Is it Michael Jackson’s voice, or isn’t it?
After testimonials by Jackson’s record label and a former manager and producer, a lawyer for the Jackson estate has offered a detailed response to concerns that the lead vocal on “Breaking News” — the first track released from a posthumously assembled album, “Michael” — is that of Michael Jackson. Epic, the label, has also quickly announced the release of another song from the album.
In an unusually detailed letter to fans dated Thursday, Howard Weitzman, the lawyer, explained an exhaustive process of vetting the authenticity of the vocals on “Breaking News.” The track is one of three slated for “Michael” that Jackson recorded in New Jersey in late 2007, at the home of a friend, Eddie Cascio, and completed by Teddy Riley, a producer who had a long association with Jackson. As soon as the track was submitted to Epic, Mr. Weitzman wrote, the vocals were called into question, and he was asked by John Branca and John McClain, the executors of the estate, to investigate.
That investigation, Mr. Weitzman wrote, included playing the recording for a panel of producers and musicians who had worked with Jackson, as well as analysis by “one of the best-known forensic musicologists in the nation.” Here is an excerpt from the letter:
Six of Michael’s former producers and engineers who had worked with Michael over the past 30 years — Bruce Swedien, Matt Forger, Stewart Brawley, Michael Prince, Dr. Freeze and Teddy Riley — were all invited to a listening session to hear the raw vocals of the tracks in question. All of these people listened to the a cappella versions of the vocals on the tracks being considered for inclusion on the album, so they could give an opinion as to whether or not the lead vocals were sung by Michael. They all confirmed that the vocal was definitely Michael.
After those musicians gave the thumbs-up, Mr. Weitzman wrote, the forensic musicologist performed a “waveform analysis” on the vocals, and also affirmed that they were by Jackson. Sony, Epic’s parent company, hired its own musicologist, who came to the same conclusion. (Neither musicologist was named in the letter.) Perhaps most persuasively Mr. Weitzman contacted Jason Malachi — “a young singer who some persons had wrongfully alleged was a ‘soundalike’” — who said he was not involved in the recording.
With the fan debate about Jackson’s vocals on the song still ricocheting around the Internet, Epic has announced the full track list for “Michael,” with guest spots by 50 Cent, Lenny Kravitz and the Senegalese-American singer and producer Akon. The first single, “Hold My Hand” — “Breaking News,” you see, was just a “teaser” — will be available for download around the world on Monday at 12:01 a.m. Eastern time.
Epic and the Jackson estate said very little about “Breaking News” before it began streaming online this week. But this time a fuller provenance is offered: According to the label’s announcement, “Hold My Hand” is a duet with Akon that was recorded in 2007, and “a handwritten note from Michael Jackson belonging to his estate” indicated that Jackson wanted it to be the first single of his next project. A spokeswoman for Epic further explained that Jackson’s vocals were recorded in Las Vegas, where he was living at the time.
Here is the list of tracks for “Michael,” which will be released on Dec. 14:
1. “Hold My Hand” (featuring Akon)
2. “Hollywood Tonight”
3. “Keep Your Head Up”
4. “(I Like) the Way You Love Me”
5. “Monster” (featuring 50 Cent)
6. “Best of Joy”
7. “Breaking News”
8. “(I Can’t Make It) Another Day” (featuring Lenny Kravitz)
9. “Behind the Mask”
10. “Much Too Soon”
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