Michael Jackson: Behind the Mask
This playlist of Michael Jackson's deeper cuts was inspired by my friend Tim, who saw MJ the Musical in England. After the show he wanted to learn more about Michael Jackson's deeper cuts.
Since I'm the biggest Michael Jackson fan he knows, it's quite natural that he would ask me for this particular education
Every person on the planet knows Michael Jackson's biggest hits. A super fan of MJ knows his entire catalog, but what about the casual Michael Jackson fan? How deep is their knowledge into the music genius of Michael Jackson?
I created a playlist that is made up of some popular singles and other songs that you have to dive deeper into an album to discover.
Every song on this playlist was written and produced by Michael Jackson. I named this playlist Behind the Mask because most of these songs are lesser known that you need to look behind the mask to discover.
This playlist does not include anything from Michael Jackson's Off-the-Wall or Thriller albums because that would be just too easy. So, instead I selected songs from Bad, Dangerous, HIStory, Blood On The Dance Floor and the Michael albums.
I wanted to start this playlist with some rock to get you in the mood. “Dirty Diana” was a good choice to start with. The casual MJ fan probably doesn't know that the guitar riff is performed by the legendary Steve Stevens of Billy Idol fame. The guitar on “Given Into Me” was performed by Slash, from Guns N' Roses.
The song “Stranger In Moscow” is one of Michael Jackson's most personal songs he ever wrote. This song from his 1995, HIStory album was written while he was in Russia at the end of his Dangerous tour.
Michael was sad and alone in Russia as allegations came out of inappropriate misconduct on his part. Michael's best friend Elizabeth Taylor joined him in Russia as he was writing this song.
A lot of casual MJ fans are unaware of Michael's 1997 album, Blood On The Dance Floor: HIStory In The Mix. “Superfly Sister” and “Blood On The Dance Floor” are two of Michael's most underrated songs.
In my opinion, “Blood On The Dance Floor” is probably the last “great” song he ever wrote.
“She Drives Me Wild” was one of the first songs Michael recorded with legendary producer Teddy Reilly. Michael moved away from Quincy Jones after his Bad album and turned to a fresh new sound with the help of Teddy Reilly, which became New Jack Swing.
Michael Jackson's Dangerous album is a reflection of the New Jack Swing sound in the early 90s. Just listen to “Remember The Time” off that album.
“Behind The Mask” was actually originally written for the Bad album, but never made it onto the album. Because this song was never used, Michael ended up giving it to Greg Phillinganes and the song was included on his 1984 album “Pulse.”
“Behind The Mask” was later released after Michael's death on his post-mortem album, Michael. When you hear MJ’s voice it's clear that it's from the Bad era.
The song “Streetwalker” was another song that was recorded for the Bad album, but it was never used. Before CDs, musicians could only fit so many songs onto an LP album. Sadly, this is a great deep cut that was left off.
Since “Streetwalker” was left off the Bad album, it morphed into the song “Dangerous,” which Michael used on his 1991 album.
The album Dangerous also had two other gems that most people don't know about. The synth beat and personal story of “Who Is It” and the upbeat feel good, “Keep The Faith.” “Keep The Faith” was always a childhood favorite of mine.
I finished off this playlist with “Tabloid Junkie,” which Michael wrote for his HIStory album. I wanted to close this playlist with this song because the song makes the powerful message which Michael used throughout his career to the press.
“You're so damn disrespectable."
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