You Rock My World

"You Rock My World" is a song by American recording artist Michael Jackson from his tenth and final studio album Invincible (2001). It was released as the lead single from the album in August 2001 by Epic Records. The lyrics pertain to being in love and trying to gain a woman's affection. Produced by Jackson and Rodney "Darkchild" Jerkins and written by Jackson, Jerkins, Fred Jerkins III, LaShawn Daniels and Nora Payne, the song is musically a disco pop song with influences from Jackson's songs from his previous studio albums with Quincy Jones.

The song received mixed reviews from music critics, with reviewers commenting that Jackson could have made a better effort for it and that it was not his best material, while other reviewers generally praised the song's composition and Jackson's vocal performance. "You Rock My World" was commercially successful worldwide and peaked at number ten on the Billboard Hot 100, becoming Jackson's first top ten single in the United States in over six years, and his last in the country for the remainder of his career. "You Rock My World" topped the French music chart for three consecutive weeks. It also reached the top ten in Australia, Austrian, Canada, Danish, Finnish, Italian, Swedish, Swiss and the United Kingdom music charts.

As part of promotion for the song, a music video was released. The video, which is fourteen minutes long, was directed by Paul Hunter and features Chris Tucker. In the video, Jackson and Tucker portray men who are trying to gain a woman's affection. The video has been compared to Jackson's previous videos, "Smooth Criminal" and "The Way You Make Me Feel", and has received mixed reviews. The song was performed only twice by Jackson; at Madison Square Garden in New York City at two concerts in September 2001 to celebrate Jackson's career as a solo artist. Footage of the performance was shown in the two-hour CBS television special, Michael Jackson: 30th Anniversary Special. The track was nominated for a Grammy Award for Best Male Pop Vocal Performance at the 44th Grammy Awards.

Background


"You Rock My World" was recorded by Michael Jackson for his studio album, Invincible (2001). The song was written and composed by Michael Jackson, Rodney "Darkchild" Jerkins, Fred Jerkins III, LaShawn Daniels and Nora Payne, and produced by Jackson and Jerkins.

"You Rock My World" was officially released as the lead single from the album in late August 2001, by Epic Records.

Prior to the singles official release it had been leaked to two New York radio stations on Friday, August 17.

Immediately after the songs radio airplay the radio stations had received "a herd of [radio] callers asking for more."

"You Rock My World" was first played on the WJTM-FM station at 6 p.m., with WKTU-FM airing the song 45 minutes later.

Both stations had played the single every two hours until around 6 p.m. Saturday, when Jackson's record label, Epic Records, called the program director for both stations, Frankie Blue, and asked him to stop.

"[They] informed me of the dangers of playing a song too early," Blue said on Wednesday, August 22. "[They] said, 'Please do me a favor and take it off the air.'"Blue, a friend of Jackson's, stated that he would not say how he got the single.

Composition


"You Rock My World" is credited as being an uptempo disco pop song that has vibrating vocal harmonies.

The song is played in the time signature of common time in the key E minor, with Jackson's vocal range spanning from the tonal nodes of E4 to Bb5. "You Rock My World" has a moderate tempo of 120 beats per minute.

The chord progression in the song is Em7–C9-Bm7–Am7–D–Em7.

The song's composition has been compared to Jackson's previous material with Quincy Jones from the 1970s and 1980s, as well as the disco-theme from Jackson's 1979 single, "Don't Stop 'til You Get Enough".

Chris Tucker voices the vocal introduction of the song.

Lyrically, the song's lyrics are about being in love, as well as the effect that it can have, as evident in the opening line, "My life will never be the same, 'cause, girl, you came and changed the way I walk, the way I talk, I cannot explain"

Critical Reception


"You Rock My World" received generally mixed reviews from music critics. Praise was mainly directed at the song's composition, while dissatisfaction towards the song was expressed by critics because they felt that the track was not Jackson's best material. Stephen Thomas Erlewine of Allmusic listed "You Rock My World" as being a highlight for the Invincible album.

Reviewer Andrew Hamilton of Allmusic stated that, "If anybody other than Michael Jackson had released 'You Rock My World' with the tons of publicity and promotion it was accorded, it would have slam dunked the charts and been a multiple award winner. It sold well and got play everywhere, but too many critics panned the song and the album it came from as not being good enough for an artist on Jackson's level."

Hamilton commented that people should "give Michael credit" because he was able to maintain a respectable career as a recording artist over the years of his later career.

