Below is an excerpt from a chapter in my book Xscape Origins: The Songs & Stories Michael Jackson Left Behind. To read the full story, along with the stories of seven other previously-unreleased Michael Jackson songs, simply click here and order your copy of Xscape Origins – available in both physical and digital formats.
On September 7, 1996, Michael Jackson kicked off his record-breaking HIStory World Tour at Letna Park in Prague, Czech Republic. The tour, a grueling 82-date trek across the globe which saw Jackson perform in front of 4.5 million fans, in thirty-five countries, on five continents, came to an end thirteen months later, on October 15, 1997, at Kings Park Stadium in Durban, South Africa.
During a five-month break between the first and second legs of the tour, Jackson’s record label, Sony Music, released Blood on the Dance Floor: HIStory in the Mix—a compilation album including five “new” songs (two of which had already been released six months earlier as part of the 40-minute Ghosts film) and eight dance remixes of tracks taken from 1995’s HIStory album. Jackson personally expressed his dissatisfaction with the remixes on the album, saying, “The least I can say is that I don’t like them. I don’t like it that they come in and change my songs completely, but Sony says that kids love remixes.”[1]
Moreover, the fact that only three of the songs on Blood on the Dance Floor—“Morphine,” “Superfly Sister,” and title track—had never been heard before left fans hungry for more new music from the King of Pop.
And so, shortly after the completion of the tour, Jackson turned his attention towards his next full-length album, returning to the recording studio to work on ideas with his team of trusted collaborators.
As was customary when recording a new album, Jackson also invited a number of new personnel into the fold—with whom he had not yet worked—to see what they could bring to the table. One of the new personnel was singer, songwriter, and producer Elliot Straite (a.k.a. “Dr. Freeze”), best known for his New Jack Swing style production, and for having cowritten R & B boy band Color Me Badd’s 1991 hit “I Wanna Sex You Up.”
“I knew [Jackson’s] manager, John McClain, and I was working on an album with my partner, Spydermann,” recalls Freeze. “After completing the album, things did not go as planned and we had to cancel the project. I was very upset. And then John McClain said, ‘Don’t worry, Freeze. I have another project for you. You’ll be in business with Michael.’ I said, ‘Michael who?’ And he said, ‘Michael Jackson!’”[2]
At first Freeze thought McClain was crazy, not believing that Michael Jackson would actually want to work with him. Then one day, when Freeze was talking to his father on the phone, someone called him on the other line. Freeze put his father on hold and took the other call. It was Jackson.
Soon after their initial phone introduction, Freeze began preparing a collection of songs to present to Jackson. Once the songs were ready, Jackson came in, and they got to work on the ones Jackson liked best.
“I introduced him to many songs,” says Freeze. “The main songs on which we worked were ‘Break Of Dawn,’ ‘A Place With No Name,’ and ‘Blue Gangsta.’ These three songs were our priorities… He adored them.”[2]
Though already an accomplished artist in his own right, and fully capable of holding his own in a recording studio, Freeze, like most of those who encountered Jackson in person for the first time, was intimidated by the experience.
“It was pretty scary for me,” recalls Freeze. “I felt like I was back in primary school, and not knowing anything about production. With Michael, I relearned everything. The other producers and I were [like] students facing a teacher. With Michael, it was as if we knew nothing [about] the business; we had to start over and relearn everything. He taught us to do everything the best way possible. Michael was a perfectionist… I was very nervous. Very nervous, but very honored. He knew all about the music industry; everything about everything. Nothing was foreign to him, and he taught me a lot.”[2]
“Michael and I, we have a knack for melody,” Freeze continues. “So every time I proposed something, it was easy for him to study the song because it was as if he already knew it. I gave him some songs that he adored. He cherished them… I did all the music, and he only had to learn the lyrics.”[2]
“‘A Place With No Name’ is itself a kind of escape; a song where you just close your eyes to find yourself instantly transported into a wonderful world,” says Freeze. “This song is very cinematic. It would have been a perfect song for a movie like Avatar, because it reveals to us a wonderful world where people are different, but happy. This song is like an escape from everyday life.”[2]
“[The] song was inspired by ‘A Horse With No Name,’ [by] the group America,” explains Freeze. “The lyrics of this song are very deep. I wanted to refresh it [and] make a version for the 2000s.”[2]
“Michael knew the guys from America,” recalls Jackson’s recording engineer Michael Prince, “so he called them to ask if it was okay to use the sample from ‘A Horse With No Name,’ and they said yes.”[3]
“America loved the idea,” says Freeze. “They found this update absolutely terrific. They were really excited about [the] project.”[2]
This wasn’t the first time that Jackson had taken someone else’s song and covered or repurposed it for his own project. Jackson performed a rock version of The Beatles’ 1969 number one hit “Come Together” in his 1988 feature film, Moonwalker, later including the track as a B-side on his “Remember The Time” single in 1992, and again on the HIStory album in 1995. The HIStory album also features a stunning Jackson rendition of “Smile,” originally composed as an instrumental by Charlie Chaplin for his 1936 film Modern Times, and later recorded by Nat King Cole in 1954 featuring newly written lyrics by John Turner and Geoffrey Parsons.
