Michael Jackson's forgotten music out in November
By Alan Duke, CNN
July 30, 2010 -- Updated 2041 GMT (0441 HKT)
Los Angeles, California (CNN) -- Songs that didn't make the cut on Michael Jackson albums while he was alive and some forgotten recordings left behind on computer hard drives will be on an album released this fall, sources familiar with the project say.
Jackie Jackson, one of the singer's older brothers, has been working in a studio to help prepare the album, which will include 10 previously unheard songs, according to Jackson estate spokesman Jim Bates.
Jackson's estate and Sony Music announced in March that his next album of unreleased music will go on sale in November.
Music producer Rodney Jerkins, who co-produced Jackson's 2001 album "Invincible," has been working with Sony to put together the new album, a source familiar with the project said. The source asked not to be identified because he was not authorized by the record label to disclose details.
John McClain, one of the two men named in Jackson's will to be executors of his estate, is also working on the album with Jackie Jackson, Bates said. McClain owns a recording studio in Hollywood.
Jackson was known to rent out Los Angeles recording studios for weeks at a time for creative sessions, sometimes alone and sometimes with other well-known artists.
A producer told CNN that he was surprised to find a large cache of forgotten Michael Jackson music files stored on a hard drive at a Hollywood studio in the months after Jackson's June 25, 2009, death.
When he turned the recording device on to start a session, he heard Jackson singing "Hot Fun in the Summertime." The 1969 hit by Sly & the Family Stone is part of an extensive music catalogue that Jackson bought.
The producer said he made a backup copy of the 40 gigabytes of Jackson music and turned it over to one of the Jackson estate administrators. He asked not to be identified because of the sensitivity of the matter.
Another computer hard drive with music was found in Jackson's rented mansion in the days after his death, Bates said. A Jackson family member later handed the hard drive over to the estate administrators, he said.
It was not clear if any of that music will be included in the upcoming project, but Sony's Columbia Records has a contract with Jackson's estate for 10 albums of unreleased material over the next seven years.
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Exclusive: New Michael Jackson Album In November
Disc includes 10 previously unreleased tracks
By Daniel Kreps
Jul 30, 2010 11:34 AM EDT
An all-new Michael Jackson collection featuring 10 unreleased songs will be released this November, a rep for the Jackson estate exclusively tells Rolling Stone. At the time of his death Jackson reportedly left hard drives filled with unheard music, much of it recorded during the King of Pop's '80s peak. Jackson's manager Frank DiLeo told RS that he estimates that Jackson's vaults contain more than 100 completed and unreleased songs, including collaborations with Akon, Will.i.am and Ne-Yo. "There are a couple of songs we recorded for the Bad album that we had to cut that are just sensational," DiLeo said.
"Every time that [Jackson] recorded, he over-recorded. He would record anywhere from 20 to 30 songs for each album," former Sony Music CEO Tommy Mottola told RS last year. Any of them could have been as big a hit as the ones that came out." One of the most noteworthy tracks was a Thriller outtake titled "Don't Be Messin' Around." Other candidates include any of the reported five songs that Jackson recorded with Will.i.am.
Last year, a pair of unreleased Jackson tracks, "Another Day" and "A Place With No Name," leaked, and recently Rodney Jerkins, who co-produced Jackson's 2001 album Invincible, revealed to VladTV that he's currently working on the collection.
As Rolling Stone previously reported, the album of never-before-heard Jackson songs will be the first in a 10-project, seven-year deal the Jackson estate inked with Sony Music in March 2010 — a $250 million pact that will also include reissues of Jackson's classic albums, new greatest hits sets, a DVD collection of all Michael's music videos and possibly a Cirque du Soleil show. The hybrid karaoke and dance simulator Michael Jackson: The Video Game is also expected out by the end of 2010.