James Hunter of Rolling Stone praised the song's vocal rhythms as being "finely sculpted" and "exquisite". He noted that the song shows similarities to Jackson's previous material with Quincy Jones.

Mark Beaumont, a writer for NME, described the song as being a "disco classic" and commented that he felt that the song's brief intro was "funnier than Chris Evans on fire".

Catherine Halaby of Yale Daily News stated that the song "showcases the best of 'classic Michael'", and described the song as being "funky, catchy, upbeat, not too creepy".

"You Rock My World" was nominated for a Grammy Award for Best Pop Vocal Performance - Male at the 44th Grammy Awards, but it lost the award to James Taylor's "Don't Let Me Be Lonely Tonight". It was Jackson's first Grammy nomination since 1997, for his single "Earth Song", and his first nomination in that category since 1995.

Chart Performance


"You Rock My World" was commercially successful, generally charting within the top ten positions on music charts worldwide. The song was Jackson's last hit single in the United States in the final years of his career. "You Rock My World" charted within the top twenty positions on the Billboard Hot 100 on September 15, 2001. The following week, the song charted at its peak position, number ten. It became Jackson's highest charting single since his 1995 number-one single, "You Are Not Alone". "You Rock My World" also charted at number seven and thirteen on Billboard's Pop Charts and R&B/Hip-Hop Songs.

The song also charted within the top ten positions, peaking at number two, on the Canadian RPM Hot 100 chart.

"You Rock My World" debuted on the United Kingdoms Singles Chart at number two, which was its peak position in the country, on October 20. The song remained within the top twenty positions on the chart for four consecutive weeks, and remained within the top 100 positions for fifteen consecutive weeks from October 20, 2001, to January 26, 2002.

"You Rock My World" debuted on the French Singles Chart on October 13, 2001, at the number one position. The song song remained at the number one position on the chart for three consecutive weeks, and remained within the top twenty positions for ten consecutive weeks.

The song debuted on the Dutch Singles Charts at number four on October 20, and the following week, charted at its peak position, number two.

"You Rock My World" debuted on the Finnish Singles Chart on the forty first week of 2001, at its peak position, number two. After three weeks, the song fell off the charts.

The song debuted at its peak position, number two, in Norway in the 42nd second week of 2001. The song remained on the chart for six consecutive weeks, charting within the top twenty positions.

"You Rock My World" entered New Zealand charts on September 16, at number thirty one. "You Rock My World" debuted on the Australian Singles Chart at its peak position, number four. After the song charted within the top fifty positions for five consecutive weeks, it fell off the chart, and re-entered two weeks later at number thirty seven, and fell off the chart for the second time on January 6, 2002.

"You Rock My World" debuted on the Italian Singles Chart on November 11, at its peak position number three, and remained within the top ten positions for four weeks in 2001.

The song peaked at number two and four on the Belgium Flanders and Walonia charts in 2001.

On the Austrian Singles Chart, the song debuted at its peak position, number nine, on October 21, and it remained on the chart for a total of eight weeks. After seven weeks, the song charted at its peak position, number thirteen, and remained on the chart for twelve weeks in 2001.

After Jackson's death in June 2009, "You Rock My World" re-entered music charts worldwide and re-entered Billboard charts for the first time in almost eight years. The song also peaked at number sixty two on Billboard's Digital Songs chart on July 11, 2009.

The song re-entered the United Kingdom Singles Chart on July 4, charting at number ninety-seven. The following week the song charted at its peak position, number sixty, and charted out of the top 100 positions after spending three weeks on the chart.

"You Rock My World" re-entered the Australian Singles Chart for the third time on July 19, at number fifty. The song remained on the chart for only one week.

Promotion


In late August 2001, Jackson and Sony Music began a promotional campaign for "You Rock My World". As part of promotion for the single, as well as the album, Jackson made a public appearance by celebrating his 43rd birthday—one day late—by presiding over the NASDAQ market opening ceremony in Times Square on Thursday morning, on August 30, 2001.

Jackson only performed "You Rock My World" twice. The only performances of "You Rock My World" was during two concerts in early September 2001, which was to celebrate Jackson's 30th year as solo artist, at Madison Square Garden. Tucker, who is part of the songs dialogue and video, was part of the live performance. Footage of the second concert on September 10 was shown in a two hour television special, entitled Michael Jackson: 30th Anniversary Special, which was aired on CBS in November of the same year.

