The day had come for Michael to put the lead on 'Keep the Faith,' he sang the first and second verses, and then he disappeared. It was very unlike Michael. I found him standing in the corner of his office crying his eyes out. He was absolutely heartbroken, cut to the quick. I told him, 'Michael, it's not that big a deal, I'll just record it in the other key.' We'd tried two keys and, unfortunately, picked the wrong one. He was really upset. I told him, 'Michael, we've got to face this right now.' I called the synth player and programmer. I felt we had to get the right key and get Michael to face it before it turned into something ugly. I thought we'd have a major, major problem, I was visualizing headlines. I told him, 'Pull yourself together, face this now.' And it was late. I said, 'We're not going home until you've sung this all the way through. Then we'll go home and be able to sleep and continue.' That was scary. But he did it. He pulled himself together. We went in the studio, cut a whole new demo and recorded a scratch vocal all way through. A situation like that could have been a real block. We didn't leave studio till dawn.
- Bruce Swedien, January 1992