Michael Jackson Michael Jackson/Sunset Driver Unreleased Album

What if another album under Michael Jackson’s name had been released between “Off The Wall” and “Thriller”? The 2LP album “Sunset Driver” was created with that concept. The two albums are made up of previously unreleased songs and alternate versions, and you will discover many new surprises about Michael Jackson. SIDE A 1. Shake Your Lovely One 2. Sunset Driver 3. Hot Street 4. She’s Trouble 5. Carousel SIDE B 6. Somebody Watching Me 7. Got The Hots 8. Who Do You Know 9. Love Never Felt So Good SIDE C 10. Nite Line 11. Wondering Who 12. Say Say Say SIDE D 13. Someone In The Dark 14. For All Time 15. Behind The Mask 16. Out Of The Rain The first track, “Shake Your Lovely One,” is a unique dance number that cleverly mashes up the Jacksons’ “Lovely One” and “Shake Your Body (Down To The Ground).” The second track is the album’s title track, “Sunset Driver.” Produced by Michael, it was recorded at Hayvenhurst from November 1978 to April 1979 for the album Off the Wall, but was left unfinished and reworked in August 1982 at Westlake Recording Studios with further overdubs for Thriller. According to Michael’s official Webb and notes known to Bill Bottrell, “Sunset Driver” was revisited and recorded by Bill and Michael on May 30-31, 1986 for the Bad album, but was ultimately left unfinished. What is included here is an updated mix using the released demos from both 1979 and 1982 (some say the demo from Thriller 40 was for the 1979 Off the Wall album. Also, near the end of the song, Michael can be heard saying “That’s it Janet,” which is undoubtedly a reference to Janet Jackson, who was presumably present at the recording sessions). The third track, “Hot Street,” was written by Rod Temperton and produced by Quincy Jones and recorded during the Thriller sessions at Westlake Recording Studios in August-September ’82. It was originally titled “Slapstick” with completely different lyrics. Michael loved the song and wanted to put it on the record, but it was ultimately decided that it wasn’t strong enough. Michael said, “Yeah, I love ‘Hot Street.’ I love that song. Quincy and Rod didn’t think it was good enough, but I thought it was great.” The fourth track is “She’s Trouble.” Written by Bill Livesey, Sue Shifrin and Terry Britten, it was recorded by Michael in the fall of ’81 but was rejected, and later featured on Scott Baio’s album The Boys Are Out Tonight and Musical Youth’s album Different Style. In 2009, an early demo of unfinished lyrics and mutterings was leaked, and “She’s Trouble” would later appear on Thriller 40. This version is a mix of the demo and the final version. The resulting final version’s finished lyrics and vocal quality are expertly mixed with the funky instrumental of the demo. We also added some original ad-libs to make the song less monotonous. The fifth track, “Carousel.” Written by Michael Sembello and Don Freeman, produced by Quincy Jones, and recorded in August and September 1982. This song was considered for Thriller, but eventually lost out to “Human Nature.” “It’s a great song. Michael Sembello’s slow song is beautiful. But lyrically, and at that point, it didn’t seem like that was where the album was headed,” Rod Temperton said in an interview for Thriller Special Edition. The version recorded here has the intro edited and Michael’s vocals added at the end to make it longer and more complete. The sixth track, “Somebody’s Watching Me,” has most of Rockwell’s singing removed, making it a Michael-centric version. Jermaine Jackson also appears on the chorus. It was written by Rockwell and produced by Curtis Anthony Nolen, and recorded in 1983. Rockwell’s father and Motown CEO Berry Gordy was not initially satisfied with the demo, but thought that featuring the Jackson brothers would make it a hit. The seventh track, “Got The Hots,” was written and produced by Michael Jackson, Quincy Jones, and Rod Temperton, and recorded in the fall of 1981, but was rejected for Thriller. It was later given to Theda Garrett, who rewrote the song, renamed it “Baby’s Got It Bad,” and included it on her album Kiss Of Life. Another song that was treated similarly was “Groove Of Midnight.” Track 8, “Who Do You Know.” Michael began working on this song in 1980, before the “Thriller” sessions, and continued working on it at Hayvenhurst in the fall of 1981 during the album sessions, and then at Westlake until February 1982, but