Songoftheday 12/6/22 - My life will never be the same 'cause girl you came and changed, the way I walk the way I talk...
"You Rock My World" - Michael Jackson
from the album Invincible (2001)
Billboard Hot 100 peak: #10 (one week)
Weeks in the Top-40: 8
Today's song is from Michael Jackson, who we last saw in this series with his three top-40 hits from his 1995 half-retrospective/half-new album HIStory: Past, Present, & Future: Part 1 album: the mega-event record "Scream" with sister Janet, the controversial casual racism of "You Don't Care About Us", and his #1 ballad by future felon R. Kelly, "You Are Not Alone". Jackson then embarked on a sprawling world tour, released a short film called Ghosts, and fathered two children with Debbie Rowe, whom he "met" on the tour. He also released a part remix/part new material album Blood On The Dance Floor in 1997, with one of the new songs, "Blood On The Dance Floor", released as a single that just missed the pop top-40 at #42 in the spring of that year.
However these showings on the charts were revealing the impact of Jackson's non-musical headlines were having on his popularity, between the charges of child molestation, his shotgun marriage to Lisa Marie Presley that lasted all of a year and a half, and the dramatic changes to his physical appearance that started to make him seem more like the circus freak he accused the media of making him. After a drawn out recording process, Jackson finally resurfaced with his first completely-new album in ten years, Invincible (man, read the room with that title). Michael employed what were the biggest producers in R&B music at the time, including Kenny "Babyface" Edmonds, R. Kelly, Teddy Riley, and Rodney "Darkchild" Jerkins, the latter helming six of the sixteen tracks including the lead single "You Rock My World". Written by Jackson and Jerkins with Fred Jerkins III, LaShawn Daniels, and Nora Payne, the track has Michael extolling the virtues of his current love. The lyrics are rather generic, with only the line "I tried to keep my sanity" a small bit off from the rest. The production carries much of the weight here, giving Jackson a smooth postdisco backdrop with a nice orchestral bridge, but the vocal performance seems more pastiche of his own self than forging something new. The music video shows Michael trying to outdo himself again; the original 13-minute clip featuring Marlon Brando and Michael Madsen. However, as opposed to his epic "Smooth Criminal", which this definitely emulates, the plotline is rather thin, with more time given to his choreography (which of course is spotless) than to telling the story (it's a vague allusion to the crime underworld with Jackson seducing a woman who is either hook with Madsen or Brando I'm not totally sure). And the faux male posturing by him, including a butt slap on the woman and the ridiculous fight scene, along with using actor Chris Tucker for clout, is bordering on comical. But MTV was faithful to Jackson and played the video up a storm, and radio briefly got on board, bringing him back to the top rung of the charts for the last time in his lifetime...
"You Rock My World" reached the top ten on Billboard magazine's Hot 100 in September of 2001, while peaking at #13 on their R&B Singles chart. On the radio, the song went to #16 on the Mainstream Top-40 chart, #11 on the R&B/Hip-Hop Airplay list, #5 on the older-skewing Adult R&B format, and #17 on dance-oriented Rhythmic stations. Internationally, Jackson's popularity was still high, but as a lead single, it still was a comedown, topping the charts in France, Spain, Portugal, Poland, and Romania, but just reaching the top ten in the United Kingdom (#2), Canada (#2), the Netherlands (#2), Belgium (#2Wallonia/#4Flanders), Denmark (#2), Finland (#2), Norway (#2), Italy (#3), Greece (#3), Hungary (#3), Australia (#4), Ireland (#4), Sweden (#5), Switzerland (#5), Germany (#6), and Austria (#9). The Invincible album, released in October of that year, spent a week at #1 on the Billboard 200 sales tally, and four week on top of the R&B Albums list, going on to sell over two million copies. At the Grammy Awards in 2002, "You Rock My World" was nominated for Best Male Pop Vocal Performance, losing to James Taylor with a live redo of his "Don't Let Me Be Lonely Tonight" (um, ringer). Both Michael and the Invincible album will be back to the series.
(5/10)
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and lastly, here's Michael performing the song at his 30th Anniversary Celebration at Madison Garden right before 9/11 (which indeed hampered the promotion of the set)...
Up tomorrow: This rapper is admitting things.
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