Singles that were and singles that weren't

Despite Thriller breaking all the records as an album, that “multi-single” approach didn’t actually work for Michael either, outside of the US. Granted, the album spawned seven singles, but not all of them were successful in chart terms. With a couple of exceptions in other territories such as Canada and the Netherlands, the fourth, fifth and sixth singles all strayed outside the top 10 in Europe and in a lot of cases the top 40. In the UK, “Thriller” only barely scraped the top 10 and “Human Nature” scaled the dizzying heights of #162.
Wow! Had no idea. Yeah---releasing too many singles off an album is a great way to insure than ten years later, people looking at chart history say "man, they had a lot of stiffs and mid-charters."
 
Despite Thriller breaking all the records as an album, that “multi-single” approach didn’t actually work for Michael either, outside of the US. Granted, the album spawned seven singles, but not all of them were successful in chart terms. With a couple of exceptions in other territories such as Canada and the Netherlands, the fourth, fifth and sixth singles all strayed outside the top 10 in Europe and in a lot of cases the top 40. In the UK, “Thriller” only barely scraped the top 10 and “Human Nature” scaled the dizzying heights of #162.
Bad was very successful though. Of 11 tracks, nine were released as singles, and only two of them (Another Part of Me and Liberian Girl) missed the UK top 10. Even they both made the top 15.

After the ninth single, I wondered if they’d complete the job and release the other two tracks. One of them, Speed Demon, had a readily-made promo thanks to its sequence in Moonwalker. Just Good Friends might have been trickier though, being as Stevie Wonder duetted. They could have cheated and called it a double-A side. Hey, presto, Bad would have been its own mini Greatest Hits album.
 
Bad was very successful though. Of 11 tracks, nine were released as singles, and only two of them (Another Part of Me and Liberian Girl) missed the UK top 10. Even they both made the top 15.

After the ninth single, I wondered if they’d complete the job and release the other two tracks. One of them, Speed Demon, had a readily-made promo thanks to its sequence in Moonwalker. Just Good Friends might have been trickier though, being as Stevie Wonder duetted. They could have cheated and called it a double-A side. Hey, presto, Bad would have been its own mini Greatest Hits album.

'Man in the Mirror' also fell short of the top 10 in the UK - in fact, it didn't even make the Top 20, stopping at #21 in 1988.

After Jackson died in 2009, his hardcore fans launched a coordinated campaign to try an get it to #1 by mass-downloading it (presumably in an effort to 'right' the 'wrong' of its disappointing peak first time round), which pushed it to #2 in 2009. But it was a surprise relatively poor charter in the physical singles era.
 
Bad was very successful though. Of 11 tracks, nine were released as singles, and only two of them (Another Part of Me and Liberian Girl) missed the UK top 10. Even they both made the top 15.

After the ninth single, I wondered if they’d complete the job and release the other two tracks. One of them, Speed Demon, had a readily-made promo thanks to its sequence in Moonwalker. Just Good Friends might have been trickier though, being as Stevie Wonder duetted. They could have cheated and called it a double-A side. Hey, presto, Bad would have been its own mini Greatest Hits album.

I actually prefer the Bad album over Thriller. I love the sound and production and every track has its own style and something different to offer. Thriller for me contained a couple of relative duds - Girlfriend and The Girl Is Mine (“the dog-gone girl is mine”...what on earth was Michael thinking?). Bad was also from that era where I was madly into collecting music as a teenager, so I’ve always had a soft spot for it. Thriller was just a few years before my teens, although that promo video was absolutely huge in the UK. Every girl I knew in school practiced the dance moves.
 
Funny, I was never into Bad. I thought the album cover was ridiculous, and the music was just ok. To me, it signaled the b beginning of the end of his creativity. But I can see what others like it.
 
Even I as a thirty-year old was caught up in the THRILLER phenomenon. After about the fourth or fifth single, I broke down and bought a copy. Unfortunately, that was the tail end of the era of bad vinyl pressings. The one I bought sounded horrible, so I took it back. The next one wasn't as bad, but still not great, and I was tired of the hassle, so it still sits in my vinyl collection. BAD did nothing for me. THRILLER remains the only Michael Jackson product in my collection.
 
