When was Heaven Can Wait recorded

[Spaceship]

Dr. Freeze does backing vocals, right? So I'd assume 1998 or 1999, around the same time as Break of Dawn, A Place with No Name, and Blue Gangster (the Dr Freeze songs).

2000 Watts, Shout, Don't Walk Away, and Whatever Happens (the other Teddy Riley songs) were 2000-2001

Heaven Can Wait was originally supposed to be on Blackstreet 1999 album Finally, which was supposed to come out in November 1998 before it was delayed. I guess MJ taking Heaven Can Wait for himself played a role in that?

Let's ask the expert @mj_frenzy

 

[SmoothMel7]

I remember it was May 2001

 

[AlwaysThere]

It seems like most of what we think we know about the Invincible sessions as far as timeline goes is wrong. Some people say the Teddy Riley songs were all recorded in spring 2001, but one of the “Shout” songwriters said that they were working on music at Sony Studios in 2000. So, there’s really no concrete information.

 

[SeriousFX]

Dr. Freeze does backing vocals, right? So I'd assume 1998 or 1999, around the same time as Break of Dawn, A Place with No Name, and Blue Gangster (the Dr Freeze songs).

2000 Watts, Shout, Don't Walk Away, and Whatever Happens (the other Teddy Riley songs) were 2000-2001

Heaven Can Wait was originally supposed to be on Blackstreet 1999 album Finally, which was supposed to come out in November 1998 before it was delayed. I guess MJ taking Heaven Can Wait for himself played a role in that?

Let's ask the expert @mj_frenzy

It's possible Heaven Can Wait may have been an outtake from that album that Michael heard a year or two later and decided to take for himself.

 

[Spaceship]

It's really just Dr. Freeze's presence that makes me think it was recorded in 1998 or 1999. But I guess there's no reason to rule out him hanging around MJ in 2000-2001.

Now that I think about it, I don't think it was ever actually said MJ was the reason the song didn't make it on Blackstreet's album. I guess people misunderstood this interview with Teddy Riley?

WHEN "HEAVEN CAN WAIT": Teddy Riley Remembers Michael Jackson

Teddy Riley, the father of “New Jack Swing” recalls his time with the “King of Pop.” As the world celebrates the life of Michael Jackson, one man truly has things to share when the moment arrives to “Remember The Time.” Producer Teddy Riley, who worked with Michael on the Dangerous, Blood on the...

hiphopwired.com

So, I guess it could have just been an outtake that MJ heard in 2000-2001 before recording it himself. MJ's vocals do sound 2001-ish; they're rather strained and his voice even cracks during the song.

 

[Spaceship]

This is news to me: https://civilianmag.com/blogs/v1-i6/experience-the-fanatic

Originally meant for singer Kevon Edmonds, Heard ran into roadblocks of label executives and A&Rs while trying to get the record in Jackson’s hands (“They told us nobody would cut this record because it’s about death”). Never one to be swayed, though, he managed to get it to Teddy Riley’s assistant, who then passed it on to Riley helping produce Jackson’s upcoming album. “Next thing I know, two weeks later, we were in Miami – Michael Jackson was standing two feet from me talking about this record,” he adds.

2024 Podcast interview with Andreo Heard:

A sample of Kevon Edmonds' version:

And I may as well include the the writer's demo many of us have already heard lol:

So, from I understand, the song was first conceived by writer Nate Smith. He presented the earliest version of the song (before the writer's demo you see up there was made) to writer Andreao Heard. Hearing Smith's demo reminded Heard of MJ's "Lady in My Life", so he brought in writer Teron Beal to work on the song with them as he thought he could help them better emulate MJ's music. Beal then brought in writer Kenny Quiller to sing on the writer's demo as he thought he could imitate MJ's voice. Not believing they would actually get to work with MJ, however, Heard instead offered the song to MJ's sister Janet, but her label passed on it due to the subject matter of death. Heard then offered the song to singer Kevon Edmonds (older brother of Babyface), who complained that imitating MJ's voice didn't suit him.

With that, Heard became determined to get MJ to record it. He got the song to Teddy Riley through his assistant and MJ eventually recorded it, having "fallen in love" with it when Riley presented it to him. After MJ's version came out, Edmonds was apparently upset and attempted legal action despite not being enthusiastic about the song before.

From how Heard talks about the song, it doesn't sound like Riley was very much involved with it; the song was conceived and written long before he came into the picture. This makes me doubt it was ever considered for Blackstreet's 1999 album Finally. Riley doesn't even say it was in the Hip Hop Wired interview, just that he planned to remake the song with Blackstreet after MJ had already done it. I guess we were all mistaken; "Heaven Can Wait" was never supposed to be for Blackstreet (I guess the guys behind the For the Record book are to blame for the confusion).

