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Michael Jackson was working on new albums
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Center. Photo compliments of: AEG/CBS News
Not only was Michael Jackson working on possibly the largest comeback tour of his career before his death last week, he was also actively writing and recording two new albums. He was motivated by the success of ticket sales for the This Is It tour and said, "My fans are still there. They still love me. They're alive."
Jackson had been working on two very different styles of music. One album was the typical pop that made him the King of that genre but more surprising is that the other was classical music compositions. He was working with songwriter Claude Kelly and Akon for the pop album and Kelly said, "He was the King of Pop, the biggest to ever do it, and the one thing you never lose—whether known by the whole world or just 10 people—is your love for music. That never goes away, and it never went away for him amidst his troubles."
Composer, David Michael Franks was called by Jackson's assistant about two months ago to ask if he would be interested in collaborating with Michael on the classical album. The two had worked together on a tribute to Sammy Davis Junior in 1989. Franks was invited to Jackson's home in LA and said, "He had two demos of two pieces he'd written, but they weren't complete." He was impressed with the pop legends knowledge of classical music saying, "For one of them, he had a whole section of it done in his head. He had not recorded it. He hummed it to me as I sat at the keyboard in his pool house and we figured out the chords—I guess this recording I made is the only copy that exists of this music."
Billboard reported that a couple of weeks ago Jackson called Franks to check on the progress of the orchestration for his pieces and mentioned to Franks at that time that he had a few other pieces he wanted to work on. Franks told Billboard, "He mentioned more instrumental music of his he wanted to record, including one jazz piece. I hope one day his family will decide to record this music as a tribute and show the world the depth of his artistry."
Both Akon and Franks agreed that Michael's health was good when they last saw him. Akon told Billboard, "He would always tell me to eat right and ask me if I was exercising and drinking water. He'd always stress you had to take care of yourself before you can go off and do anything else." Franks also said, "He seemed totally healthy, not frail, and gave me a firm handshake when we met. He seemed in good health, had a good voice and was in good spirits," he says. "He was very skinny, but from what I knew, he was always thin. He was also taller than I pictured, but he might have been wearing some platform shoes. And he was impeccably dressed."
As for the This Is It tour Akon said he was largely motivated to do it for his children saying, "His kids are like his first priority, and they had never seen him perform live. He was trying to create the most incredible show for his kids."
Greg Phillinganes who worked with Michael on his Bad tour and later collaborated with him on several more albums said, "It was the biggest comeback of his career, arguably the biggest comeback in pop music—even bigger than Elvis," he says. "So obviously he'd want to do the best he could. He never did anything half-assed, which is what originally got him to the stature he had."
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