I actually prefer the Bad album over Thriller. I love the sound and production and every track has its own style and something different to offer. Thriller for me contained a couple of relative duds - Girlfriend and The Girl Is Mine (“the dog-gone girl is mine”...what on earth was Michael thinking?). Bad was also from that era where I was madly into collecting music as a teenager, so I’ve always had a soft spot for it. Thriller was just a few years before my teens, although that promo video was absolutely huge in the UK. Every girl I knew in school practiced the dance moves.
Exactly.
That lyric was a dirty old shame.
 
I actually prefer the Bad album over Thriller. I love the sound and production and every track has its own style and something different to offer. Thriller for me contained a couple of relative duds - Girlfriend and The Girl Is Mine (“the dog-gone girl is mine”...what on earth was Michael thinking?). Bad was also from that era where I was madly into collecting music as a teenager, so I’ve always had a soft spot for it. Thriller was just a few years before my teens, although that promo video was absolutely huge in the UK. Every girl I knew in school practiced the dance moves.
‘Girlfriend’ (written by Sir Paul) was on the ‘Off The Wall’ album.
 
Jacko was screwed when his hair & maybe his brain was on fire during the Pepsi commercial in early 1984!! Since "Bad" in 1987, Jacko went downhill from there.
 
'Man in the Mirror' also fell short of the top 10 in the UK - in fact, it didn't even make the Top 20, stopping at #21 in 1988.

Yes, you’re absolutely right of course. My first reference point is always Wikipedia. Streaming/downloading does mess up physical singles chart history. There was me thinking Wham’s Last Christmas and Mariah Carey’s All I Want For Christmas were number 2 hits and all of a sudden they’re number ones.😆
 
'Man in the Mirror' also fell short of the top 10 in the UK - in fact, it didn't even make the Top 20, stopping at #21 in 1988.

^^^ This I’ve never been able to understand. It was the best thing on the entire album. Maybe once again a case of “fourth single syndrome”. There’s an amazing documentary about the making of the album where they tell the story that they’d wrapped the recording session for this song and all the members of the gospel choir were on their way back to the parking lot. Only then did Michael have the idea of changing the key towards the end - on the word “make that change!” - and taking the song home to its big finish. They had to recall everyone back to the studio before they drove off, so they could recut the ending. Amazing.

While we’re on the subject, whoever decided on “I Just Can’t Stop Loving You” as the lead single really messed up. Perhaps it was Quincy Jones, but to introduce a long-awaited album with a duet with a session singer few people had heard of...that was crazy. “The Way You Make Me Feel” had killer hit written all over it and should have been the flagship single for that album.
 
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While we’re on the subject, whoever decided on “I Just Can’t Stop Loving You” as the lead single really messed up. Perhaps it was Quincy Jones, but to introduce a long-awaited album with a duet with a session singer few people had heard of...that was crazy. “The Way You Make Me Feel” had killer hit written all over it and should have been the flagship single for that album.
And what was worse was that there was no video for it, or even any footage of them performing it. The likes of Top of the Pops had to resort to showing a static photo of them both, with a short section of the song played over it. Still, it was number one in both the US and UK.

Apparently Barbra Streisand and Whitney Houston were the first two choices, but neither of them really needed it as they were both huge in their own right. Siedah Garrett was a protégé of Quincy Jones, and she didn’t know she would be singing it until the day of recording.
 
Siedah Garrett was a protégé of Quincy Jones, and she didn’t know she would be singing it until the day of recording.

Although relatively unknown as a recording artist, Siedah really was perfect for the record. The studio team couldn’t believe how she could mimic Michael’s vocals in the second verse, to the point where they were virtually indistinguishable from one another. On the Bad tour, the vocal duties for I Just Can’t Stop Loving You fell to a then little-known artist by the name of Sheryl Crow.

Interesting fact: Siedah Garrett wrote Man In The Mirror and begged Quincy Jones to listen to her demo tape of the song. He called her later the same evening and told her it was the best song he’d heard in ten years.
 
