A bizarre development regarding the infamous Cascio tracks has come to light today. To cut a long story short (kind of), the version of “Keep Your Head Up” available to U.S. users of iTunes Match, an official Apple service, is not the same version officially released by Sony Music and the Michael Jackson Estate on the controversial “Michael” album back in December 2010. In fact, the version that iTunes Match users in America will experience is not even sung by the same person! Well, at least not entirely…
For those of you not familiar with “Keep Your Head Up”, the song is part of a collection known as the “Cascio tracks”; twelve songs which were sold to Sony Music and the Michael Jackson Estate by Jackson’s long-time friend Eddie Cascio. Mr. Cascio and his collaborative partner, singer/songwriter James Porte (aka Bobby Ewing), claim that Michael Jackson co-wrote and recorded these twelve songs in Cascio’s basement back in 2007. Many people, including the Jackson family, believe the vocals on the Cascio tracks are not authentic and belong to an MJ sound-alike. Some point the finger at singer Jason Malachi, including the man who produced Malachi’s music and recorded his vocals for ten years, Tony Kurtis.
And so the Cascio fiasco continues. The production of the version heard on iTunes Match sounds the same as the officially released version, but from beginning to end someone else is singing the lead vocals. The “official” lead vocal that listeners hear on the physical and digital release of the “Michael” album remains on the track, but is largely overpowered by the presence of the new, unidentified voice.
How this came to be, I do not know. The new voice is not in any way included in the official version of the song. This is the very first time it’s appeared anywhere – and it’s appearing via an OFFICIAL channel. The music on iTunes Match is music that record labels provide. So how it got there is a mystery.
The early theory among those who first heard this obscure version of the song is that the lead vocal may belong to the song’s co-writer, James Porte. Porte is credited on the “Michael” album as having recorded background vocals on the Cascio tracks. Another theory is that the song is a cover version recorded by an MJ fan, and the fact that it has wound up being provided to iTunes Match subscribers is simply a coincidental mistake.
If you want to hear what I am talking about, check it out for yourself! I guarantee you’ll be genuinely shocked at what you hear. Unfortunately, have to be a iTunes Match user if you want to hear it legally. Subscriptions cost $24.99 for a year. UPDATE: The song has now leaked on a number of streaming sites.
Regardless of who the singer actually is, one thing is for sure: It’s NOT Michael Jackson… AGAIN?
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Shameful! How did that get on iTunes?! So there are some people downloading that and being told its Michael Jackson?! Absolutely shameful. Wonder who this new vocalist is!!
Cue a hundred middle aged women telling you to ‘get over it’ while quoting the Bible to you!! Fucking terrible!
It not being sold on iTunes its downloaded as part of the matches iTune’s offers from Sound Cloud and is a fan made version. being discussed here http://www.mjjcommunity.com/forum/threads/99883-Michael-The-Great-Album-Debate/page2037
Haha! It’s Qbee trying to apologise for the Estate again! How are you Qbee? Remember when the Estate made you cry when they released Breaking News? And you said that they hadn’t heard the last of it from you? How far did you get with your complaints???
“IM F*ckign dying here That is effing Jason Malachi OMG
this is NOT breaking news _ It Breaking HEART News :
Im crying my eyes out _ hysterical
Go listen to a Jason malachi track on youtube
then you will know who is singing Breaking HEART news
I know his voice and dilalect _
HELL NO THAT IS NOT MJ
Im furious .. I would be the first to say YES
if I thought for 1 second _ I have NO doubts
NO One will convice me”
Remember that? I do. Michael’s so lucky to have fans like you to care about his legacy now, right? Fucking outrageous!
Grow up – Samhabib and quit being abusive 🙁 Im not defending anything Im just stating what the track on itunes is . Sheesh
You know damn well I dont think the Cascio songs are Michael and I hate them so there is no reason to be insulting or attcking anyone here. WTF
Don’t accuse me I being abusive just because I posted your own comments. You might have ‘got over’ the Cascio debacle but real fans haven’t and won’t. You might be able to forgive the Estate and promote their products but others can’t and won’t. The real fans who actually care.
The ones that were there. The ones who saw him live. The ones who queued up for days of their lives to see him. The real fans.
You keep supporting the people who sold these monstrosities to unsuspecting children around the world. Hope you can live with that on your conscience.
Accuse me of being abusive again. Go on. I asked you a legitimate question. How far did your conversations with the Estate go after they made you cry with Breaking News? You said you were going to talk to them. How far did you get???
We all know by now that the tracks are fake… as if we needed more evidence. More than two years have passed since that terrible album was released and everyone in the community has sat firmly on which side of the fence they want. The only thing that’s going to change the stalemate is some sort of whistleblower/lawsuit situation.
Maybe I’m missing something here but Apple isn’t going to match the song I have in my library with a different version they just happened upon. If that were the case then it would be happening with other songs and other artists as well. Wouldn’t it become a copyright nightmare? And Apple is all about copyrights.
It’s an absolute abomination.
