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Michael Jackson‘s “I Just Can’t Stop Loving You” isn’t a spooky song like “Thriller,” but it still made Quincy Jones nervous. One of Jackson’s collaborators explained why. She also said the King of Pop was not who the media portrayed him to be.

Michael Jackson’s ‘I Just Can’t Stop Loving You’ has a connection to ‘Man in the Mirror’

Siedah Garrett is a singer who will always be mentioned in the same breath as the King of Pop. Her two most famous songs are from Jackson’s album Bad. One is “Man in the Mirror,” which she co-wrote. The other is the pop ballad “I Just Can’t Stop Loving You,” a duet between her and the “Thriller” star. 

While “I Just Can’t Stop Loving You” seems innocuous, Garrett told Blue Railroad that Jones had an issue with it. “Quincy said he listened to the song with his eyes closed and he couldn’t tell who was who — me and Michael,” Garrett said. “He said that made him a little nervous. So I went back and changed my parts a little bit. I didn’t plan to sound like him, you know. I wanted to sound like me!”

Siedah Garrett revealed what it was like to work with Michael Jackson

Garrett discussed what it was like recording vocals with one of the biggest artists of the 20th century. “We did them together,” she recalled. “It was exciting. But see, Michael is funny. He has a real keen sense of humor. 

“Which surprised me, because you hear all these stories about how strange he is,” she added. “I guess he felt relaxed with me because I wasn’t in awe of him when we met. I was kind of, ‘Yo, Michael, what’s up?’ I think he found that refreshing.”

Why ‘I Just Can’t Stop Loving You’ is forgotten

The Billboard Book of Number 1 Hits reports “I Just Can’t Stop Loving You” topped the Billboard Hot 100 for a single week. And yet, while Bad is one of the most famous records ever, nobody talks about “I Just Can’t Stop Loving You” anymore and it never seems to make it onto oldies stations. Why is that? 

One could argue that it’s been forgotten for superficial reasons. Jackson was the ultimate video vanguard and there’s no music video for “I Just Can’t Stop Loving You.” For that reason, it’s not going to be as memorable as “Thriller,” “Bad,” or “Beat It,” all of which gave us some of the most important music videos of all time.

On another level, changing trends might have consigned “I Just Can’t Stop Loving You” to the dustbin of history. It’s an easy-listening ballad and that’s a style of music that is truly dead and gone. Easy-listening songs that survived to the modern day usually had an X factor to make them stand out. For example, “The Girl Is Mine” has the spectacle of Jackson working with one of The Beatles, while Celine Dion’s “My Heart Will Go On” is attached to one of the most popular movies of all time. “I Just Can’t Stop Loving You” could come back any day now, but it would probably need to appear in a popular film or television series.

“I Just Can’t Stop Loving You” made Jones nervous but it still managed to be popular for a moment.

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