Which songs from his big six albums (Off the Wall, Thriller, Bad, Dangerous, HIStory, Invinicible) were originally going to be singles but weren’t?

[eloisa]

I love the album Invencible, but I agree that Michael has responsabilities over the whole Sony issue

 

[Spaceship]

Sony actually intended for "Butterflies" to be the second single at the start, but after 9/11, they planned to release "Cry" instead as a way of sending condolences to all those who lost loved ones in the tragedy. So, the reason it wasn't released in America was because it bombed at radio testing? Makes sense, but if they decided to release "Butterflies" as the second standalone track in America like they originally planned, then why not release it as a single worldwide? If Europe needed a Christmas single, then why couldn't it have just been "Butterflies"? Why not just cancel "Cry" altogether? Because the music video was already sent to Sony Europe? Did that really matter? If the song was already deemed to suck when it bombed at radio testing in America, then they could have just canceled the release of the video along with the single. Wouldn't have been the first time that a music video goes unreleased.

"Cry" should have never been on the album at all, let alone released as a single. You shouldn't be rushing to make money over a national tragedy, anyway.

 

[Mister_Jay_Tee]

And he should have then been a collaborative partner helping with the promotion and having a realistic expectation of video budgets (I heard rumours he wanted twenty million for Unbreakable!)

This is what I blame Sony for still, actually. Yes, MJ had extravagant taste, he wasn't much for budgeting. But that was never an issue before seemingly; why bet against Michael Jackson's ideas? When has he failed to deliver you a video that got attention? He would've helped pay too even.

I just hate the idea of suits getting creative control.

Even in the case of compromise, obviously there are ways to deliver a vision even if you compromise. It happens all the time in entertainment and technology, I just don't understand. Genuinely I just wanna have it explained.

If it really is the case that MJ got done dirty by Sony and quit em, then idk what to tell you.

 

[Spaceship]

I recall reading that one of the proposals for "Butterflies"'s video was to be animated, but MJ never responded to the request, so it was canceled. "Butterflies" hit no.14 on the Hot 100; I think with a video airing on TRL, it would have just barely managed to crack the top ten like "You Rock My World" did.

 

[Mister_Jay_Tee]

Sony actually intended for "Butterflies" to be the second single at the start, but after 9/11, they planned to release "Cry" instead as a way of sending condolences to all those who lost loved ones in the tragedy. So, the reason it wasn't released in America was because it bombed at radio testing? Makes sense, but if they decided to release "Butterflies" as the second standalone track in America like they originally planned, then why not release it as a single worldwide?

This is too much to keep up with. Wishy washy, using music as a seasonal thing gets old.

You make good points about the inconsistency. Same thing happened during Dangerous and HIStory. Wore down the effectiveness.

 

[Spaceship]

Fun fact: Janet Jackson's "All for You" debuted at no.14 on Hot 100 solely on airplay, which was a record in 2001. The song hit number one when the CD single was released the following week.

"Butterflies" debuted at no.60 in November 2001 and peaked at no.14 solely on airplay in January 2002. Janet's song immediately debuts at no.14 on airplay; MJ's peaks there after two months.

 

[zinniabooklover]

[...] This was certainly the case for the Bashir documentary - a UK production which had nothing to do with Sony UK.

To be clear, I have no feelings for Sony one way or another. But it is really odd that people blame Sony for this and that….One thing I can tell you for sure, if MJ had been engaging with Sony, I am quite certain the UK team would have put a stop to the Bashir documentary and I think that documentary, more than anything, derailed MJ.

A fabulous set of posts, MC. So interesting, so informative. I've never been in the music industry but used to be around a lot of people who were and all of this is sparking memories of stuff I used to hear.

It's always confused me, the hate that Sony gets. Record companies aren't stupid. They know how to promote a record and they know how to work with an artist. They wouldn't make so much money or be so successful if they couldn't do those things. It's heart-wrenching to read that Sony UK most likely would have blocked the Bashir thing. I am sure you are right but it raises so many sad little 'if only ...' thoughts in my head.

I don't think Michael was in a good place mentally at this point. I have sometimes wondered if he was struggling with depression and, if so, was it being treated. Pure speculation on my part but it seems possible. It certainly wouldn't have helped him to make the best decisions. This is where you'd want him to have a really good management team around him to be supportive.

By around March 2002, Sony were mostly not involved in MJ and his decisions. The exception being approaching him for legacy projects.

Again, I was very far from the decision making powers, but I got the impression there were big issues with MJ’s management (or lack of).

He just didn't seem to have good management in the latter part of his career.

 

[Fuzball]

Speed Demon was going to be the 10th and final single release from Bad.

 

[Mister_Jay_Tee]

Speed Demon was going to be the 10th and final single release from Bad.

It is a promo single. The cover art exists.

 

[R1chard]

Thanks for posting that interview, Hot_Street. After 3 sessions, I finally finished listening to it today. Very interesting. If only there was more like that.

My association with the music industry was just for a few years after uni and limited to club promotion in UK/Europe (tracks to clubs, and alignment with radio DJs and club media). But this, I guess, was quite an important of the promo campaign for a lot of acts in the UK and Europe in the 90s/00s so I was involved in the overall campaigns to some degree.

Sounds like quite an interesting job to have. I worked a bar in quite a big club in London in the early 90s, but never got involved with the promo side.

I see what you mean about things getting complicated for a big/international artist.

Depends on the remixer.

It was really silly money sometimes, so there would be a lot of bulk buying - so you could have a big name mixer provide 10 mixes for 250k upfront plus royalties (but there sometimes wouldn’t be much differences in the mixes).

I see. Like I said, I never really thought about this. I knew Dave Morales wasn't doing it out of the goodness of his heart, but I had no idea how it worked. Thinking about it now, it's obvious it would have to be a sum like that if someone is going to make a career out of it, doing perhaps only 2 tracks per year.

 

[wonderouzmj]

To be fair Michael didn't do much to promote it himself either. He did a signing at a record store, performed You Rock My World at the 30th Anniversary shows and did a radio interview. That was it. He could haved performed more songs from Invincible at The Apollo, American Bandstand and United We Stand, but instead choose to perform songs from his previous albums instead.

Yeah this never made sense to me. If Sony didn't promote it & he complained about it...why didn't he do it himself. I remember him saying when he was hungry for this..."promotion is most important"

 

[wonderouzmj]

Oh...why not?