Beethoven gets Dangerous: Book reveals Michael Jackson’s use of classical music in hit songs

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* Author focuses particularly on two of Jackson’s best-selling albums, 1991’s Dangerous and 1995’s HIStory, both of which feature numerous classical-music samples
* Jackson had the biggest-selling classical piece — using Beethoven’s ninth symphony on Dangerous


DUBAI: He’s often referred to as the King of Pop, but a new book suggests the late Michael Jackson may also have been history’s most-prolific seller of songs incorporating classical music.
London-based choreographer, author and professional Michael Jackson impersonator Anthony King is in the process of writing a six-book series on the pop legend. In “Michael Jackson and Classical Music,” released this week, King argues that the entertainer’s extensive use of classical music (which King told Arab News “literally no one on earth seems to have noticed”) likely means that MJ sold “more albums which incorporated classical music than any other person in history, as well as having the single biggest-selling album incorporating a classical composition.”
The book, King said, “is full of exclusives that have never been discussed publicly before. It’s shocking that this is not (widely) known.”

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King focuses particularly on two of Jackson’s best-selling albums, 1991’s “Dangerous” and 1995’s “HIStory,” both of which feature numerous classical-music samples. “Will You Be There?” from “Dangerous,” for example, includes a segment of Beethoven’s “Symphony No.9,” while “Little Susie,” off “HIStory,” has “Pie Jesu” for an intro. King cites numerous other examples of Jackson’s use of classical tunes, mentioning composers including Carl Orff, Modest Mussorgsky, and Miklós Rózsa. King believes sales of the two albums, including downloads, would total around 76.6 million.
“Michael Jackson exposed more people to classical music, live, during his “HIStory” world tour — about 4.5 million — than five years’ worth of sold-out performances at (New York’s) Carnegie Hall,” King continued. “When you think of classical musicians, you think of Luciano Pavarotti or Andrea Bocelli. But Jackson really did have the biggest-selling classical piece — (by) using Beethoven’s ninth symphony on ‘Dangerous.’

He would put these classical pieces within the songs and no one really noticed them. It was shocking to me.”
King said his book series on Jackson is motivated by “setting the historical record straight.”
“I met Michael many times, so I can put the truth out there and it cannot really be disputed,” he said. “I can exclusively reveal that Michael played classical music through the speaker system in his Neverland estate. One of the pieces was (Carl) Bach’s ‘Sonata for Flute in A-minor.’
“I can state the facts and I can state the evidence clearly,” King continued. “(That) is essentially what I am doing with my books.”

http://www.arabnews.com/node/1354666/books
 
Very interesting.

I know Michael loved classical music, and I always enjoyed it when he incorporated it into his music. I might get this book.
 
Hmmm...not very exclusive so far,and he's an impersonator,so used to copying things fans expect,but already know.
 
MJ’s favourite classical piece of all time was Claude Debussy’s, 'Prelude To The Afternoon Of A Faun', as he confessed to his fans outside Mohamed Al-Fayed’s house in London (in 1999).

Apart from his albums, MJ also used classical pieces for other projects as well (HIStory video teaser shot in Budapest, on-stage entrance with his brothers in the MSG 2001 shows, second leg of the BAD Tour right before ‘Wanna Be Startin' Somethin’, etc).

Also, it has been already widely known that MJ used to play classical music through the speaker system in his Neverland estate. Dozens of reports & accounts over the years (since the late 80s) had already revealed that before Anthony King’s so-called exclusive reveal.

During his final months, MJ was considering making an album entirely filled with classical music.

That instrumental album was apparently a big dream for him at that time, apart from the ‘This Is It’ Tour & and a new studio album of mostly pop tracks.

Musician David Michael Frank, who spoke with MJ in person in April (2009), revealed that MJ chose him in order to orchestrate the classical pieces that MJ himself was writing for that album.
 
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