What could "Come Together" have been replaced with on History?

no other song, because Come Together is not only the heart of HIStory, the song also describes what his heart beat for: for people to come together and celebrate.
like I said...
Michael Jackson Finds Joy In Seeing His Audiences Unite Through Song
August 25, 2025
“What is normal? For me, it’s when you do a concert, and you see a sea of people, singing the lyrics all in unison, and holding up candles – and I go wow – you know it really makes your heart happy and that’s really what makes you feel like everything’s ok.” – Michael Jackson
 
I think there is an idea behind the addition of Come Together. The song is by The Beatles, but John Lennon actually stole the song from Chuck Berry. Listen to You Can't Catch Me. You'll recognize Come Together in that song. Listen here. John Lennon wanted to record his own version of this song. The others pointed out it was too similar. Paul McCartney came up with the idea to slow down their version significantly, so it wouldn't be too identical. But you can still recognize the original tune. Lennon even copied some of the lyrics! In Come Together, Lennon sings "Here come ol' flattop, he come groovin' up slowly", Chuck Berry sings "Here come a flattop, he was movin' up with me". Very similar. The Beatles were sued, Lennon settled out of court. Even though Lennon had to settle, The Beatles still came out on top: Come Together became a world famous song. You Can't Catch Me isn't. The story is Michael thought this was injustice to black artists. So what did he do? An attempt to steal the song back, by covering it himself.

Now this might sound far fetched. But why is the song following Money? Michael sings how people do anything for money. But what about the music of Money? It's a weird song. Michael always wanted to create his own sounds, but this song he sort of 'stole' from a white guy: Fatboy Slim (Norman Cook). He did it in a legal way: the song is largely build from Slim's sample cd Skip To My Loops. Listen here. Did Michael just use those samples because he thought they were cool? Or is he telling a story by putting songs in a certain order?

Brad Sundberg told during one of his seminars that the order of songs on HIStory was complicated, because they were telling a bigger story.

Well, you tell me ... but I don't think Michael put Come Together on HIStory as a leftover. He had an idea with it. We are kind of ignorant when we want to replace that song with something else.
 
I think there is an idea behind the addition of Come Together. The song is by The Beatles, but John Lennon actually stole the song from Chuck Berry. Listen to You Can't Catch Me. You'll recognize Come Together in that song. Listen here. John Lennon wanted to record his own version of this song. The others pointed out it was too similar. Paul McCartney came up with the idea to slow down their version significantly, so it wouldn't be too identical. But you can still recognize the original tune. Lennon even copied some of the lyrics! In Come Together, Lennon sings "Here come ol' flattop, he come groovin' up slowly", Chuck Berry sings "Here come a flattop, he was movin' up with me". Very similar. The Beatles were sued, Lennon settled out of court. Even though Lennon had to settle, The Beatles still came out on top: Come Together became a world famous song. You Can't Catch Me isn't. The story is Michael thought this was injustice to black artists. So what did he do? An attempt to steal the song back, by covering it himself.

Now this might sound far fetched. But why is the song following Money? Michael sings how people do anything for money. But what about the music of Money? It's a weird song. Michael always wanted to create his own sounds, but this song he sort of 'stole' from a white guy: Fatboy Slim (Norman Cook). He did it in a legal way: the song is largely build from Slim's sample cd Skip To My Loops. Listen here. Did Michael just use those samples because he thought they were cool? Or is he telling a story by putting songs in a certain order?

Brad Sundberg told during one of his seminars that the order of songs on HIStory was complicated, because they were telling a bigger story.

Well, you tell me ... but I don't think Michael put Come Together on HIStory as a leftover. He had an idea with it. We are kind of ignorant when we want to replace that song with something else.
the issue is come together was already released i believe, if it was a rerecording then i'd understand it.
 
Because it's placed in the middle of the tracklist, it connects the first 7 tracks and the last 7 tracks.
I think this is too far-stretched tbh. Michael probably just wanted another rock track on it or something like that, or some connection to The Beatles.. Unfortunately I don't think History is that much different than his previous albums anyway, it seems to follow the same formula. With the exception of some very small references to the allegations. No offence to your theory, who knows it's correct
 
i'd say Changes or On the Line could replace come together.
 
Michael probably just wanted another rock track on it or something like that, or some connection to The Beatles
This. MJ just wanted his name to be associated with rock legends. That's all. It's why he recorded songs with Paul McCartney, Freddie Mercury, Mick Jagger, Slash, Sean Lennon...

There's nothing deeper than that.
 
It wasn't even given a final mixing. "Come Together" was released in demo form
 
Back
Top