For some reason unreleased songs and archival work in the music industry interests me. Apart from Prince's Wally and MJ's Buffallo Bill, MiB etc are their any other known about unheard holy grails for other artists?

There's some Jackson 5 songs produced by Stevie Wonder and a Jermaine Jackson album called Do Unto Others produced by Norman Harris which had some of the Philadelphia International musicians playing on it. Tito also recorded an instrumental solo album at Motown.

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Carnival Of Light by The Beatles - Paul McCartney tried to get this released a few times, but it was vetoed by George Harrison & Ringo Starr.

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Helter Skelter (27 minute version) ~ The Beatles

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Cryin' Through The Night ~ Stevie Wonder - There's a re-recorded version released in 1987, but the original was recorded in the early 1970's.

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Fulfillingness Second Finale album by Stevie Wonder.

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Addicted To Love - This was originally recorded as a duet by Robert Palmer & Chaka Khan, but Chaka's record company denied it to be released, so Robert put it out as a solo. It's been said that her vocals were erased, but don't know if it's true or not.

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A Toot & Snore in '74 - This is supposed to be the last known recordings with John Lennon & Paul McCartney together, which also featured a few others like Stevie Wonder. John was stoned & drunk and so was Harry Nilsson, so not much was accomplished or suitable for release, but it's been bootlegged. Stevie & Paul were said to be the only ones taking it seriously.

Smooth Criminal (with Roger Troutman) - Michael Jackson originally worked on this with Roger. Roger is mentioned in the Thank You credits on the Bad album.

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"Michael Jackson called me to work on Bad. He said he was impressed with my song The Dance Floor and liked its guitar sound. I actually went to his house and worked with him. Everybody kept telling me to be careful and not to rub him the wrong way, but I just acted like myself. It tickled the hell out of him. I was just cussing and being myself, doing different things, wandering off into some crazy episodes." ~ Roger Troutman

[Edited 9/14/14 15:20pm]

MickyDolenz said:

Addicted To Love - This was originally recorded as a duet by Robert Palmer & Chaka Khan, but Chaka's record company denied it to be released, so Robert put it out as a solo. It's been said that her vocals were erased, but don't know if it's true or not.

It still exists. Chaka was at one point trying to get it released along with lots of other vault material from her stint at Warner Brothers but it hasn't happened yet.

The Donny Hathaway/Roberta Flack unreleased sessions.

D'angelo 2001-2014

Demo tape by The Executive, which was a ska band with George Michael & Andrew Ridegely and a couple of other guys.

There is an unreleased 1983 album by Stevie Wonder titled People Work,Human Play.

MickyDolenz said:

A Toot & Snore in '74 - This is supposed to be the last known recordings with John Lennon & Paul McCartney together, which also featured a few others like Stevie Wonder. John was stoned & drunk and so was Harry Nilsson, so not much was accomplished or suitable for release, but it's been bootlegged. Stevie & Paul were said to be the only ones taking it seriously.

I had a copy of this. It was fairly dissapointing in terms of actual content. Historical context is pretty much the only value.


For mine, the original version of Superstition by Jeff Beck, Bogert & Appice with Stevie Wonder on clavinet. The story goes that they recorded it, Stevie wanted to give it to Jeff for his new band, but the execs heard it and told Stevie he was under no circumstances to give away that song or appear on BBA's version, so Stevie's version was released first and the Beck, Bogert & Appice version doesn't have Stevie on it.

Another good bootleg I have is a Clapton Birthday recording session from the early 70's featuring Billy Preston, The Band and Bob Dylan, from around the time Clapton was allegedly trying to join the Band. Features a pretty chilled out version of Big River.

There's a Hendrix bootleg featuring John McLaughlin and some tapes with jams with Jack Bruce around, and apparently he recorded with Miles Davis (and wanted to get Paul McCartney involved), although I'm not sure if these tapes even exist.

[Edited 9/16/14 12:49pm]

There's two Chic-produced albums that have not been released in their entirety. I Love My Lady by Johnny Mathis and Frostbite by Fonzi Thornton. 3 songs off of the Mathis album were finally released on the Chic Organization box set in 2010. One song from Thornton's unreleased album (I Work For a Living) was part of the Soup for One soundtrack and another (I'll Change My Game) was part of the Chic box set as well. Another Chic song I've Got Protection was supposedly intended for Diana Ross but Nile & 'Nard decided to keep it for Chic instead. Maybe there's a version of her singing the song buried in the vaults.

^^Nile recently said that he's been going through the vaults and pulling out old stuff that he's gonna re-work for a new Chic album.I like that idea

everything Sly Stone between 1983 till now

The Riot sessions were erased, sadly he is known for erasing many recording sessions in the ieighties too.