A Place with No Name (found Michael Jackson song; 1980s-1990s)
Cover of the Xscape album containing the single.
Status: Found
Date found: 14 May 2014
Found by: Sony
"A Place with No Name" is an unreleased song by famed pop singer Michael Jackson. The track has a melody and lyrics which resemble "A Horse with No Name" by rock band America and even shares a similar title. One publication did describe the two tracks as being "just about identical." Despite these similarities, Jackson did have permission from America to record the composition. It is unknown exactly when it was recorded, but it’s said that it possibly occurred around the late 1980s or early 1990s as both Jackson and America shared the same manager, who is believed to be Jim Morey.
Michael Jackson died June 25th, 2009, due to acute propofol and benzodiazepine intoxication following cardiac arrest. A 24-second snippet of the song was released by celebrity news website TMZ.com on July 16th, 2009,[1] just three weeks after the artist’s death. Dr. Freeze, the writer, and producer of the track, later confirmed that A Place with No Name would receive an album release, along with other previously-unreleased Michael Jackson songs.[2]
Michael Jackson is said to have "hundreds" of unreleased songs. Several full versions and demos have been leaked onto the internet, while others received official releases from posthumous albums. These albums gained a bit of controversy due to the unreleased nature of the songs. After the release of the 2010 compilation album Michael, A representative of Joseph Jackson, Michael Jackson’s father, claimed that Jackson was a perfectionist and "would never have wanted his unfinished material to be released". will.i.am, another artist who collaborated with Jackson prior to his death, also criticized the release of his unreleased material, saying it was "disrespectful" to release it because Jackson was not there to give his blessing.
It’s unclear why the full version of the song still remains unreleased, but in a 2011 interview with MJFrance, Dr. Freeze claimed that "A Place with No Name", along with another previously leaked song "Blue Gangsta", was slated to appear on the next Michael Jackson album of unreleased music. The only Jackson album released that year was Immortal; "A Place with No Name" was not included.
On May 13th, 2014, Michael Jackson's second posthumous album titled Xscape hit the shelves. A remix of the track was on the album itself (as well as "Blue Gangsta"), while the deluxe edition contained the original song in its entirety, with an accommodating music video for the remix being released on YouTube on August 14th, 2014.
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References
- ↑ MTV news article on TMZ.com's snippet release for the song. Retrieved 18 Jul '21
- ↑ An article on the song's development. Retrieved 18 Jul '21