bboy87 said:

Thanks ! .. yeah, he eventually used this arrangement for his live-version.
Personally, i think the intro-jelly isn't that much expanded, but that's me

Shango said:

Coming back to that, the long intro wouldn't work indeed for a chart-mix.
They could've pressed it for a 12" version though ... or have they done that after all ?

Shango said:

The extended was in fact on the 12' single

I'm more interested in those 90 other mixes that's still in the vaults

bboy87 said:

They'll never put it out if Michael has anything to do with it. Then again, maybe his masters are in the way, lol.

Coming back to that, the long intro wouldn't work indeed for a chart-mix.
They could've pressed it for a 12" version though ... or have they done that after all ?

Shango said:

Years ago I received this, which includes the long version of "Billie Jean" (6 min 21 sec):

WaterInYourBath said:

I wonder why they put Beat It and PYT on there

Are they longer versions?

Shango said:

The extended was in fact on the 12' single

bboy87 said:

It's on the 3 CD UK edition of King Of Pop along with the extended version of Wanna Be Startin' Somethin'. First time I'd heard either of them.

WaterInYourBath said:

I wonder why they put Beat It and PYT on there

Are they longer versions?

bboy87 said:

No, they, along with "Thriller," are the same as the Thriller LP versions. I remember being mad about that, LOL.

"WBSS" is extended to 6:30. And I should make a slight insignificant correction: "Billie Jean" is 6:23 on this, not 6:21. :lol

So that WBSAS-mix has a longer intro too ?

Cloudbuster said:

Aha ! i'll have to check that one too.
So that WBSAS-mix has a longer intro too ?

Shango said:

Yep, and an extension of the instrumental portion in the middle with more hand claps, etc.

We'd all worked ourselves into a near-frenzy. Meanwhile, back at the studio, Larkin Arnold, the head honcho of black music at Epic, was popping champagne, anxiously waiting to hear the final mix.

This was it, the big moment: Rod, Bruce, Michael, his managers Feddie DeMann and Ron Weisner, and myself sat down and listened to the final test pressing of a record that was to be the follow up to "Off The Wall". It was a disaster. After all the great songs and the great performances and great mixes and a great tune stack, we has 24-karat sonic doo-doo. There was total silence in the studio. One by one we crept across the hall for some privacy; more silence ensued.

We'd put too much material on the record. To be really competitive on the radio, you need big fat grooves to make a big fat sound. If you squeeze it into thin grooves, you get tinny sound. We had twenty-eight minutes of sound on each side; we knew there was nothing to discuss. Smelly would say, "Oh no, that's the jelly- that's what makes me want to dance," which would end the conversation every time. With vinyl, you had to be realistic; it had to be under nineteen minutes of music per side. This was now all about physics first, then music. On CD's it didn't matter, because it's digital. Deep down inside we must have known all this all along as we were working, but chose not to deal with reality in our fatigue and musical euphoria.

We were in trouble and tears were streaming down Michael's face. He said, "What do we do now?". "The Girl is Mine" single was already out in the marketplace and charting at number 2 with a bullet: the album was late. The record company wanted the masters that afternoon.

We told Larkin Arnold, "In its present state, this record is unreleasable".

We took two days off and in the next eight days we put it dead in the pocket, mixing one tune per day. Rob cut one verse from "The Lady In My Life", and Smelly finally agreed to give up some of the jelly in the long, long, long intro to "Billie Jean".

I LOVE reading stuff like this! and I get chills just thinking about that original test pressing that they played for Epic.The 'Thriller' 25th anniversary set should have included the original,un-edited test pressing version of the album.

SoulAlive said:

Yeah, it'd be interesting to hear how bad it really was.

Cloudbuster said:

I'd like to hear why Quincy thinks it's so bad What can be "bad" about more verses,longer intros and additional lyrics?

SoulAlive said:

Probably nothing but I think the issue was more about having to compromise the quality of sound due to vinyl length.
Hey, they should have just gone for a double album instead.

Shango said:

Yep, and an extension of the instrumental portion in the middle with more hand claps, etc.

Shango said:

Longer intro and one or two other extended passages throughout the song, most notably the instrumental section before the "Billie Jean is always talking..." verse.

Cloudbuster said:

Exactly Prince released a 2-LP album in 1982,Micheal could have too,lol.

Cloudbuster said:

Exactly Prince released a 2-LP album in 1982,Micheal could have too,lol.

Cool ! thanks both of ya.
Defenitely will check that cd out !

Shango said:

You're welcome.

I think the link below is the same remix-album :

www.b92.fm/music/Michael+.../12+Mixes/

From Quincy's 2001 book:




I LOVE reading stuff like this! and I get chills just thinking about that original test pressing that they played for Epic.The 'Thriller' 25th anniversary set should have included the original,un-edited test pressing version of the album.

Cloudbuster said:

Exactly Prince released a 2-LP album in 1982,Micheal could have too,lol.

SoulAlive said:

I wanted to lay off MJ for a bit, but I had to ask. Wasn't time and budgeting a factor in their case because they've could have released a 2-LP album as stated?

angel345 said:

For Bad, Michael did want to release it as a double album. He had written 33 songs specifically for the album. So far, we know about:
Bad
The Way You Make Me Feel
Speed Demon
Liberian Girl
Another Part Of Me
I Just Can't Stop Loving You
Dirty Diana
Smooth Criminal
Leave Me Alone
Cheater
Streetwalker
Fly Away
Someone Put Your Hand Out
Hot Fever (original version of The Way You Make Me Feel)
Tomboy
The Price Of Fame
Crack Kills
Chicago 1945
What You Do To Me

bboy87 said:

I was questioning the "Thriller" album, but what happened to "Bad" and "Thriller" that he didn't release it as a double LP?