On Tuesday, December 4, 1956, a guitarist called Carl Perkins booked a normal day’s work at Sun Studio in Memphis. He’d written and recorded “Blue Suede Shoes” and was there to cut some new songs with his brothers. To beef up the sound, the studio boss brought in a young piano player nobody outside Memphis … Read more
On the evening of July 5, 1954, three men sat in a small, boiling-hot recording studio on Union Avenue in Memphis, getting absolutely nowhere. A 19-year-old truck driver named Elvis Presley had been trying for hours to record slow ballads with two musicians he barely knew — guitarist Scotty Moore and bass player Bill Black. … Read more
Michael Jackson’s forward lean in “Smooth Criminal” looked too perfect to survive outside a carefully controlled music video. Yet the move later became the subject of a real United States patent carrying his name. The document did more than protect a famous stage secret. Buried inside it was an unexpected connection to footwear designed for … Read more
Michael Jackson had already conquered music when one of the biggest business opportunities of his life appeared. The ATV Music catalogue included publishing rights to many Beatles songs, yet the asking price kept climbing past $40 million. Several experienced advisers believed the singer was taking an enormous risk and urged his team to stop before … Read more
For years, one of the strangest stories about Michael Jackson was treated as a ridiculous tabloid invention. Reports claimed the world-famous singer wanted to buy the remains of Joseph Merrick, the Victorian man known as the Elephant Man. Yet a 1987 news report quoted Jackson’s own manager confirming that an offer existed and had just … Read more
Millions knew “Man in the Mirror” as Michael Jackson’s call to change the world, but a smaller message waited on the back of the 1988 single. Beside a personal dedication to a child named Yoshiaki, Jackson printed a promise that a portion of his royalties would help a camp for children with cancer. For fans … Read more
In 1995 a freelance writer named Victor Gutierrez told a television reporter he had seen a 27-minute videotape involving Michael Jackson. The claim spread quickly through tabloid coverage. Michael filed a slander lawsuit seeking $100 million in damages. The case moved through the courts for years. Gutierrez refused to produce any evidence of the tape … Read more
Seven years before his death, Michael Jackson signed a will answering one of the most private questions a father could face: who should protect his children if he could not? His first choice was his mother. Yet the backup was not another Jackson relative. It was Diana Ross, revealing a level of trust that went … Read more
The phone rang at four in the morning at her aunt’s house in Memphis. Her aunt answered in her politest Southern voice, said “Why, yes, she is — just a moment please,” and then turned around wide-eyed: “Oh my God. It’s Elvis Presley on the phone.” The young woman who took that call was Linda … Read more
In the spring of 1960, a black Lincoln Continental pulled up outside a boarding school in Virginia to collect three small boys. Billy was 7. Rick was 6. David was 4. Their mother introduced them to the man beside her as their new daddy — and then the car drove them to their new home. … Read more
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