Roger Friedman: Don't Be Messin' 'Round Is Not a Demo

It has been a month since Don't Be Messin' 'Round was released. (Read). This single topped Billboard at number one.

Roger Friedman wrote an article about this song a week before, on the anniversary of Michael’s death—and we’re reading it here:

Epic (the company) ruined a beautiful unreleased Michael Jackson song.

Today is the third anniversary of Michael Jackson’s passing (and also of Fara Fawcett). Epic Records can’t handle the release of Michael Jackson’s songs properly.

Three years ago, I told you that Bruce Swedien, Michael’s veteran recording engineer, had an unreleased track—one that Frank Dileo (Michael’s manager) had been highlighting. Its name was Don't Be Messin' 'Round.

Three weeks ago, on June 5, Don't Be Messin' 'Round was released as the second track from the single I Can't Stop Loving You. I just spoke to Bruce a moment ago. He told me that Don't Be Messin' 'Round is not a demo, but a finished piece. Michael plays piano on this track. Sony didn’t consult Swedien for the release of this song. Instead, it sent Spike Lee to conduct a number of interviews and make a video for the 25th anniversary of the release of the album Bad. The album comes out in September, but there’s still no news about promotion.

After all the arguments and controversy surrounding the Casio tracks on the album Michael, a song was finally found that nobody doubted was authentic and that could really cause a stir. Not only was there no promotion for this song, but it can only be bought in person at a Walmart store. There’s no online download available.

I don’t know why Sony, Epic, Legacy, and the Michael Jackson Foundation couldn’t pull this off properly. This has happened with all products released after Michael’s death. I think Sony said it paid $200 million to the foundation in exchange for releasing these works. With the way they’ve gone about it, I doubt their investment will come back.

Source: eMJey.com / Showbiz411