“I’ll just sing the bass part into the tape recorder,” he said between snips of sung melody, totally pitch perfect. Songwriter Crystal Cartier took him to court for plagiarism and during the trial Jackson was asked to describe his song-writing process.

One of the most interesting and revealing interviews about the way Jackson crafted his work is the audio from the ‘Dangerous’ court case. He would actually sing the entire arrangement into a micro-cassette recorder complete with stops and fills.” Had it all in his head, harmony and everything.

Steve Porcaro once told me he witnessed MJ doing that with the string section in the room. “He would sing us an entire string arrangement, every part. We then witnessed him giving the most heartfelt and profound vocal performance, live in the control room through an SM57,” says Hoffman. Here’s the second chord first note, second note, third note’, etc etc. “’Here’s the first chord, first note, second note, third note. We called in a guitar player, and Michael sang every note of every chord to him. “One morning MJ came in with a new song he had written overnight. Rob Hoffman, sound engineer, describes the process (h/t Rhythm Of The Tide): “The lyrics, the strings, the chords, everything comes at the moment like a gift that is put right into your head and that’s how I hear it,” said Jackson during the ‘Dangerous’ court case of 1994.Ī top team of engineers and producers would work on the tracks that he brought into the studio but even they were wowed by his genius.

He didn’t have any formal composition training, though one could say he was trained harder than any other performer by his father.īut just as Mozart could hear whole symphonies in his head, Jackson fully realised his songs before they were put down on paper. Contrary to received wisdom, he could play instruments a bit – he’s credited as playing keyboard, synthesizer, guitar, drums and percussion on ‘HIStory’ – but none proficiently. Jackson couldn’t read or write music at all. Every note of every chord, harmony, melody, bass and even the rhythm through beat-boxing. If you’ve ever heard the below early demo of ‘Beat It’, you’ll know Michael Jackson’s extraordinary process of writing songs – by building each element of a track with his voice.

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