Songoftheday 12/14/18 - Hold me like the River Jordan, and I will then say to thee you are my friend...
from the albums Dangerous (1991) and Free Willy (Original Soundtrack) (1993)
Billboard Hot 100 peak: #7 (three weeks)
Weeks in the Top-40: 15
Today's song of the day comes from Michael Jackson, whose 1991 album Dangerous was still spewing out hit singles two years after the release, already racking up six top-40 pop hits with "Who Is It?", "Heal The World", "Jam", "In The Closet", "Remember The Time", and the #1 smash "Black Or White". Also, the album track "Give In To Me" was released internationally but not in the U.S., and was a sizeable hit, topping the singles charts in Ireland, New Zealand, and Poland, and reaching #2 in the UK and #4 in both Australia and the Netherlands. The seventh and final American single from Dangerous would also be featured in the movie Free Willy, which Jackson assisted on the soundtrack. Along with SWV's remix of "Right Here" which sampled Michael's "Human Nature", the Free Willy album also included the Dangerous cut "Will You Be There", a ballad with light reggae undertones and a pleading question that was unsexually generic, so of course perfect for a movie about a killer whale (and while his sexual assault charges were going on). Written by Jackson, who produced it with Bruce Swedien, the song brought him back into the top ten on the American Top-40...
"Will You Be There" became the seventh top-40 pop hit from Dangerous (tying his own record along with Bruce Springsteen and sister Janet) in September of 1993. The song climbed all the way to #5 on Billboard magazine's Adult Contemporary (or "easy listening") radio chart, but on the R&B list it stalled way down at #53. Internationally, the single made the top ten in New Zealand (#2), Canada (#3), the Netherlands (#3), Poland (#4), Ireland (#6), the UK (#9), and Austria (#10). A final international single was released from Dangerous, the Ryan White tribute "Gone Too Soon", which made the top-40 in the UK (#33), Ireland (#18), France (#32), and the Netherlands (#20).
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Here's Jackson performing "Will You Be There" on his Dangerous tour in 1992 in Romania...
And lastly, for MTV's 10th anniversary concert, where he sang "Black Or White" and "Will You Be There"...
Up tomorrow: The Material Girl gets caught up in a shower.
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