it was never completed. It was reworked by Michael during the “Victory” sessions and was considered for inclusion on the album, but he was only involved in three other songs, “State Of Shock,” “Be Not Always,” and “The Hurt.” Michael acknowledged the song’s existence in his testimony in Mexico in 1993, but did not go into details. “Who Do You Know” is a song that expresses Michael’s sadness for a woman who left him two years ago and his desire to find her. In 1978, Diana Ross and Tatum O’Neal are candidates for Michael’s lovers, but since “Remember The Time” is sung with Diana in mind, “Who Do You Know” may be the same. The version included here has been slightly edited and the guitar from the opening added to the final chorus. The ninth track, “Love Never Felt So Good,” is (80’s Mix). “Love Never Felt So Good” is an unreleased Michael Jackson song, released posthumously as the opening track of his second and final album, Xscape. It was released as a single on May 2, 2014, and was the lead single from the album. Three versions were released: a duet with Justin Timberlake, a solo remix, and an original demo. It was co-written and co-produced by Michael and Paul Anka, and recorded in 1980. Like the other two tracks (“It Don’t Matter To Me” and “I Never Heard”), this collaboration was intended for Anka’s 1983 album “Walk a Fine Line,” but was not included, and was released a year later on Johnny Mathis’ “A Special Part Of Me.” It was included. It was taken out of the vault for Michael’s ’10 album, produced by John McClain and Giorgio Tunefort, but remained unreleased, but later that year a high quality recording was leaked and an identical re-recorded version from ’10 was eventually included on Xscape. In addition to the solo version, a duet remix was made with Michael and Justin Timberlake, produced by Timbaland and J Rock, which became one of the biggest hits in Michael’s discography. Track 10, “Nite Line”, was written by Glen Ballard, Bree Howard and Davey Faragher, produced by Quincy Jones and recorded during the Thriller sessions in August ’82, but was not used and was given to the Pointer Sisters, who renamed it “Nightline” and included it on Break Out. The song was also considered for inclusion on Thriller 25, but remains unreleased. This time, the slow tempo of the unnecessary opening has been cut, and the piano, synth and other instruments have been extended in the remix. The 11th track, “Wondering Who,” was included in the Jacksons’ “Triumph,” but this time, Michael’s unreleased vocals were leaked in 2021, so this version has been added with Michael’s ad-libs and backing vocals to give it a Michael Jackson solo finish. The 12th track, “Say Say Say.” It was recorded between April and May 1981, a year before the sessions for “The Girl Is Mine.” It was scheduled to be included on Paul McCartney’s “Tug of War,” released in 1982. Michael mainly sings the hook, but there are also some ad-libs. “The Man,” another collaboration that the two recorded for “Pipes of Peace,” features a balanced mix of Michael and Paul’s leads. And the 2015 Alternate Version Remix was released in 2015, featuring Michael’s thrilling new vocals. It sounds like Paul and Michael’s vocal parts have been swapped compared to the original. This alternate version is used this time, with Michael singing the main part, and is perfect for inclusion on Michael’s album. The 13th track, “Someone in the Dark,” was released as a promotional single for Michael’s audiobook of E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial. This track is divided into two parts, “Opening Version” and “Closing Version.” Ed Eckstein, executive vice president and general manager of Quincy Jones Productions, said that at about 46 minutes and 25 seconds into the documentary “Thriller 40,” Quincy Jones became friends with Steven Spielberg. While Spielberg was working on E.T., Quincy and Michael were invited to the set. There, Spielberg asked Quincy to make a record together. Quincy approached Michael with the idea of ​​creating a storybook album for E.T., telling stories and writing and singing songs.Michael agreed to the idea. In the summer of ’82, Epic Records allowed Michael to record a Storybook album (including the new song “Someone in the Dark”) for MCA (who were releasing the film’s soundtrack), but with two conditions: MCA would hold the album until Christmas ’82 so as not to compete with Michael’s new album, Thriller, and