My understanding of iTunes Match is they take songs you’ve ripped and match them to the often better quality version that is in the iTunes store. I’m going out on a limb here but I’m guessing iTunes isn’t selling fan mixes of songs without the permission of the copyright holders so the mix wouldn’t be in the iTunes store. I don’t believe they are pulling a song from cloud#1 and then matching it to cloud #2. If they are they would have encountered problems long ago.
Exactly. iTunes isn’t sharing multiple versions of the same songs across their systems. They’re matching what they have stored as their highest quality version from official sources. I’m sure Sony or the Estate will explain how this has happened at some point. Maybe it’s a bootlegof a prototype a la the Julian’s/Michael Bush/Bravado standee!
My understand is if you have a file which is on the iTunes Cloud, and the version on the iTunes Cloud is better quality than the version in your personal iTunes Library, it upgrades you to the higher quality version. If you have a song in your iTunes Library that is NOT on the iTunes Cloud (eg. a fan-made remix), then NO MATCH IS ACTIONED and it simply uploads YOUR version to YOUR personal iCloud account.
In THIS case we see fans who have the correct, official, proper version of a song in their iTunes Library, yet receive a “match” from iTunes Cloud to a version of that song that is NOT what it should be.
I asked iTunes via Twitter for a comment but I am still waiting. I’m curious as to HOW this could happen?
The only explanation that would make any sense is that iTunes has a different, fake version of this song from an official source. No other explanation makes any sense. No copyright sense, that’s for sure!
My understanding is the same as yours. Any idea what you get if you download the song from iTunes but don’t have Match?
It would be copyright suicide if Apple started matching fake, fan versions of songs to people’s iTunes library. I fully expect the MJ Estate apologists to try and wriggle their way out of this with some bullshit, bogus excuse like ‘oh it’s a fan version, I thought everyone knew?!?’
Seriously… what the fuck would Apple be doing storing and then handing out fan versions of songs?!?
Qbees, any answer to that question? How far did you get with your conversations with the Estate regarding the Cascio tracks?!?
samhabib – Doubters like Pentum are dismissing it as a fan cover, not just believers.
This does not sound like James Porte either. It also sounds extremely sloppy; the left and right channels are different vocal recordings with the original singer (be that Michael or “Jason”)’s voice mixed as well. The mixing is also very amateur-ish with the drum sounding a little bit muted. But as far as I know, you cannot remove vocals from Keep Your Head Up the “traditional” way (center channel remover); you can still make a Karaoke but you’ll have to use other tools to remove the vocals and reconstruct a vast majority of the song (like ForceStudios did on YouTube). The lead vocals were mixed in stereo not mono as most songs are, so in many of the Cascio tracks the voice “bleeds” in to the side, but you can remove a decent amount in Monster and All I Need. If anything this amateur-ish mixing and vocals suggests it’s fan-made. Both vocal takes (from each side) are badly off tune if you isolate it. Otherwise the “believers” may point to this as evidence of “work tapes” even though this guy still doesn’t sound like Michael.
There have been people who have reported wrong songs being matched on iTunes match before, but not sure about an amateur cover getting in there.
Samhabib. I received the same reply as Damien you or any one else who contacted the Estate. ziltch .. shy would you think I have special privlidge and would be afforded a response from them. I dont even understand your reason for harrasing or asking me that question. but here is your answer. I hope that helps you in some way. Im very honored that you think me so important that saved all my heart broken tweets and responses to that travesty, although I find it kind of creepy and stalkerish (lol is that a word) that you save it all these years. So are you my stalker or just a secret admirer 🙂 I love you too <3 lol
So lets get back to the topic .. that Damien posted about and not derail this futher. Im very curious about where this song came from and how it ends up in iTunes match subsribers library. Myself I dont think it came from Sony , but you are certainly welcome to think that. I certainly wont call your fandom into question over you opinion about where this song comes from, that wouldnt be right. Im hoping iTunes can answer how this happened and where the song came from. You may very well be right or you may very well be wrong. you certainly have the right to be either with no condemnation from others .. for your opinion
Also can someone who is a subscriber try to dupilcate this in their own account and explain in deatail what is stated about the song and how this works. ?
This is what is reported as being the iTunes match
http://www.tudou.com/programs/view/wEWQuU1BhsI/
If anyone has heard the stripped version now with just the added vocals played. They were just singing along with the original song. I think they would also think this is a fanmade version becuase they sing with a "foreign accent" like many of our best MJ songs impersonaters do these days . Maybe we can find it elsewhere or maybe the singer come forward.
Disgusting !!
KYHU iTunes Match (Background & Voice Over)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ajeQADWyhk4
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tRzL1I_YcL0
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aX_RLTWK5Vc
http://youtu.be/XCVwKpl4VbA
KYHU – FAKE
http://www.tudou.com/programs/view/4GuWJue1xXk/
Breaking News – FAKE
http://www.tudou.com/programs/view/qauYmrkqf-c/
Monster – FAKE
http://www.tudou.com/programs/view/PL0t1ZRKdX0/
Sony announced it would launch Music Unlimited streaming music service in Japan by the end of December this year. The service can provide 15 million songs, and this service had been launched in 16 countries and regions. `
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