You can add Slave 4 U to the list as well. Pharrell confirmed Janet recorded it but scrapped it. I’m assuming it was for AFY
Thanks for mentioning that!
So, I used a bunch of vintage sources to compile my list. I bookmarked most of them for future reference. I literally have over a HUNDRED bookmarks on my browser, and about half of them are probably related to research I was doing. I would take a while to go through them all, but I'll list some of the most important ones:
First,
World Radio History is PACKED with archives of vintage music trade magazines. Billboard alone was extremely helpful, as they used to have a section dedicated to artists that were currently in the studio. Other helpful magazines were Cash Box, Mix Magazine, R&B Report, Musician Magazine, Record World and EQ Magazine. There are news reports on Stevie Wonder producing The Jackson 5 at Record Plant, the recording of Triumph, Janet recording her first album, Rockwell recording "Somebody's Watching Me", the recording of "We are the World, you name it! I feel that these are EXTREMELY overlooked resources that are very helpful in anyone researching recording session dates.
I also found many newspapers on sites such as
Google News Archive, and
Newspapers.com. There are many more newspaper websites out there, but many of them require a paid subscription, which is why I haven't looked through many of them. Nevertheless, the ones I found were very helpful. Such as a newspaper from July 25, 1985 (if I remember correctly), which reported that Janet was in the Twin Cities the previous week recording with Jimmy and Terry.
Finally old fan websites are EXTREMELY helpful! Janet had some wonderful fan sites that are sadly defunct now. These sites stay up to date on where Janet was, and what she was doing. That was how I was able to speculate what studios she was in and who she was working with at different times. These sites have mostly been archived in the Wayback Machine. One is called
Janet-Xone, another is called
Friends of Janet. There was also a great Jackson website from the late '90s early '00s called
Planet Jackson that had A LOT of updates on the progress of Michael's Invincible album!
And of course, I watched interviews, listened to podcasts, and watch behind the scenes footage to learn more. You guys should check out these links!