The King of Pop’s 1998 reimagining of “A Horse With No Name” also wasn’t the first (or the last) time a Jackson had recorded a track inspired by America’s music. In 1985, Michael Jackson’s sister, Janet, was working on the follow-up to her Dream Street album, released the previous year. Janet had recently hired John McClain as her manager, who brought Minneapolis-based production duo Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis on board to help produce the album, ultimately called Control, which was released in 1986. One of the first tracks Jam and Lewis penned for the album was “Let’s Wait Awhile,” which bears striking similarities to America’s 1975 hit “Daisy Jane,” although a cowriter credit was not given to the group. Fifteen years later, Jam and Lewis penned yet another America-inspired track, called “Someone to Call My Lover,” released as part of Janet’s All For You album in 2001. “Someone to Call My Lover” directly samples the Dewey Bunnell-written guitar riff from America’s 1972 track “Ventura Highway.”
Bunnell recalls that “Ventura Highway” was inspired when he, his brother, and their father encountered a flat tire during a family trip many years earlier. “It was 1963, when I was in seventh grade,” says Bunnell. “We got a flat tire, and we’re standing on the side of the road, and I was staring at this highway sign. It said ‘Ventura’ on it, and it just stuck with me.”[4]
In what one can only assume to be a massive coincidence, thirty-five years after the Bunnell family’s flat tire, Dr. Freeze dreamt up the same exact scenario for Jackson’s “A Place With No Name,” writing, “As I drove across on the highway… I noticed I got a flat,” in the song’s opening lyrics.
“A Place With No Name” was first worked on at the Los Angeles-based Record Plant Recording Studios in August of 1998. At the time, CJ deVillar was assisting Freeze with the engineering side of his work with Jackson. During a recording session, Freeze mentioned to deVillar that he wanted to have a live bass guitar on the track. DeVillar, an accomplished bassist himself, told Freeze he could play, and would be happy to lay something down for him.
Before the bass was laid, Jackson recorded a scratch vocal for the track with deVillar and engineer Eddie Delena, whom deVillar was initially working for as a second engineer. Once the scratch vocal was done, and Freeze was prepared, the bass could be added.
DeVillar insisted that he and Freeze should wait for Jackson to leave the studio before entering the booth to record the bass, because he didn’t want to jeopardize his position as an engineer by being caught playing something that Jackson had not requested.
“Michael usually left around the same time every evening,” recalls deVillar, “so we waited for him to leave before I did my thing. The reason I didn’t want Michael to see me play was in case he didn’t understand that I’m also a bass player. I was scared of him seeing me and wondering why his engineer was messing around with his song. I didn’t want to get fired.”[5]
It was a Tuesday evening on August 25, 1998 that deVillar finally laid down his bass parts at the Record Plant. And it was that night that his worst nightmare became a reality, with Jackson catching him in the act almost immediately after plugging his bass guitar in.
“I saw Mike appear from the studio lounge through the glass right when I had just started playing,” recalls deVillar, “and I was like, Oh, God! But when he walked in, and heard what I was playing, he became very excited.”[5]
Jackson asked deVillar what he and Freeze were doing, to which deVillar replied sheepishly, “Laying down some bass, Mike.”[5]
Jackson wanted to hear what they’d done so far, and questioned whether anything had been recorded.
“Um, no, Mike,” said deVillar. “I’m just trying to find a vibe.”[6]
Jackson encouraged deVillar to keep playing, and for Freeze to record it all, which is exactly what they did. Jackson liked what he heard so much that he entered the booth and began rocking out with deVillar.