would not release “Someone in the Dark” as a single. MCA released the album in November ’82, but also gave out promotional copies of “Someone in the Dark” to radio stations, thus violating both conditions in the US. Of particular concern was the failure to contact Walter Yetnikoff, then president of Epic Records, about the release from Universal/MCA. Yetnikoff instructed Michael to tell him to “stop kissing monsters.” As a result of the lawsuit, MCA withdrew the album and was barred from releasing the song as a single. Thus was born one of Michael’s rarest and most popular promotional singles, with copies fetching over £1,000. According to John Branca in the Thriller 40 documentary, Michael was angry with Yetnikoff. Yetnikoff wondered what he could do to remedy the situation. As a result, Michael Jackson owned all the masters from Off The Wall to his subsequent releases. “Someone In The Dark” was supposed to be included on the out-of-print 90s compilation album Decade, this was the “Opening Version”. It was later included on Thriller 25 and other releases, but all of them are the “Opening Version”. The lyrics are different from the “Closing Version” included on the promo. This recording is closer to the original, with E.T.’s voice removed. The 14th track “For All Time” is an 80’s Mix. The 15th track, “Behind the Mask”, was first recorded during the Thriller sessions in October 1981 as a cover of an instrumental by Yellow Magic Orchestra. Work continued until a year later, but it was scrapped and later given to Greg Philliganes and Eric Clapton for the album Pulse. It was later released as the third and final single from the album, with John McClain completely reworking the instrumental part for the album Michael (that version replaces verse 2 with verse 3 and includes a saxophone solo). It was released on 7-inch vinyl (only 4,000 copies pressed) on Record Store Day on April 16, 2011, and a limited promotional CD was released in Poland that same year. “Behind the Mask” was composed by Ryuichi Sakamoto and was included on Solid State Survivor on September 25, 1979. When YMO performed it overseas, the audience would shout that this was the only song that was rock and roll. The reason why it is highly rated is that the tempo is slower than general techno pop. The “riff” is distinctive. When playing on the guitar, it requires little finger movement and can be played by just sliding (Sakamoto made it with this in mind). The rest in the second half of the third beat of the riff adds tempo variation. The chord progression is similar to blues, making it easy to sing. The bass line in the B melody is similar to rhythm and blues. These are some of the reasons. The recording here is a mashup of two instrumental remixes, “The Magical Mix” (KaiMakesMusic2) and “Stranger’s Remix” (The Stranger’s Remix), with the basic vocals from “A cappella”. The 16th track, “Out Of The Rain”. Originally a song called “You Can’t Win”, it was composed by Charlie Smalls and produced by Quincy Jones for the musical “The Wiz” which was performed in Baltimore in 1974. However, it was cut from the official Broadway opening and was not performed until production on The Wiz began. During production of the film, Michael was asked to sing the song, which was recorded between November ’77 and January ’78, and was used in place of “I Was Born On The Day Before Yesterday” during Michael’s Scarecrow performance. After recording the original soundtrack, Michael returned to the studio with Quincy Jones to re-record the song in the summer of ’78 with an Off The Wall-style production. It was eventually released as a single on January 11, ’79, and became Michael’s first solo single after leaving Motown. “You Can’t Win” is a two-part song, with the first half featuring proper verses and choruses, and the second half featuring ad-libs and backing vocals (though the 2004 Ultimate Collection release includes a condensed version of the song in one seventh). On October 18, 1982, a re-recorded version of “You Can’t Win” (Part 2), called “Can’t Get Outta The Rain”, was released as the B-side of the single “The Girl Is Mine”. It is basically part 2 of the original song, but with the lyrics “you can’t get outta the game” replaced with “you can’t get outta the rain” and some overdubs added. And Charlie Smalls is not credited with the songwriting, only Quincy and Michael. The version included here is a custom edit of “Can’t Get Outta The Rain”.