The History of the This Is It Song

This Is It is the first song to hit the market after Michael’s death, and no one had heard it before. In fact, the song was written in 1983 by Michael and Anka. Paul Anka said that Michael recorded the song himself while Thriller was exploding the world under the title “I Never Heard.” Anka is a Canadian songwriter, actor, and singer who has written songs for Frank Sinatra.

He also gave this song to Puerto Rican singer SaFire, who released it in 1991. The song is musically and lyrically similar to the song recently released by Michael’s lawyers and Sony under the title This Is It.

Michael’s lawyer John Branca said that Michael didn’t write the song alone—Paul Anka also had a share in it. John McClain promised Anka that whatever costs he had, they would do the right thing. Michael’s lawyers assured Paul Anka that his 50% share from the song’s sales would be preserved. John McClain said he knew Michael hadn’t written the song alone because the song wasn’t in Michael’s style. Anka called this mistake innocent.

Until Anka came forward, the recording history of This Is It was unclear. Now Michael’s lawyers say the song was chosen from Michael’s archive to be included in the film and also on its soundtrack album because its lyrics have a conceptual similarity to the title Michael chose for his tour. They said they were excited about the release of an unheard-of song, with Michael’s voice, and that fans’ reception of the song has been unmatched.

The song was found in an archive of Michael’s songs and contained only Michael’s vocals and the calm sound of the piano. Later, the guitar sounds and Michael’s brothers’ voices were added, and it was recently released under the name This Is It.

The way the song was assembled after Michael’s death is eerily similar to the flow of John Lennon and Beatles songs. After Lennon’s death, the three remaining members of the band used the same method to save the songs Lennon had created and added their own instrumental and vocal sounds to the tracks.

Sony has announced that the similarity between the tour title and this song is coincidental, and there is no evidence showing that Michael himself intended to release this song.

The history of releasing new songs after an artist’s death goes back to Elvis Presley in 1977. New products from him continue to appear in the market, finding many new audiences. Every year, tens of millions of dollars are added to Elvis’s assets. Even in 2002, a remix of one of his old songs became number one in the UK. A similar but fainter situation occurred for Jimi Hendrix, Jim Morrison, Janis Joplin, and John Lennon after their deaths.

At the time of his death, Michael was working on two albums. Throughout his career, he created a huge number of songs for each album and selected some of them to be included on the albums. Also, songs he worked on over the years with different people were unheard of by anyone. The question of who makes claims about these songs, and the differences in taste between people who decide Michael’s professional and financial matters, likely makes the release of these songs—Sony calls them a treasure trove—more complicated.

Sony believes that releasing the This Is It song will boost sales of the soundtrack album. Meanwhile, Michael’s fans truly prefer to collect his works on music records or discs, and they prefer them over digital versions.

Source: eMJey / AP