Michael Jackson's New CD\LP Release
Legends, especially, music legends can die or cease to exist and still have new material not released before appear for sale.
The Beatles Anthology series of CDs released in 1994-97 were the first to do this. The fab four were so prolific in their material they literally had reels and reels of unreleased or incompleted songs. Songs that were excellent yet fell to the wayside as the band simply lost interest and had created one they liked more. Some were second rate songs. Others, had interesting versions, like Helter Skelter, released on the White LP in 1968. The LP version predates the Led Zeppelin sound by one year, yet, the version on the Anthology series sounds NOTHING like it, in fact, it is more of blues song. All this makes for interesting listening of the legends.
Now, Michael Jackson's survivors, plan to do the same. There is enough material for two CDs, the first, Michael, will be released Dec 14, 2010. As the record producers note, Michael took many of his business cues from The Beatles. He knew their worth, so he outbidded McCartney for the band's copyright ownership when their catalog was up for sale. A legend himself, to a lesser degree, he was also prolific with many songs completed or in various incomplete states, much as The Beatles, Free as a Bird (1994) song based on Lennon's recording which was remastered and recorded with the remaining Beatles. It did well when released as a single.
Michael CD contains 10 new, never released songs completed AFTER his death, much as The Beatles' Free as a Bird. Many of the new material was actually recorded on home recordings in 2007 at a friends home in New Jersey. Some already question its authenticity. Sony Corp. states experts agree it is MJ. The first single off the MJ CD is, Hold My Hand, which was completed just before MJ's death. One song, Burn Tonight, is a salsa number, the kind you would hear on the TV show, Dancing with the Stars. That song will be on the second CD.
MJs estate also plan to release again his 1979 LP, Off the Wall. It will be like a MJ anthology, with many versions of the songs and outtakes or bloopers. Like The Beatles, which continue to still be the highest revenue generating rock band, MJ's THIS IS IT release earned 275 million in one year.
