Showbiz411

Sony Music really liked our story about the new Michael Jackson tracks, the unreleased material from “Bad.” But I’m told the Jackson estate is nervous I’ve implied the tracks were less than genuine. Never! They are 100% pure Michael, and just great.

Here’s an explanation for my earlier questions, just so every is, as we say, on the same page. A source close to the estate emailed me:

“There are no mysteries about the tracks.  They were all done in Michael’s studio at Hayvenhurst.  Bruce Swedien never worked at Hayvenhurst with Michael and would only have heard the tracks that Michael brought to Quincy [Jones] to include on the album.  As a result, there are many songs that would be unfamiliar to Bruce.  And, as far as Bill [Bottrell] is concerned, he doesn’t even know the names of all of the tracks he did work on.  Is it really surprising that, with the amount of tracks worked on during the BAD sessions, that there are some Bill doesn’t remember having done some engineering on? And, by the way, Bill wasn’t the only engineer working with Michael at Hayvenhurst.  Matt Forger was there then as well.”

Fans will love all the versions of “Bad25,” believe me. And I do hope Sony tries to get a couple of hits out of the demos. “I’m so Blue” is so catchy it’s embarrassing!

Roger Friedman

Roger Friedman began his Showbiz411 column in April 2009 after 10 years with Fox News. Friedman previously wrote the Intelligencer column at New York Magazine, He writes for Parade magazine and has written for Details, Vogue, the New York Times, Post, and Daily News and many other publications. He is the writer and co-producer of a film about R&B Music called “Only the Strong Survive,” which was released by Miramax in 2003 and was a selection of the Cannes, Sundance, and Telluride Film festivals.