When Michael Jackson sat down to make the first single from his “Bad” album, he had a clear picture in his head. He wanted to sing a tender love duet with one of the biggest female stars in the world.
So he asked. And the woman he wanted most said no.
Her reason, reportedly, came down to their ages. She was 16 years older than Michael, and she felt the romantic words just wouldn’t sound believable coming from the two of them. She passed.
The song was “I Just Can’t Stop Loving You,” released on July 20, 1987. It’s the kind of slow, warm ballad couples still play on quiet nights.
Michael’s team kept trying. Whitney Houston was asked too. But Whitney’s record label worried a Michael Jackson duet might pull attention away from her own new album, so that door closed as well.
Then came one of the sweetest surprises in studio history.
A songwriter named Siedah Garrett was sitting at the back of the room, knitting. She thought she was there to work on a different song, “Man in the Mirror.” She wasn’t expecting a thing. Then the producer, Quincy Jones, turned around and said over his shoulder, “Sid, do you like this song? You think you can sing it?”
She could. And she did.
Hear the finished duet that so many stars passed on first
Give it a minute and listen to how easy the two voices sound together. The song climbed all the way to No. 1 on the Billboard chart the week of September 19, 1987.
Here’s the part fans love most.
There’s old footage out there of Michael and Siedah actually recording the song in the studio. You can watch them trade lines and find the feel of it, two people building something out of nothing.
Watch Michael and Siedah record it side by side
Siedah wasn’t a household name when she walked in that day. She walked out as the voice beside the biggest star on the planet.
So who was the woman who said no the first time? That was Barbra Streisand, a legend in her own right. She felt the gap in their ages made the love song a tough sell. Pretty funny to think about now, with the way the record turned out.
Go back and watch the studio clip once you know all that. It plays a little different.