http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kXhy7ZsiR50
Here’s Michael Jackson performing “Billie Jean” during the 1983 TV special Motown 25: Yesterday, Today, Forever. This was the first time Jackson performed the moonwalk for an audience.
Mariachi Cabos perform “Another Brick in the Wall (part 2)” by Pink Floyd. They’ve got a number of other gems on their Youtube channel including “Beat It” and “She Loves You”. Perfect.
Oh boy. WNYC’s soundcheck podcast just a feature on “Thriller”, to celebrate the 2nd anniversary of MJ’s death. And they’ve posted quite a gem.
First up is the podcast itself, discussing the genesis of Thriller. One notable bit happens around 6:00, where it’s revealed that Quincy Jones gave recording engineer Bruce Swedien the creative direction “Edgar Allen Poe” when Swedien sat down to do the stereo mix of “Thriller”.
And because all of this wasn’t awesome enough, they threw in an original take of the song “Thriller” was before it was “Thriller”. Apparently the song was originally called “Starlight” and was some kind of love song. (Probably the most unreal part is hearing Michael doing a scratch take, singing only halfway.)
Highly, highly recommended, folks.