HIStory: Past, Present and Future, Book I

Notes

Personnel includes: Michael Jackson (vocals, various instruments); L.T.B., Vincent Price (vocals); Jeff Mirinov, Michael Thompson, Rob Hoffman, Jen Leigh, David Williams, Marlo Henderson, Christopher Currell, Paul Jackson, Dean Parks (guitar); Bill Bottrell (guitar, keyboards, synthesizer, percussion); Steve Lukather (guitar, bass); Paul Peabody (violin); David Paich (piano, keyboards, synthesizer); Rod Temperton, Chuck Wild (keyboards, synthesizer); Steve Porcaro (keyboards, synthesizer, programming); Greg Phillinganes (keyboards, Rhodes, synthesizer); Nathan East (bass); Ndugu Chancler, John Robinson (drums); Ollie E. Brown, Richard Heath (percussion); Christa Larson, Julia Waters, Maxine Waters, Oren Waters (background vocals). Producers include: Quincy Jones, Michael Jackson, Teddy Riley, Jimmy Jam & Terry Lewis, Janet Jackson. HISTORY BOOK 1 contains one disc of Jackson's greatest hits and one disc of all-new songs. It features a 52-page booklet with liner notes by Janet Jackson, Steven Spielberg, Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis and Elizabeth Taylor, as well as many never-before-seen photographs. HISTORY BOOK 1 was nominated for a 1996 Grammy Award for Album Of The Year. "You Are Not Alone" was nominated for Grammy Awards for Song Of The Year and Best Male Pop Vocal Performance, and the Michael Jackson-Janet Jackson duet "Scream" was nominated for Best Pop Collaboration With Vocals. Michael Jackson's monumental collection HISTORY BOOK 1 seeks to make two points. The first disc--chock full of hits spanning Jackson's Epic Records solo career--tries to establish how the so-called King of Pop earned that nickname in the first place; the second disc, featuring fifteen new, star-studded tracks, makes a case for him holding onto that royal moniker well into the next century. And though many may dismiss both directives as the product of Jackson camp hype, once the music begins it's hard to deny him any title he wishes to bestow upon himself. All of the songs on HISTORY's first disc have already been ingrained in the minds of the radio-listening, MTV-watching public. From the funky disco of 1979's "Don't Stop 'Til You Get Enough," through the countless and diverse THRILLER hits ("Billie Jean," "The Girl Is Mine," etc.), to the anthemic peace-in-our-time ballad "Heal The World," Jackson's star-power-fueled singles invested the mainstream with black pop's soulfulness to the point where black pop became the mainstream. And Jackson, subsequently, became pop's king. On the second disc, Jackson tries to retain a hold over his current empire while moving toward a more street-wise, hip-hop-tinged pop. "Scream," a duet with sister Janet, is prototypical. The beats are cold and stone-hard, and effuse grey noise electric discharges. Yet after multiple listens the song's simple chorus and minimalist melody imbed themselves in the cranium. Same goes for the mildly controversial "They Don't Care About Us," where Jackson near-raps a stream of nonsequiturs, amidst various urban-life samples, over a busy hip-hop beat. In fact, considering hip-hop's deep influence on HISTORY's new tracks, it seems the King has seen the future of his kingdom and has begun to act accordingly.