By 1987, Michael Jackson was putting the finishing touches on “Bad,” and he had a soft, sweeping love song he wanted to share with a woman’s voice. The song was “I Just Can’t Stop Loving You.” In his mind, he already knew who he wanted to sing it with.
His first choice was Barbra Streisand. She passed, reportedly uneasy about the age gap between them.
So Michael turned to another huge name, Whitney Houston. Her record label, Arista, worried a big duet with Michael would pull attention away from her own new album, so that fell through too. Two of the biggest voices in music, and both times the answer was no.
The clock was ticking. “I Just Can’t Stop Loving You” was set to be the very first single from “Bad,” due out July 20, 1987. Michael needed a partner, and fast.
Then came one of the luckiest moments in pop history.
Sitting quietly in the back of the studio was a songwriter named Siedah Garrett. She’d co-written another song for the album, a little number called “Man in the Mirror,” and she was just waiting for her turn to work on it. She wasn’t there to audition for anything.
Here’s how she remembers it. “I was just sitting in the back of the studio knitting, waiting for my song to come up,” she said. Yes, knitting. Then producer Quincy Jones glanced over his shoulder and asked, “Sid, do you like this song?” A beat later came the question that changed her life. “You think you can sing it?”
You can hear how beautifully it turned out in the finished recording.
The official audio of the finished duet
The single came out as planned and raced up the charts. By the week of September 19, 1987, “I Just Can’t Stop Loving You” was sitting at No. 1 on the Hot 100. The woman who got picked almost by accident, from a chair in the back of the room, now had a chart-topping duet with the King of Pop.
Siedah herself has said she doesn’t know all the details of why she was chosen, and she treats the stories about the stars who passed as just a couple of theories. What she’s sure of is how it felt to be plucked out of the background like that.
She’s talked about those days working alongside Michael and what he was like in the studio.
Siedah Garrett looking back on working with Michael
Siedah came in to finish one song and walked out with a No. 1 duet beside one of the biggest stars who ever lived. All because she happened to be sitting in the back with her knitting when Quincy turned around.