Music Video


The music video for "You Rock My World" was directed by Paul Hunter, and was released in 2001. The video, which is over thirteen minutes long, was described as being a short film.

The dance performed during the video consists of fragments from the canceled "Dangerous" music video. The video consists of Jackson's and Tucker's characters trying to gain a woman's (Kishaya Dudley) affection by subsequently following her around the neighborhood. The video for "You Rock My World" was thought to be the last music video to feature any participation from Jackson before the video for "One More Chance" was unearthed (his following videos would consist of archive footage of himself and others).

The video has been compared to Jackson's previous 1980s music videos for his singles, "Smooth Criminal" (1987), "Bad" (1987), and "The Way You Make Me Feel" (1987), both from his 1987 studio album, Bad.

In the video, Jackson can be seen wearing a Blazer and his traditional hat. The video features appearances from Marlon Brando, Michael Madsen and Billy Drago.

Catherine Halaby, a writer for Yale Daily News, who had given the song a positive review, described the video as being a "direct descendant" of "Smooth Criminal," with the "nuances" of "The Way You Make me Feel".

Halaby commented that appearances by Marlon Brando and Michael Madsen were "indeed random" and that "few things Jackson does shock us anymore."

The video won an NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Music Video at the award shows 2002 ceremony.

In several instances in the video, Tucker's character makes several references to previous songs by Michael Jackson, such as "Beat It", "P.Y.T. (Pretty Young Thing)", "The Girl Is Mine", "Bad" and "Dangerous".

The short version of the music video appears on Number Ones, and the long version appears on Michael Jackson's Vision.

Live Performances


"You Rock My World" was performed twice live during the 30th anniversary concerts performed in late 2001. The song was set to be performed in his This Is It concerts, but was ultimately cancelled due to Jackson's sudden death.

Track Listing


CD single
No. Title Length
1. "You Rock My World" 5:39
2. "You Rock My World" (Radio Edit) 4:25
3. "You Rock My World" (Instrumental) 5:07
4. "You Rock My World" (Acapella) 4:47
Total length:
19:18


European, Cassette and Australian single
No. Title Length
1. "Intro" 0:32
2. "You Rock My World" (Album Edit) 5:07
3. "You Rock My World" (Radio Edit) 4:25
4. "You Rock My World" (Instrumental) 5:07
5. "You Rock My World" (Acapella) 5:01
Total length:
20:12


CD Promo
No. Title Length
1. "Intro" 0:32
2. "You Rock My World" (Album Edit) 5:07
3. "You Rock My World" (Radio Edit) 4:25
Total length:
10:04


12" 1
No. Title Length
1. "Intro" 0:32
2. "You Rock My World" (Album Edit) 5:07
3. "You Rock My World" (Instrumental) 5:07
4. "You Rock My World" (Acapella) 5:01
Total length:
15:47


12" 2
No. Title Length
1. "You Rock My World" 3:45
Total length:
3:45


Japan CD Promo
No. Title Length
1. "Intro" 0:32
2. "You Rock My World" 5:07
Total length:
5:39


VHS Promo
No. Title Length
2. "You Rock My World" (Music Video (Short Version)) 10:26
3. "You Rock My World" (Music Video (Extended Version)) 13:44
Total length:
24:10

Personnel


Written and composed by Michael Jackson, Rodney Jerkins, Fred Jerkins III, LaShawn Daniels and Nora Payne
Produced and all musical instruments performed by Michael Jackson and Rodney Jerkins
Lead and background vocals by Michael Jackson
Intro by Chris Tucker and Michael Jackson
Recorded by Brad Gilderman, Rodney Jerkins, Jean-Marie Horvat, Dexter Simmons and Stuart Brawley
Digital Editing by Harvey Mason, Jr. and Stuart Brawley
Mixed by Bruce Swedien and Rodney Jerkins

Charts and Procession


Chart (2001/2009) Peak Position

Australian Singles Chart 4
Austrian Singles Chart 9
Belgium (Flanders) Singles Chart 4
Belgium (Walonia) Singles Chart 2
Canadian Singles Chart 2
Danish Singles Chart 2
Finnish Singles Chart 2
French Singles Chart 1
Italian Singles Chart 3
New Zealand Singles Chart 13
Norwegian Singles Chart 2
Romania (Romanian Top 100) 1
Swedish Singles Chart 5
Swiss Singles Chart 5
UK Singles Chart 2
US Billboard Hot 100 10
US Billboard Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs 13