With the new 20th Anniversary "E.T." movie opening today, remember the song MJ did called "Someone In The Dark" from 1982? Interesting story Quincy Jones tells on "Thriller-The Special Edition" on how it all came about at: http://www.epicrecords.com and http://www.michaeljackson.com

Enjoy!~

Quincy: "We got kinda trapped on 'Thriller' because we had about four months to do it, which isn't a long time on an album, when you're following ten million albums because that stuff does effect your head..and there is no spiritual way to connect with and say 'we're gonna make a bigger album than that, you can't, you have to do something that gives you goosebumps and says 'Yeah, man that realy turns me on, because if you get turned on alot, you got a chance of somebody else getting turned on...and we had to do "E.T." first, that's what we got in trouble with, we had to do the "E.T." Storybook"...

..."I had just met Stephen and I introduced Michael to Stephen Spielberg...when I met Spielberg he was doing "E.T." at Laird and I was doing 'Thriller' with Michael and... we really cross polinated everything...he was coming over to the sessions, I was coming over to Laird, Michael was going over there and Michael loved what that was about, it was a fever...

..."And ironically we were both makin two huge pieces of stuff at the time but...nobody knew, you never know.."

..."One of the most rewarding parts of it is after having worked with so many heavy people is to put... combinations together (lyricists Alan Bergman and Marilyn Bergman, music by Rod Temperton)...sparks are gonna fly"...

..."So we were just gonna do the song first, this was this new love affair between Stephen and I...and we did the song great, we're thru (and Stephen says) 'I know, man! (you got to) Please do the whole album!"...

..." And we had to take the bigest film in the history of the cinema, successful-visual, and reduce it to an oral version, 40 minute version for people that had never heard it before that was still understandable...I said Holy...!"

peace!

Also check out these interesting facts from 'Michael Jackson The Visual Documentary' By Adrian Grant from 1997/Omnibus Press:

Autumn 1982

Michael and Quincy Jones begin work on the 'E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial' story-book album.

November 1982

'E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial'(LP) is released by MCA Records. The children's storybook album telling the story of E.T. is narrated by Michael and contains one song, 'Someone In The Dark.' A legal battle immediately ensues over the release of the album. CBS Records, Michael's record company, claim that MCA violated their agreement by releasing the storybook album before the end of the year, thereby conflicting with Michael's solo album. A New York Supreme Court judge prohibits further sales of the album. The release of 'Someone In The Dark' as a single is also prohibited.

December 1982

Michael and 'E.T.' are on the cover of Ebony mangazine
A Planned Michael Jackson single from the 'E.T.:The Extra-Terrestrial' album, 'Someone In The Dark' goes unreleased by MCA Records, although some promotional copies are distributed.

January 1983

'E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial'(LP) is released in Britain.

February 12th, 1983

'E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial'(LP) enters the Top 100 albums chart in Britain peaking at number 82 and remains on the charts for two weeks.

Does this mean 'Someone In The Dark' all this time has been a semi-boot?!

this is in the wrong section...this belongs in the non-prince section.

as a HUGE mj AND E.T. fan at the time, i was given that storybook box set as a gift from my mom.

it came with a cassette containing michael narrating the story of ET. (the song "Someone In The Dark" was at the end of the cassette), a picture disc (movie score on that), a poster (of mj and ET together), and a storybook with photos from the movie and dialogue so that you could follow along with michael's narration.

"Someone In The Dark" is a really really beautiful ballad. it was one of the best parts of owning that box set and i listened to that song endlessly, but that's about all i can recall of it, as i haven't heard it for about 18 years.

you see, the cassette ended up getting lost after all the lugging around i did of it as a kid.

i've gone through periods of fury at myself over the years for losing that cassette (which i am now again feeling as i write this). i'm sitting here right now looking through the rest of the box set that i did manage to all keep together and that empty spot in the box where the cassette is SUPPOSED to be, aggravates me to no end.

slightly OT
i bought a couple of the michael jackson remastered cds (namely 'thiller' and 'bad'). and i just think having quincy start talking at the end of the cd totally ruined the cd and the whole flow of the album. they should have put all the extra stuff on a seperate disc.

Redirecting from General Discussion forum to Music: Non-Prince....