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Subject: Re: Michael's Favorite Songs Mon Jun 18, 2012 11:56 am
How Deep Is Your Love - Bee Gees
Frank Cascio’s book “My Friend Michael”
Michael played DJ back at the chalet, saying, “You have to listen to this song. Now you have to hear this group.” We listened to Stevie Wonder and all of the Motown stars. He had us listen to the James Brown song “Papa Don’t Take No Mess” – all fourteen minutes of it. We listened to How Deep Is Your Love? (I still believe that it’s one of the greatest songs of all time).
Last edited by Admin on Mon Jun 18, 2012 2:58 pm; edited 1 time in total
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Also, what do you think of Weird Al’s “Rye & The Kaiser”?
Haha. I am big fan of his parody of Eye of the Tiger. Especially like the line “Stay away from the tuna, it smells fishy today.” Almost did not grant a license to Al for this song but I am glad that Michael Jackson changed my mind.
I knew Michael through Bruce Swedien – who was Michael’s long-time engineer. When Michael heard my song – “Gift of Song” – he said to Bruce “He is writing about me.”
When Michael gave Weird Al permission to “Beat It” as the template for “Eat It” – he convinced me that this was a cool thing to do. Never regretted it for a minute.
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“I spend hours listening to classical composers. Tchaikovsky is the greatest. I also love songs from the great musicals like “Climb Every Mountain” and “Happy Talk”, as well as modern pop groups like U2, ZZ Top and Van Halen. Here is my all time top ten.”
Love Me Do – The Beatles
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Once I was out at Michael’s Studio on Havenhurt in Encino, and I was going through a stack of vinyl records sitting by the console. One of the records I came across was Grace Jones “Nightclubbing” I picked it up to look at it front and back and Michael got kind of excited about it too. He took the record from me and asked if I’d like to hear a song that was very influential to him, and I thought are you kidding, YES please. He put on a song called “Feel Up” from that record and I about fell over !!! All the little inflections Michael creates with his voice on his records, are present on this Grace Jones track from 1981. Please check this song out, anyone reading this thread will be glad they did.
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“I spend hours listening to classical composers. Tchaikovsky is the greatest. I also love songs from the great musicals like “Climb Every Mountain” and “Happy Talk”, as well as modern pop groups like U2, ZZ Top and Van Halen. Here is my all time top ten.”
Nutcracker Suite – Tchaikovsky
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It was amazing how he’d come in with some song he liked and want to capture something about it – the energy, the tone, the mood.
He was really into “Owner of a Lonely Heart” too. So when Yes came to town, I made sure everyone knew it, and we got Trevor Rabin to come down and play some stuff on “They Don’t Care About Us”.
That is the orchestra hit from “Owner of a lonely heart” [on D.S]. . . . .
Nephew Taj Jackson on twitter, 3rd of January 2011:
tajjackson3Taj Jackson Every time I hear “Owner Of A Lonely Heart”, I think of my uncle. It was one of his favorite songs. I can still picture him doing air guitar.
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Michael played DJ back at the chalet, saying, “You have to listen to this song. Now you have to hear this group.” We listened to Stevie Wonder and all of the Motown stars. He had us listen to the James Brown song “Papa Don’t Take No Mess” – all fourteen minutes of it.
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Michael ‘s list of favorite records, from around 1979:
Frank Cascio “My Friend Michael”
He introduced me to all types of music – country, folk, classical, funk, rock. He even turned me on to Barbra Streisand. I fell in love with her song “People.”
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“I spend hours listening to classical composers. Tchaikovsky is the greatest. I also love songs from the great musicals like “Climb Every Mountain” and “Happy Talk”, as well as modern pop groups like U2, ZZ Top and Van Halen. Here is my all time top ten.”
Peter and the Wolf – Prokofiev
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Subject: Re: Michael's Favorite Songs 
Mon Jun 18, 2012 11:56 am
