Earth Song — UK Christmas #1 — Michael Jackson

THE FACT

Earth Song was Michael's biggest hit in the United Kingdom — six weeks at #1 over Christmas 1995, more than one million copies sold, the year's biggest-selling single. In the United States it barely scraped #54. Michael had spent four years writing it, and considered it the most important song he ever recorded.

WHAT MOST DON'T KNOW

He began writing Earth Song in 1988 in a hotel room in Vienna after a Bad-tour show, in response to a televised report on the Amazon deforestation crisis. The song went through 26 demo versions before being recorded for HIStory in 1995. Michael played every instrument on the original demo himself, including bass guitar — one of the only times in his career he committed to tape on an instrument other than vocals. The eight-minute album version was edited to six minutes for the single, with the spoken-word climax ('What about us?') becoming the most-imitated radio moment in UK history that year. The Nicholas Brendon–directed video, shot in the Amazon, the Croatian war zone, the Tanzanian Serengeti, and a clear-cut Brazilian rainforest, cost a then-record $4.5 million. In Germany, France and Italy it also went straight to #1. In America, programmers found its environmental subject matter 'too political' and refused to add it to playlists — a decision Michael publicly raged about in his Oxford Union speech in 2001.

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THE MOMENT

Michael Jackson — Earth Song (Official Video, 1995) — Filmed across four continents — his biggest UK hit ever.

SOURCES

Earth Song — Wikipedia ↗