Video of the Week: Ragtime Meets the King of Pop / Michael Jackson Piano Mashup

Video of the Week: The Truth About Eddie Van Halen’s Beat It Guitar Solo

Love Never Felt So…Familiar

 Photograph: Rex Features

At the 2014 “debut” of the new/old Michael Jackson song “Love Never Felt So Good”, most people heard the Jackson/Paul Anka composition for the first time.

The re-worked 1983 demo then appeared on Jackson’s poshumously-released Xscape album.

But the song had seen previous release. After Jackson failed to make a finished version of the song in ’83, Anka re-worked the lyrics and sent it to Johnny Mathis, who included it on his 1984 A Special Part of Me album.

The 1984 production of the song bears a strong relemblance to Japanese singer Junko Ohashi’s “I Love You So”, also released that year.

Compare the intros of the two songs.

How Eddie Van Halen’s Uncredited Guitar Solo on Michael Jackson’s ‘Beat It’ Came to Be

Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images

(via ET) By Meredith B. Kile‍

Following Eddie Van Halen’s death on Tuesday from a lengthy battle with cancer, the late rocker’s friends and fellow musicians took to social media to remember the legendary musician and Van Halen founder.

Van Halen, who founded his iconic eponymous rock group with brother Alex in 1972, is widely regarded as one of the most talented guitarists in rock history and was a consistent presence in the group through several hiatuses and lineup shifts.

However, something casual fans might not know is that one of Van Halen’s most memorable contributions to music history didn’t have his name on it at all. The guitarist played an unpaid, initially uncredited solo on one of the biggest pop songs of all time: Michael Jackson’s “Beat It.”

Read more: https://www.etonline.com/how-eddie-van-halens-uncredited-guitar-solo-on-michael-jacksons-beat-it-came-to-be-154293

Video of the Week: Miguel Rivera’s Solo Guitar Arrangement of Michael Jackson’s ‘Beat It’

A Portrait of Michael Jackson at 50: A Sad and Ruined Life Nearing its End

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The above image is thought to be what Michael Jackson would have looked like at age 50 without surgery, extrapolated by experts using childhood photos.

The below article appeared on the UK Daily Mail site on August 28, 2008, less than a year prior to Michael Jackson’s death. It carries additional impact with the perspective of subsequent events (i.e. Jackson was preparing his This is It comeback concert series at the time of his death).

In one sense, Jackson wasn’t quite finished as a performer after all. In another, he was closer to the end than even the writer imagined.

by J Randy Taraborrelli for MailOnline

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A middle-aged man wearing pyjamas is being pushed in a wheelchair down a sidewalk by an assistant. He is gaunt and frail-looking. His skin seems to be peeling. His fingernails are a sickening shade of yellow-brown.

Beneath a red Marines baseball cap a surgical mask is visible, covering the bottom half of his face. A pair of large sunglasses shield the top.

Three children walk ahead – two boys and a girl. All seem happy and look adorable in colourful clothing. Their baseball caps do not seem a deliberate attempt to shield their faces.

‘Slow down,’ the man commands in a hoarse whisper, but the children ignore him and quickly cross the street to stand in front of a bookshop.

When the man in the wheelchair finally catches up, one of the children dutifully holds the door open as he is wheeled inside.

‘Thank you,’ he mutters weakly. All seems calm, but then – just as the children are about to follow the man into the shop – a stranger approaches the smallest of them.

‘Was that…?’ she begins to ask. The boy is about to answer, when a large man steps between them.

‘No. That was not,’ he says, taking the boy by the hand and rushing him inside. But, just before the door swings closed, the young boy turns to his inquisitor, smiles broadly and mouths just two words: Michael Jackson.

Welcome to the very sad world of Wacko Jacko. The scene I’ve just described is typical of what goes on in his life almost every day in Las Vegas, Nevada, where he now resides…

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-1050082/As-turns-50-Michael-Jackson-really-look-like.html#ixzz3wiawnoQX

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