In January 1969, Elvis Presley was standing in a small Memphis studio with a song in front of him that he was afraid to sing. His manager had spent years drilling one rule into him: never record a message song. His own friends were telling him to leave this one alone. And then the producer … Read more
On March 29, 1972, Elvis Presley walked into a recording studio in Hollywood and sang a song about a man apologizing to a woman he had taken for granted. It’s a song full of regret, a man admitting he should have held her more, told her more, treated her better, and asking her to believe … Read more
In November 1982 MCA released E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial: The Storybook an audiobook narrated by Michael Jackson for Steven Spielberg and produced by Quincy Jones. It featured an original song “Someone in the Dark” written by Rod Temperton. Epic Records had approved the project under two clear conditions: the album could not come out until after … Read more
Michael Jackson was one of the most recognizable voices in music when The Simpsons pulled off a strange trick in 1991. Viewers heard him speaking through an animated character, yet his famous name never appeared in the credits. Stranger still, when that character started singing like Michael Jackson, the voice audiences heard was not actually … Read more
Michael Jackson was a dedicated Star Wars fan who kept life-size figures of Darth Vader, Boba Fett and C-3PO at Neverland. He had already collaborated with George Lucas on the 1986 Disney short film Captain EO. So it was not entirely surprising when the King of Pop expressed interest in joining the prequel trilogy. According … Read more
Michael Jackson was a genuine fan of Sonic the Hedgehog. In 1993 he took on the job of composing music for Sega’s upcoming game Sonic the Hedgehog 3. Working with longtime collaborator and keyboardist Brad Buxer the pair created a large batch of cues roughly 40 or more intended for the game’s levels and themes. … Read more
Michael Jackson developed a distinctive way of handling alcohol that blended privacy with practicality. He preferred white wine served inside ordinary Diet Coke cans and referred to it as “Jesus juice.” Red wine became “Jesus blood.” The practice was not a one-off quirk. Flight logs and passenger profiles from the charter companies he used listed … Read more
Michael Jackson’s private world often revealed quirks that stood far apart from the polished image of the King of Pop. One of the most telling involved his preference for a simple mattress laid out on the floor rather than a traditional bed. He explained the choice by saying it made him feel closer to the … Read more
Some of the biggest moments in history turn on the smallest decisions. In 1946, in a hardware shop in Tupelo, Mississippi, a poor woman said no to her eleven-year-old son — and in doing so, she accidentally invented rock and roll. The shop was Tupelo Hardware Company. The woman was Gladys Presley. The boy did … Read more
At 6:15 in the morning on August 28, 1970, the telephone rang at a hotel in Las Vegas. The wife of one of Elvis Presley’s closest friends picked it up. The anonymous voice on the other end said that Elvis was going to “get it” the following night. Forty-five minutes later, the same caller rang … Read more
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