessarily be the dancer who mimics Michael Jackson's choreography, but rather someone who can move like him, creating and inventing iconic steps and styles."
Auditions will begin in the next few weeks in front of Mark Summers, the choreographer who chose the dance group for the singer's sold-out 'This Is It' London shows.
Once the thousands of contenders have been cut down, 16 finalists will be reduced to six by Michael's brother Jermaine, Mark and another as-yet unnamed judge.
The contestants will be trained by Michael's personal choreographer Lavelle Smith Jr and the show will be aired later this year.
The lucky six will then compete in a live final due to be aired later this year and again at the tribute concert being planned in London next June.
Meanwhile, it has been revealed Michael's new track 'This Is It' - the first song released since his death - was co-written by Paul Anka.
It was originally called 'I Never Heard' and was recorded by artist Safire, who released it in 1990.
John Branca - a co-executor of Michael's estate - has acknowledged the track was co-written by Anka, who will reportedly get 50 per cent of the publishing rights.
Branca told website TMZ: "We acknowledge that Michael and Paul wrote this song together."
Anka said: "They did the right thing. I don't think that anybody tried to do the wrong thing. It was an honest mistake."
http://www.contactmusic.com/news.nsf/story/michael-jackson-fan-to-dance-for-icon_1118869
The rest of the news is basically about the SONG! But we have more than many enough threads about that issue...
Today in
Michael Jackson History
1979 - Michael Jackson's single "Don't Stop 'Til You Get Enough" hit #1 in the U.S. and #3 in the U.K.
Michael Jackson History
1979 - Michael Jackson's single "Don't Stop 'Til You Get Enough" hit #1 in the U.S. and #3 in the U.K.
1995 - Michael Jackson's single "You Are Not Alone" was certified Gold and Platinum.
