Michael Jackson, while not really the King Of Pop any more, will always be the King Of The Charity Single. Whenever something bad happens around the world, you can be sure that Michael will announce his intention to pitch in somewhere down the line with a heartfelt ballad.
As a mark of how serious the situation in New Orleans is after Hurricane Katrina hit, Michael Jackson is due to record From The Bottom Of My Heart within the next two weeks to raise money for the relief fund. But Jacko has a bit of a chequered history with charity singles…
It all started with We Are The World, which Michael Jackson (CDs) co-wrote
with Lionel Richie 20 years ago for the Live Aid campaign. It ended up
raising $65 million. But back then, everything Michael Jackson did
turned to gold. This was proved by the all-star line-up the song had.
Stevie Wonder, Bob Dylan, Tina Turner and Bruce Springsteen all chipped
in with vocals to help out. Then things started going awry.
He attempted to follow up the success of We Are The World with
another song written in 1999 called What More Can I Give? which was
originally due to be released to help Warchild efforts in Kosovo. For
some reason, though, the song remained unreleased. Jackson also pulled
out of two huge charity concerts that he had planned to raise money for
Warchild. It seemed as if we would never get to hear What More Can I
Give?
But then 9/11 happened, and Michael found himself with a charity
single that needed recording. He’d get a bunch of new artists to sing
on the track and it would make $50 million for the survivors and
families of those killed in the attacks. At the time, he said:
"I believe in my heart that the music community will come together as
one and rally to the aid of thousands of innocent victims. There is a tremendous need for relief dollars
right now, and through this effort each one of us can play an immediate
role in helping comfort so many people."
That was the plan, anyway. But nothing happened.
Eventually the song crept out in October 2003 as a download-only single
to help music education charities. But by then Jackson was mostly known
as a baby-dangling loon, so nobody really took that much notice.
So what will happen to From The Bottom Of My Heart? Has Michael
Jackson’s image been sufficiently cleaned up for other people to want
to sing on the track? Is he still a big enough name for people to buy
the song, Hurricane Katrina or not? Jackson seems to think so…
"It pains me to watch the human suffering taking place in the Gulf
region of my country. My heart
and prayers go out to every individual who has had to endure the pain
and suffering caused by this tragedy. I will be
reaching out to others within the music industry to join me in helping
bring relief and hope to these resilient people who have lost
everything."
Will
the song do well, or will it turn into another What More Can I Give? Will it even get made at all? We await the results with baited breath.
Read more:
Michael Jackson writes song for hurricane relief – Reuters
[story by Stuart Heritage]