“I had Michael in my face, and he cranked the speakers up loud,” recalls deVillar. “I’m hearing his voice; he’s dancing, popping and locking. I’ve got total Michael Jackson immersion. It was like I’d been zapped, like some crazy channeling was going on. It was like some kind of musical blessing that his aura and his power ended up in my space. And that bass line was created.”[5]
“It wouldn’t have happened if he wasn’t there, because he’s standing right in front of me. He’s dancing. He’s making faces. He’s cheering me on. He’s playing air guitar. He’s giving me affirmations while I’m playing, and I’m absorbing these affirmations like he’s a fan in the audience. It was like a live concert, and he was producing me live on stage. He kept saying…”[5] Read more!
The above is an excerpt from a chapter in my book Xscape Origins: The Songs & Stories Michael Jackson Left Behind. To read the rest of this story, along with the stories of seven other previously-unreleased Michael Jackson songs, simply click here and order your copy of Xscape Origins – available in both physical and digital formats. Thank you for your support.
Follow Damien Shields on Facebook and Twitter to stay up-to-date with Michael Jackson-related news.
1. Michael Jackson, interview with Black and White magazine, 1998 (Accessed May 12, 2014).
2. Elliot Straite a.k.a. “Dr. Freeze,” interview with Quagmire, “MEETING MICHAEL WAS LIKE MEETING CAPTAIN KIRK,” MJFrance, translated here, January 2011. (Accessed December 4, 2013).
3. Michael Prince, author interview, February 4, 2015.
4. Dewey Bunnell, “Ventura Highway America 1972,” L.A. Times, October 1, 2006 (Accessed February 5, 2015).
5. CJ deVillar, author interview, May 20, 2014.
6. CJ deVillar, “Working with Michael Jackson,” Songwerx.com, August 2009 (Accessed December 4, 2013).
I must have played this song about a hundred times since it leaked a few days ago. And i haven’t stopped wondering how and when it came to be.
As always, thanks for your work speaking with those involved and posting this in depth look.
As I’ve told you before.. The fans are lucky to have you.
TJ.
excactly!
Thank you Damien for another great and both intersting and informative article. Definitely can’t wait for its release. 🙂
Damien do you have articles about all unreleased songs stored on pc,and when song leak you publish them? 😀
I remember being in London when the snippet leaked and aimlessly wandering around the city still shocked that Michael died three weeks earlier…
Thanks for another great article Damien.
Damien you ROCK!! Love reading this!!! THANK YOU! Best, G
“By mid-1999 Jackson had seemingly dropped many of his former collaborations to focus on working with Rodney Jerkins, and Jerkins had done the same in return.”
Confirmed. When Jerkins came along, Invincible started to become what finally was. In my opinion, it was originally going to be much better.
“It was such a round robin back in those days,” said recording engineer Michael Prince, who was bouncing between Brad Buxer’s room and Dr. Freeze’s room. “At one point we ended up at Marvin’s Place. We then moved back to the Record Plant, then back to Record One again.”
“Typically I was working mostly on the songs Brad [Buxer] and Michael [Jackson] were writing. We had our hands busy with about five or six songs, two of which, ‘Speechless’ and ‘The Lost Children’ made it on the [Invincible] album.”
At Record One on February 21, 1999, six months after starting the process Jackson, Freeze, Prince, Buxer and Ging revisited “A Place With No Name”, making additional minor edits.
“We were very happy at Record One and that’s where we got the majority of our work done. That’s when Rodney [Jerkins] joined the team. For at least the last month that we were at Record One Rodney, Fred [Jerkins] and LaShawn Daniels were there.”
What I really wanna hear now are the Buxer tracks, along with the earlier Babyface and Bayer Sager ones.
“What I really want to hear now are the Buxer tracks….”
Agree! I found it very sad when Michael wanted Brad to be with him on the next journey in 2007/2008 and Brad felt he finally needed to pursue his dream of being a pilot. Though I’m sure Michael understood Brad’s wanting to follow his dream, it must have been difficult to let his decades long musician counterpart – and friend – go. I think he intuited Michael musically as perhaps no one else. The two of them were magic together.
Great Article Damien, I just can’t wait for that Album to drop and they should really release Place with No Name as a single, its the BOMB.
Thank you for another “Stinky” article.
I SUPER LOVE THIS SONG!!!!! I play this everyday since its leak. The vocals sound like from the Invincible Era. 🙂
i love this song and hope they release all unreleased music but hopefully as michael left it whichever version that is. Some fans will never be happy though and try to critisise no matter. Heres hoping for the above and escape, do you know.. . blu ganster and i was the loser. thnks damien.
