Songoftheday 7/31/15 Each time the wind blows I hear your voice so I call your name...

"I Just Can't Stop Loving You" - Michael Jackson
from the album Bad (1987)
Billboard Hot 100 peak: #1 (one week)
Weeks in the Top-40: 11

Today's SOTD comes from the "King of Pop", Michael Jackso n, who in 1987 was poised for a return since his landmark Thriller album which spun off a record seven top-10 singles. After an album with his Jacksons brothers and a reissue from Motown that placed a remixed "Farewell My Summer Love" on to the Top-40 in 1984, he had been relatively quiet, musically. However, Jackson was getting more attention from his personal life than his work, between buying the Beatles' publishing catalog (which was reported to have caused a rift in his friendship with Paul McCartney), his outlandish estate (complete with pet monkey), but most prominently his change of appearance, between clearly visible signs of multiple plastic surgeries he denied but also the color of his skin itself, which he explained was caused by the disease vitiligo (which half the world wasn't buying). So by 1987, the celebrity of Michael Jackson was overpowering the musician of Michael Jackson. Just in time for his next solo album Bad.

The first single released from the set, like "The Girl is Mine" on Thriller, was a relatively easygoing soft-pop duet, which was originally intended for Barbra Streisand, but instead given to upcoming session backup singer Siedah Garrett, who wrote another track, "Man In The Mirror", for the album. Without even a music video to support it, it was a very unconventional choice to open the promotion of the album, but at that time his name-clout alone was pure gold, and between fans rushing to buy the single and radio putting the song immediately on high rotation, the track rocketed on to the Billboard Hot 100 inside the top-40 before racing to #1...

"I Just Can't Stop Loving You" became Michael's seventh #1 pop hit in America apart from the Jacksons in September of 1987. The single also topped the R&B and Adult Contemporary radio charts in Billboard as well, while a translated Spanish version just missed the top-10 on the Latin Songs list. Internationally, the single went to #1 in most of the rest of the world as well, like the UK, Canada, Italy, Ireland, and Japan, though surprisingly missing the top-10 in France at #12. The song only spent 14 weeks on the Hot 100 since his next single "Bad" got much, much more attention rather quickly....

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Here's Michael performing the song live on his Bad tour in 1988..