Latest on MJJC

What songs didn't make it onto XSCAPE?

SmoothCriminal1995 said:
I never understood the criteria for the 24 songs LA Reid spoke of.
In the Xscape documentary, he said
"I made a rule for myself, I'm only interested in songs he (Michael) sang multiple times, from top to bottom"

If that's the case, how on earth did Love Never Felt So Good end up on the album, let alone be first single as Mike clearly only sung it once. The same could be said for Loving You.

So perhaps LA Reid picked 24 songs, he liked and felt that could be contemporised. Also the Estate had access to
Click to expand...
Branca and McClain had an input. I think it was like LA picking one, then having Branca and McClain say yes or no to it.
 
dethorro said:
I was also there, did you see me waving? Tomboy is said to be a demo of Who Do You Know. Michael re-wrote it in 1980 and then again in 81’ before it became Behind The Mask.
Click to expand...
Why u are joking
 
SmoothGangsta said:
The whole LA Reid thing was pure marketing imo. It sounds nice that he personally went through and picked his favourite tracks but that didn't happen lol. They just used stuff they already pulled out for the Michael album.
Click to expand...
That's how I read it too mate. I think the thing about them being sung top to bottom, is just a good way of saying they're complete and Mike would've been willing to release them

I remember a year before Xscape came out, Paul Anka done an interview were he claimed LNFSG was going to be on the next album.
I wonder if the Estate made a deal with him , after the whole This Is It thing was resolved, to release LNFSG
 
SmoothGangsta said:
I'd assume Lovely Way was one of them, and we can probably consider any other song we know is mostly complete. I honestly don't think it was as organised as they made it out to be in marketing when it came to the songs considered. It sounds nice if "LA Reid selected the very best tracks" but I doubt that's how it went lol.
Click to expand...
Lovely Way registered more as a Michael outtake to me. I don't think they've done anything with it and left it in the vault.

Who Do You Know definitely was a shoe in though. I think they've mentioned Work That Body was one of the outtakes as well.

Imagine what they might've did with Serious Effect.
 
AlwaysThere said:
It's insanely suspicious that six of the eight songs have been available online for eons, and half the track listing was also in the running for inclusion Michael in 2010 ("Love Never Felt So Good," "Chicago," "Slave to the Rhythm," "Do You Know Where Your Children Are").
Click to expand...
Because they were complete songs mainly?

I doubt it can be more complicated than that. Some songs made it, some songs did not. And The Anka tracks are better than people give them credit for, from a quality perspective. It's not MJ standards exactly, but they're proper takes of songs at least.
 
mj_frenzy said:
@AlwaysThere, these 24 songs were the vocally completed songs.

Check also what L.A. Reid explained on TODAY.

"As Reid explained on TODAY Tuesday, he had hundreds of unreleased songs to choose from [for the 'Xscape' album]. He said he looked for vocals 'that had great melodies that would still stand up today', adding that he was more likely to select songs with multiple takes from Jackson" (Randee Dawn, TODAY, 2014)

After all, they combed through 4 decades of Michael Jackson's vaults, so discovering hundreds of vocally incomplete, unreleased songs should not come as a surprise.
Click to expand...
He's not exactly wrong for once. But he's spinning it to sound more like they listened to each and every 1 of the hundred songs, rather than just going through the vaults, locating songs with vocals, and then working them into "workable" shape.

More knowingly, it's easier to just say L.A. Reid worked on whatever spoke to him and that he really liked. And of course that included the song he made, lol. Done up in a 90s reminiscent homage that doesn't sound very different from the demo.
 
Last edited:
mj_frenzy said:
@AlwaysThere, these 24 songs were the vocally completed songs.

Check also what L.A. Reid explained on TODAY.

"As Reid explained on TODAY Tuesday, he had hundreds of unreleased songs to choose from [for the 'Xscape' album]. He said he looked for vocals 'that had great melodies that would still stand up today', adding that he was more likely to select songs with multiple takes from Jackson" (Randee Dawn, TODAY, 2014)

After all, they combed through 4 decades of Michael Jackson's vaults, so discovering hundreds of vocally incomplete, unreleased songs should not come as a surprise.
Click to expand...
Yes, but that’s not what you said. You said that “hundreds of songs” were considered for the album. Listening to songs to determine their completion doesn’t qualify as considering them.
 
Hess said:
I think The Estate wanted to release already leaked songs with Xscape. - to some degree a smart decision actually. - The songs were great too.

I hope - and think - next album will have more unknown songs.
Click to expand...
If The Estate still has the same mind set as before, meaning that they want already leaked songs to be released first, this hope could be in vane.

As the leaking of unheard material didn’t stop since then:

-TYLA
-GYWOOM
-Chicago1945
-DreamAway
-all the unfinished demos from the seminars, like Ghost Of Another Love, Deep In The Night, Jane, Family Thing..
 
Last edited:
MJJuniorSinceMW said:
If The Estate still has the same mind set as before, meaning that they want already leaked songs to be released first, this hope could be in vane.

As the leaking of unheard material didn’t stop since then:

-TYLA
-GYWOOM
-Chicago1945
-DreamAway
-all the unfinished demos from the seminars, like Ghost Of Another Love, Deep In The Night, Jane, Family Thing..
Click to expand...
They definitely need Hot Street to reach as many audiences as possible. Unless Thriller 50 is gonna be huge.... In 10 Years.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top