Although relatively unknown as a recording artist, Siedah really was perfect for the record. The studio team couldn’t believe how she could mimic Michael’s vocals in the second verse, to the point where they were virtually indistinguishable from one another. On the Bad tour, the vocal duties for I Just Can’t Stop Loving You fell to a then little-known artist by the name of Sheryl Crow.

Interesting fact: Siedah Garrett wrote Man In The Mirror and begged Quincy Jones to listen to her demo tape of the song. He called her later the same evening and told her it was the best song he’d heard in ten years.

Which of course made Siedah perfect for the background vocal mix on "Kiss Me The Way You Did Last Night!"
 
Here is a recent entry for the song Thank You For The Music (Tonight Show 1978).
It sounds clearer here than I have ever heard. But, I love the 1978 Las Vegas Live performance, too !
So, my nomination for a Single--if such a studio performance still exists-- is this fantastic song:
 
So, my nomination for a Single--if such a studio performance still exists-- is this fantastic song

The new video and audio sounds much better but I disagree that it would ever have been a choice as a single. ABBA didn’t even release it as a single in 1978. This live version is plodding and mundane and going on their previous track record for replicating their studio sound - even live - it doesn’t have any of the majesty of the ABBA version or their own earlier material. Above all else, it just doesn’t suit Karen’s vocal style. For this to work as a studio version, it would have to be slower and sound like Yesterday Once More, with that big fat production and rich sound. I just can’t picture it based on this version. I’m pretty sure that why it was shelved midway through the process. That’s not to say you’re wrong, but to my ears and in my mind, I’d be tempted to draw a direct comparison between the Barry Manilow version of Can’t Smile Without You, with the big production values, and their somewhat lighter, trite 1976 version.
 
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^^
Well, I can't imagine trying to really compete with Abba's majestic version. I have always loved their version.
Be that as it may, Karen sings the song beautifully (especially in the Las Vegas performance).
If their is an issue with the above performance, it rests with the arrangement.
I simply can't imagine that proper care taken with this song in the studio, including Carpenter' background harmonies added and
creative license with a beefier arrangement would not bring us a great single.
But, again, Abba is impossible to beat !
 
"...But I have a talent, a wonderful thing,
'Cause everyone listens when I start to sing
..."

Talk about your self-evident truths - it's not conceited or arrogant if you simply repeat what everyone else is saying.

Not hit single material, but it would have been a good song in a Carpenters on Broadway musical.
 
The song has a lot of potential for great vocal stacks up to and throughout the chorus. I think it could have favored as a great album track and I would love to hear the finished product.

I do like I Can’t Smile Without You for the same chorus harmony reasons. I just think Richard heard it as a big band type of tune while Barry Manilow put the metered emphasis blocks in it that were in a lot of his songs at the time, and his driving energy sold the song to the public. I Can’t Smile and You from the A Kind of Hush album are nice songs but the arrangements are just a little dry, but I’d still rather have them than not. You for example, is a great song from the middle of the song to the end. I think introducing vocal harmonies earlier could have helped and perhaps just piano and voice at the first of the song could have made a difference. The song just has a little boring in its arrangement. I think if Richard rearranged these songs today that all of these songs would sound completely different. Look at what happened with Trying To Get the Feeling. I doubt the 1975 arrangement would have the appeal that it ended up having in the 1994 arrangement. Karen just had the voice that we could never get enough of. I wish we had even more, so I elect for these gems to come forward.
 
I think the single did edit it out.
This is just a hypothetical, but how about if they had released a 12" single at the time (since 12" singles were in vogue from around 1977 on): "Calling Occupants" / "Don't Cry for Me Argentina". Maybe "Calling Occupants" without the DJ intro but with the full-length song, and "Don't Cry for Me Argentina" without the "On the Balcony" scene, and not sped up like they sped up the single version to fit on the 7" disc. I think that would have done fairly well.
 
With regard to singles that weren't, I will maintain that "(A Place To) Hideaway" would have made a beautiful A-side or B-side.
 
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