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Hi my friend! I want to say that this post is amazing, nice written and come with almost all vital infos. I would like to peer extra posts like this .
The song is fabulous! I’ve played it over and over and over. Thank you, once again, for this excellent, information chocked article. It makes his music even more amazing to know the history of how Michael worked and how he came back to songs – many times over years – until they were perfect. What pulls at my heart strings the most however, is reading how in awe so many of these music professionals were of Michael. He truly was from another realm…
Brilliant article Damien – I hope we get to see an official release of this song soon.
Just out of interest, do you have any information on Michael’s One Night Only concert which never happened? I’m talking about the set list, and any rehearsal videos…
I absolutely loved the song!! The tune got stuck in my head the moment I listened the leaked snippet. And finally when I listened the whole song I was amazed!! The song is absolutely brilliant! I was transported to an imaginary place the way the lyrics describes as I kept listening, it sounds so captivating! 😀
By the way, I ran into another one of MJ’s songs called “Someone like you” which I think he sang. Its a cover of Adele’s song but there is not much info about it. The way he sung the song is beautiful but I am not sure whether its his work. There are a lot of supposed leaked tracks and I have found them through wiki’s unreleased list of his songs. This one wasn’t among the listed songs. If anybody has more info about it can you tell me whether it is really sung by MJ??
Hi DS, THank you for another quality written article. It is such a pleasure reading your research, look forward to coming back to your site in the future.
Hello Damien!
Very good articel as usual. As we all can hope there will be a new album released next year.
I am 29 years old now and have been Michael Jackson fan since I was 11. I am really excited that the Estate will release a new album. I have to admit that I didn´t like what happened to the album Michael in 2010. Knowing all Michael Jacksons songs from the beginning to the end and from the end to the beginning, it felt like three of the songs (Breaking News, Monster, Keep your head up) shouldn´t have been on the album. I thought they were put together really oddly. They really didn´t sound like Michael. I cannot say I am angry at the Estate though, as a fan I am really looking forward to new songs and videos of Michael (as an example in the studio). The Estate has done some incredible things like Immortal and MJ One. We have to be grateful for all the things Estate does.
I hope Estate will consider all the things we have written here.
Damien, if you happen to read this, does Estate even read the comments of the fans in different Michael Jackson forums? Do they take them into consideration?
I will add my “fantasy” tracklist. I believe that if the new album consisted of at least 80% of these songs it would be a hit. In my tracklist you can find the songs Michael has recorded with various of other producers and the songs we all know but have not yet been released officially.
So here we go:
A- Side
1. Blue Gangsta
2. A Place With No Name
3. She Was Lovin Me
4. Escape
5. I Was The Loser
6.Do You Know Where You Children Are
7.D.I.E – (Michael Jackson)
8.Get Around – (Michael Jackson, LaShawn Daniels, Fred Jerkins III, Rodney Jerkins)
B-Side
1. Kick It (Michael Jackson,
2. Can’t Get Your Weight Off Of Me
3. .The Future – (Michael Jackson, will.i.am)
4.I Can See A Brighter Day – (Michael Jackson, Red One)
5.I’m Still the King (with will.i.am)
6.Chicago
7.Miss You – (Michael Jackson, will.i.am)
15 songs like the History album had.
I know that will.i.am hasn´t agreed to publish the songs he made with Michael, but as a fan I am still hoping to see them on the album.
I believe that if the album looked something like the above, it would be a 100% success.
I am sure everyone would be pleased and the Estate would make up for the mess they made with the album Michael.
Wishing you all the best!
I cant wait for the album!
but does anyone have a link to the new full length ‘A Place With No Name’ video/audio file?
I have been listening to the snippet ever since it came out!
thanks
This was a GREAT Article. I am so releaved someone Finally got it right. ! Dr Freeze is a good friend of mine and MY mentor. I was remember him playing the demo of a place with no name , for me. with only HIS vocals on there. I still have a old copy to this day. Freeze laid the vocals down as if HE were MJ. I mean all the way down to the famous “Dat” that MJ says between breaths. It ws amazing . and now to FINALLY hear the final version although I am NOT happy it leaked for my mentor’s sake, I am proud of him and his work with MJ. I know he was very excited and that was ultimatly what prompted his move from NY to LA .. Congrats Freeze ! every Please go out and BUY this album in honor of the King of pop. RIP MJ..
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You are way off, but anyway Just one question, ” Who played the acoustic guitar”?
Answer That ? Hahahaha