Epic 59000
Executive producer: Michael Jackson
Track listing: Billie Jean / The Way You Make Me Feel / Black or White / Rock with You / She’s Out of My Life Bad / / Just Can’t Stop Loving You / Man in the Mirror / Thriller / Beat It / The Girl Is Mine / Remember the Time / Don’t Stop ‘Til You Get Enough / Wanna Be Startin’ Somethin’ / Heal the World / Scream / They Don’t Care About Us / Stranger in Moscow / This Time Around / Earth Song / D. S. / Money / Come Together / You Are Not Alone / Childhood (Theme from “Free Willy 2”) / Tabloid Junkie / 2 Bad / History / Little Susie / Smile
July 8, 1995
2 weeks
The initial plan was to release a Michael Jackson hits album called Decade, featuring four new songs, prior to the release of Dangerous, but when a whole new album began to take shape, the project was shelved.
After Dangerous, the Jackson camp began to again think about a possibility of releasing a single-disc hits set with some new tracks. “We had gone through 36 or 37 different sequences for the album,” says producer/mixer Bruce Swedien. “But then, as we began to experiment with the new songs, it became evident that we had an awful lot of good new material to deal with, so Michael decided that we should make it a double and have the old stuff on a separate disc from the new material.” And that’s exactly what happened.
The first disc, dubbed HIStory Begins, features 15 of the best tracks from Off the Wall, Thriller, Bad, and Dangerous, including eight Number One singles.
While Jackson was hard at work on the new material in the summer of 1993, his world came crashing down around him after a 13-year-old boy claimed that the self-proclaimed King of Pop had sexually molested him. Police searched Jackson’s Neverland Ranch near Santa Barbara, California, for evidence, and even photographed the singer’s genitals, but no charges were filed. Still, the allegations stunned Jackson’s fans around the globe and sent the singer into seclusion. Jackson reportedly reached a multi-million-dollar settlement with the boy’s family.
Yet the accusations provided Jackson with fuel for much of his new material. “Stranger in Moscow” was one of the first songs to be inspired by the ordeal. “Michael was in Russia when he was having all the trouble,” says Swedien. “He was literally alone in Moscow, sitting in his hotel room with the rain pounding down outside, and he wrote this incredible song. I think it is one of the best things he has ever done. That’s really what started the ball rolling on the album.”
While “Stranger in Moscow” had Jackson in a more subdued and reflective mood, other cuts on the album’s second disc, HiStory Continues, found him downright angry. “Scream,” the album’s first single, which paired Jackson with his sister Janet and producers Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis, took on the media, as did “Tabloid Junkie.”
On another track, “They Don’t Care About Us,” perhaps Jackson’s anger went a bit too far. The song never identifies the titular “they,” but the lyrics include the lines, “Jew me, sue me / everybody do me / kick me, Kike me / Don’t you black or white me.” On a nationally televised interview with Diane Sawyer on ABC-TV’s Prime Time Live, Jackson denied that he was anti-Semitic, noting that his close friends include David Geffen, Jeffrey Katzenberg and Steven Spielberg, all of whom are Jewish.
Initially, Jackson apologized, explaining that his message was to say “no” to racism. When the outcry continued, Jackson decided to re-record the offending lyrics, but the millions of copies the album already issued remained either on retailers’ shelves or in the hands of fans.
Perhaps the damage was already done. The double-A-side single of “Scream” and “Childhood (Theme from ‘Free Willy 2’)” became the then-highest debut single in the history of the Hot 100 when it entered the Hot 100 at number five June 17, but that lofty debut was also its peak.
HIStory debuted at Number One, no small feat for a pricey two-CD set, but it only held the top spot for two weeks, giving it the dubious distinction of having the shortest reign of Jackson’s four chart-toppers. In spite of this, Jackson managed to make history again when “You Are Not Alone” became the first single to enter the Hot 100 at Number One on September 2, 1995.
THE TOP FIVE
Week of July 8, 1995
1. HIStory: Past, Present and Future—Book 1, Michael Jackson
2. Pocahontas, Soundtrack
3. Cracked Rear View, Hootie & the Blowfish
4. CrazySexyCool, TLC
5. Batman Forever, Soundtrack