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How did Heartbreak Hotel end up on a Jackson's album?

analogue

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I've always considered this song to be a Michael Jackson song, but it's somehow on a Jackson's album. Did Michael ever consider it for one of his solo albums but couldn't find a place for it so he put it on the Triumph album instead? But I'm glad it exists regardless of what album it's on
 
Still a very good question though. Michael considers it one of his first really well written songs so to use them for the Jacksons project is quite odd especially after his breakthrough with Off the Wall.
He then later did the opposite by not releasing his best solo work for Victory (Liberian Girl, Buffalo Bill and possibly Dirty Diana?)
A case could also be made for Be Not Always unless Marlon takes most of the credit for that song. It is probably also a bad example as it is one of his least popular songs (based on Spotify streams) so if the fans consider it a throwaway, then maybe so did Michael at the time?

It would have been interesting to know about his thought process but unfortunately he was never really asked questions about things that I find very interesting lol
 
filmandmusic said:
He then later did the opposite by not releasing his best solo work for Victory (Liberian Girl, Buffalo Bill and possibly Dirty Diana?)
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And thank god those songs weren't wasted on the Victory album
 
DuranDuran said:
How did Yesterday wind up on a Beatles album? The only member on it is Paul. A lot of groups have songs where all of the members are not on them.
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Difference there is that Paul hadn't released a super sucessful solo album like Off The Wall during that time.
 
analogue said:
Difference there is that Paul hadn't released a super successful solo album like Off The Wall during that time.
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Phil Collins had a successful solo career, yet remained a member of Genesis. Phil even did session work on others albums during this time. While not as popular as Phil, another member of Genesis (Mike Rutherford) had some success with Mike + The Mechanics. He remained in Genesis too.
 
I don't see the song fitting on any of his solo albums during that time but Victory would've been a nice addition.
 
filmandmusic said:
Still a very good question though. Michael considers it one of his first really well written songs so to use them for the Jacksons project is quite odd especially after his breakthrough with Off the Wall.
He then later did the opposite by not releasing his best solo work for Victory (Liberian Girl, Buffalo Bill and possibly Dirty Diana?)
A case could also be made for Be Not Always unless Marlon takes most of the credit for that song. It is probably also a bad example as it is one of his least popular songs (based on Spotify streams) so if the fans consider it a throwaway, then maybe so did Michael at the time?

It would have been interesting to know about his thought process but unfortunately he was never really asked questions about things that I find very interesting lol
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I posted this clip in another thread but I guess it's also at it's place here; I think Michael didn't have any plans of going totally solo at that time yet:
 
Off topic: Now that I am watching sttuff from OTW; at 04:40 his vitiligo really shines through.. damn :(
 
I would have loved Heartbreak Hotel to have been on either Off The Wall or Thriller.
 
He really loved that song , I remember him talking to Dionne Collins about it , it was one of the first ones he did with different sounds as he put it , he performed it a lot too i think until the early 90s
 
Niteline said:
I would have loved Heartbreak Hotel to have been on either Off The Wall or Thriller.
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I don't see where a song like that would fit on Off The Wall, and Thriller (the song) already sounds similar to Heartbreak Hotel. It's been said that it was Heartbreak Hotel that inspired Rod Temperton to write Thriller
 
Andymachine said:
He really loved that song , I remember him talking to Dionne Collins about it , it was one of the first ones he did with different sounds as he put it , he performed it a lot too i think until the early 90s
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When/where did he perform it in the 90s? I've never seen or heard that
 
I think Heartbreak Hotel was special to Michael, I think it being almost hidden on Triumph is the reason he kept all those demo's off of Victory years later. Mike didn't want history to repeat itself

I always wonder what it would have been like it had it have replaced say Girlfriend on Off The Wall. It would fit right in. Heartbreak Hotel is such a fantastic song
 
In the interview he did with Tito in 1982 (thread by @83magic) Michael states that he wants his solo stuff to sound different then the Jacksons stuff. With this in mind I don’t believe heartbreak hotel would have fitted on either off the wall or thriller. So it is perfectly possible Michael for whatever reason thought it was more fitting to be a Jacksons song.

I personally think it sounds completely different than what is on both those albums.

It are all valid questions and I would love to know answers to it but alas.
 
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