written by Michael Jackson

produced by Quincy Jones and Michael Jackson

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Okay, how to open this one... the tasteless joke (“well, Michael,

apparently you can; you kinda stopped doing pretty much

everything twelve years ago—including breathing—didn’t you”), or

the more majestic-type salute (“just as there shall always be those

who believe the king of rock and roll lives on forever—figuratively or literally—so will there always be those who believe the king of pop will rise again as well”)? Hmmm... how about this—

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I’m making this page on June 25th, 2021, and this one is actually going to be a 24-hour belated birthday tribute, and that of the alternative. Just as today is the 12-year anniversary of Michael’s death, 6/25/09,

yesterday also just happened to be the 61st birthday of Deborah Christine “Siedah” Garrett—who goes by Siedah professionally—and as there just happens to be a song on Michael’s Bad album sung together

with Siedah... seems the natural choice to me. Happy Birthday, SG!! And Michael, Happy... erm...

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Anyway, moving on: for more of a career summary of Michael’s, you can consult my page for “Man In The Mirror”—which just so happened to have been co-written by Siedah, so check out the synchronicity going on! (This one’s lyrics should hopefully be easier to lay out than dang “Mirror”’s were—thanks again for that, Mike...) This song was produced both by Michael and long-time collaborator/producer Quincy Jones. And after three years without any solo releases, “I Just Can’t Stop Loving You” was in fact released on July 20th, ’87, pre-dating the Bad record by over a month. Its b-side was a non-single album track from Thriller, “Baby Be Mine,” which at the time was also b-sided to back “Human Nature.”

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In preparing this duet, Michael put offers out to Barbra Streisand and Whitney Houston, both of whom declined. And so apparently, the solicitation of Siedah’s vocal services on “Can’t Stop Loving” here was an absolute last-minute move. Seems he told her that very day, “Oh, and by the way, you have to sing on this song with me; I need some talented female vocals.”

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Bad yielded five straight US #1s (really, Mike? Only five? That the best you could do?), “IJCSLY” being the chronological first. Funnily enough, though, no music video was made for it. But finally, here’s an interesting tidbit: “The original album version of the song opened with Jackson cooing a spoken intro backed by a longer version of the opening music. According to Jackson, he recorded that part of his song while lying in bed. The intro went, in part, ‘I just want to lay next to you for a while. You look so beautiful tonight... a lot of people misunderstand me. That’s because they don’t know me at all. I just want to touch you and hold you...’ This intro was mixed out on the 7” single, on future releases of Bad and on most compilation albums. An alternate version of the single, featuring the original mastered album version mix with the spoken word intro for ‘I Just Can’t Stop Loving You’ backed by the album outtake ‘Don’t Be Messin’ ’Round,’ was released in select Walmart stores in 2012 to mark the release of Bad 25.” —an excerpt from the song’s Wikipedia page

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(Half an hour later: whew... okay, yeah, that one’s lyrics were kind of painstaking to print out below too... but when you’re a perfectionist, that’s the way certain projects are going to be. At least it’s worth it, and rewarding when you know they’re done and accurate.)

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RIP Michael, 8/29/58 to 6/25/09.

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Have notes to add? Let me know!

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YT:

full version

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Michael’s official website