Artist:Michael Jackson
Song:You Are Not Alone
Album:The Essential Michael Jackson
The 1995 single You Are Not Alone was Michael Jackson's final #1 hit before his 2000 death. It is from the 1995 album HIStory: Past, Present and Future, Book 1 which is not a normal album. It has two CDs. The first CD is a collection of Jackson's greatest hits on Epic. There are no Motown hits. The second CD is all new songs. Five singles were released. You Are Not Alone was the biggest hit. Why was it released this way? Things were getting really bad between Jackson and the press after he was accused of child sexual abuse in 1993. Jackson's behavior was already strange so that just made things worse. Jackson took painkillers to try and handle the stress. So he decided to record a new album. But he wanted the album to deal with his complete HIStory hence the album title. The first CD is subtitled HIStory Begins and it contains Jackson's greatest hits on Epic. The second CD is subtitled HIStory Continues and contains new recordings that mostly address Jackson's feelings of paranoia and Jackson believing he was mistreated by the press. Jackson wrote and produced all the new songs with the exception of You Are Not Alone. That was written by R. Kelly. Jackson had called Kelly to see if he had any songs for him. He sent a demo and Jackson wanted to record it. But he insisted on producing the record himself as he wanted to add a choir and other things. You Are Not Alone topped the charts. And as I said, it was his his final #1 hit. Jackson wrote all the songs and produced with Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis. Completists would probably want this album for the new songs on the second CD. The album release was a compromise. Sony wanted a greatest hits album. Jackson wanted to make new music. I think it's pretentious but not surprising coming from Jackson. For casual fans who only want You Are Not Alone, I recommend this 2CD comp that includes Motown recordings. Here's the video for You Are Not Alone by Michael Jackson.
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