Prince's cover of BAD (1986) [still unreleased]

[ChrisC]

I don't think this has anything to do about insecurities but just common sense. You have to remember that these two were put up against each other and like it or not they had a rivalry going on. The right thing to do would to have a song and a music video written by the both of them. Do you think Michael would ever accept such a thing if it was the other way around?

Ok maybe The Girl Is Mine isn't a good example but IJCSLY is.

You're basing it on a number of leaps though. You have assumed Prince would have zero creative input. You have assumed the music video wouldn't allow Prince to hold a guitar. And you are basing it on something Prince allegedly said.

Furthermore, I find it baffling that someone who respects Michael Jackson's artistry would consider a cornerstone track from his most important album release as just of way "playing" another artist.

There was clearly mutual respect between these two artists, in my eyes, and if there wasn't there plain should have been. Michael and Prince were just men. Human men. Whether our insecurities are warranted are not, we all have them.

 

[Nite Line]

Prince was right to turn down Bad. I would have done the same, if I were him.

I am a fan of both Michael and Prince, although Michael more than Prince and even though a duet between Michael and Prince would have been nice, I think it’s for the best that it never happened. Both Michael and Prince are very different artists and for these two to work together and produce a classic song, they both would have to make compromises which I am sure neither of the two were willing to make, so I’m glad they never worked together.

Having said that, now that both of them are gone, I wouldn’t mind if Michael’s Estate and Prince’s Estate worked together to release a duet between the two. I much rather Michael’s leftover vocals are used in a Prince track instead of being used on a crappy Drake song.

 

[Themidwestcowboy]

You're basing it on a number of leaps though. You have assumed Prince would have zero creative input. You have assumed the music video wouldn't allow Prince to hold a guitar. And you are basing it on something Prince allegedly said.

Furthermore, I find it baffling that someone who respects Michael Jackson's artistry would consider a cornerstone track from his most important album release as just of way "playing" another artist.

There was clearly mutual respect between these two artists, in my eyes, and if there wasn't there plain should have been. Michael and Prince were just men. Human men. Whether our insecurities are warranted are not, we all have them.

I'm not just basing this off of what Prince said though. Prince said in the interview with chris rock that that the butt is mine line was meant for him. Quincy also backed this up when he said that that line was a swipe at Prince. So what we can extrapolate from this is that the song was already written in some shape or form before being presented to Prince. It is true, that we cannot truly know if prince would have had zero creative input. That is something we have to ask quincy jones about or even bruce swedien since he was present at the meeting(s) between prince and mj.

I'm not talking about the song itself, just the way it would have been presented if what Prince says is true then this undoubtedly would have have looked that way.

 

[DuranDuran]

collabs

MJ had already written the entire song and prince was just merely going to sing the lines.

Other than Say Say Say & The Man, I don't think Mike has ever collaborated with another singer on a duet. He's sung with other people as duets or background vocals, but didn't write a song from scratch with them. I don't think Prince would wanna sing a song that Mike wrote by himself without any input. Prince isn't like a Whitney Houston, Barbra Striesand, or Diana Ross.

 

[Themidwestcowboy]

Re: collabs

Other than Say Say Say & The Man, I don't think Mike has ever collaborated with another singer on a duet. He's sung with other people as duets or background vocals, but didn't write a song from scratch with them. don't think Prince would wanna sing a song that Mike wrote by himself without any input. Prince isn't like a Whitney Houston, Barbra Striesand, or Diana Ross.

Yes and even Say Say Say and The Man was not MJ's songs to start with. Those were Mccartney's songs/ideas.

Neither do I think that prince would do that. There is clearly a pattern of MJ writing songs and presenting them to other sings in hope of a duet. State Of Shock, The Girl Is Mine, IJCSLY etc.

 

[DuranDuran]

Re: collabs

Yes and even Say Say Say and The Man was not MJ's songs to start with. Those were Mccartney's songs/ideas.

Neither do I think that prince would do that. There is clearly a pattern of MJ writing songs and presenting them to other sings in hope of a duet. State Of Shock, The Girl Is Mine, IJCSLY etc.

There's another story that Prince gave a song to Mike called Wouldn't U Love 2 Love Me? This was not supposed to be a duet though. I don't know if that is true or not. Prince's demo was recently released on the Originals album. It sounds like it's from the Controversy period or maybe the 2nd album with I Wanna Be Your Lover on it.

 

[Themidwestcowboy]

Re: collabs

There's another story that Prince gave a song to Mike called Wouldn't U Love 2 Love Me? This was not supposed to be a duet though. I don't know if that is true or not. Prince's demo was recently released on the Originals album. It sounds like it's from the Controversy period or maybe the 2nd album with I Wanna Be Your Lover on it.

Yes i'm aware of that. But as far as i'm aware that version of Wouldn't you love to love me was from 81-82. The version presented to MJ's camp was from 86. This song was finally released in 88 by Taja Sevelle. There are many versions of this song btw. As prince offered a song for the We Are The World project instead of singing on the song it wouldn't surprise me if Prince sent this song to MJ after turning down bad as a olive branch of some kind. This is pure speculation though.

Demo submitted to MJ
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vWU4ToPn6rQ

Officially released version
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0jnEhB-60yA

 

[DuranDuran]

Re: collabs

Yes i'm aware of that. But as far as i'm aware that version of Wouldn't you love to love me was from 81-82. The version presented to MJ's camp was from 86. This song was finally released in 88 by Taja Sevelle. There are many versions of this song btw. As prince offered a song for the We Are The World project instead of singing on the song it wouldn't surprise me if Prince sent this song to MJ after turning down bad as a olive branch of some kind. This is pure speculation though.

I don't see Mike using either of those arrangements just like I don't picture him doing La Isla Bonita. I think Mike was offered the music before it got to Madonna, so it would have been a different song if he had accepted it. The lyrics were written by Madonna. I could see El DeBarge or even Jermaine doing a song to the La Isla Bonita music. Jermaine has a song called Beautiful Morning that has a similar kind of vibe to it.

I have the Taja Sevelle album, but I bought it as a used album for a dollar. I've only played Love Is Contagious and never listened to any of the rest of it. That was the song they used to play on the radio, I still hear it occasionally on the adult R&B station.

 

[Fuzball]

Re: collabs

Yes i'm aware of that. But as far as i'm aware that version of Wouldn't you love to love me was from 81-82. The version presented to MJ's camp was from 86. This song was finally released in 88 by Taja Sevelle. There are many versions of this song btw. As prince offered a song for the We Are The World project instead of singing on the song it wouldn't surprise me if Prince sent this song to MJ after turning down bad as a olive branch of some kind. This is pure speculation though.

Demo submitted to MJ
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vWU4ToPn6rQ

Officially released version
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0jnEhB-60yA

Princevault states 1986 version being submitted to MJ. Not sure if this info is 100% accurate, though.