So, when was the song recorded? Heard says that he heard (kek) MJ was interested in the song mere weeks after showing it to Teddy Riley's assistant. It sounds like he got it to Riley's assistant not long after recording the song with Kevon Edmonds, too. Heard says that he tried to get Janet to do the song; I'm guessing this was when she was working on her 2001 album All For You. Janet worked on that album from 2000-2001, so if MJ received the song after Janet's label turned it down, it's safe to say he recorded it after 1999. Although Edmonds didn't release another album until 2009, he first began work on his second album "a year or two" after his 1999 debut 24/7 before shelving it to take a hiatus from recording after 9/11. That means Edmonds began work on his second album in 2000-2001 and it was during that period "Heaven Can Wait" came to be:

Kevon Edmonds Talks New Album "Who Knew", After 7, Working with Babyface (Exclusive Interview) - YouKnowIGotSoul.com

We recently had a chance to interview r&b veteran Kevon Edmonds. He discussed everything from his new album, to the change in the music industry, to

youknowigotsoul.com

tl;dr "Heaven Can Wait" was recorded in 2000-2001 and it was never meant for Blackstreet.

 

[Spaceship]

Did some more looking around:

LAUNCH - Your Yahoo! Music Experience

Producer Teddy Riley, who gave the keynote address Thursday (November 1) at the 23rd Annual Billboard Music Video Conference And Awards, co-produced four songs on Michael Jackson's Invincible, released Tuesday (October 30).

When LAUNCH spoke to Riley about working with Jackson, the mastermind behind R&B; groups Guy and Blackstreet said that he had written Jackson's song "Heaven Can Wait" for his own album. "Michael Jackson asked me specifically if I would get the song for him and if it was for me. And he touched his heart, you know, literally touched his heart, and said, 'This song is just so incredible. I need it, you know. It's right up there with 'Butterflies.'' And 'Butterflies' is my favorite song on the album."

Jackson's Invincible is expected to debut at Number One this week. He will make a rare in-store appearance to promote Invincible album on Wednesday (November 7) at the Virgin Megastore in New York's Times Square. In a continuing effort to make Jackson available to the public, a select number of fans will be able to have the "King Of Pop" autograph copies of the new album. The in-store comes in the wake of a cyberchat the singer hosted on October 26, and industry insiders speculate that Sony Music is making Jackson more available during the promotion of this album in an attempt to recoup some of the $30 million Invincible cost to produce.

Riley's solo debut Black Rock is slated to be released next year.

In 2001, Teddy Riley said that "Heaven Can Wait" was supposed to be for his own album. It wasn't a Blackstreet or Guy album; it was supposed to be a solo Teddy Riley album called "Black Rock". You may remember that Blackstreet disbanded in 1999 following the commercial disappointment of their Finally album, which prompted Riley to reunite with his other group Guy. They disbanded after the commercial disappointmet of their Guy III album in 2000. With both groups disbanded, Riley attempted a solo career and signed a deal with Virgin Records in 2001.

"Black Rock" was slated for release in 2001 and promotional copies were made that year, but it was delayed to 2002 before getting shelved altogether; the 2001 promo copies ended up getting bootlegged. Riley then reunited with Blackstreet and they released their Level II album in 2003; some of the songs on that album were supposed to be on Riley's shelved solo album. One of these was the song "Bygones", co-written by Andreo Heard, one of the people who wrote "Heaven Can Wait". I guess Riley simply wanted "Heaven Can Wait" for his own solo album despite the fact it was meant for MJ. Maybe Heard wrote "Bygones" for Riley as a consolation for MJ taking "Heaven Can Wait".

Sidenote, Riley claims MJ said "Butterflies" and "Heaven Can Wait" were his favorite songs on the album, but MJ said in the 2001 online chat that his three favorite songs were "Unbreakable", "Speechless", and "The Lost Children"; it was widely reported that "Unbreakable" was his favorite, too. I know "Unbreakable" was recorded after "Butterflies" and "Heaven Can Wait", but weren't "Speechless" and "The Lost Children" recorded in 1999? Riley could be lying (after the Cascio fiasco, anything he says should be taken with a grain of salt, although he wasn't known to be a liar back in 2001), but it's possible MJ simply changed his mind on what his favorites were.

To sum everything up,

>"Heaven Can Wait" was first written and composed in 2000 by Nate Smith, Andreao Heard, Teron Beal, Kenny Quiller, and Eritza Laues with MJ in mind.
>It was first offered to Janet for her 2001 album All for You, but her label turned it down due to the subject matter of death.
>The song was then given to Kevon Edmonds, who recorded his own version of it for his planned 2001 sophomore album.
>Unsatisfied with Edmonds' version, co-writer Andreo Heard sent to the song Teddy Riley's assistant with the goal of it being given to MJ.
>Riley wanted the song for his planned 2001 solo album Black Rock (Blackstreet and Guy were disbanded at this time), but he agreed to let MJ have it after MJ heard it and asked for it.
>MJ recorded the song in 2001 and it's released on Invincible later that year.