Great song off Charlie’s début solo album with a catchy, beautiful melody.
3) Charlene Soraia -Caged
Great pop track.
4) Stereophonics – Have a nice day
Such an uplifting, catchy song which is perfect to lift your spirits at the beginning of the day. Always reminds me of the summer and always makes me feel great.
5) Ronan Keating – Life is a rollercoaster
Cheesy Pop at its best. Catchy, uplifting and a fine, fine song. One of my favourite songs of all time.
6) Friendly Fires – Hurting
Such a catchy song with a 1980’s electro-feel to it.
7) The Vamps – Smile
Perfect closing track to The Vamps’ début album. A catchy, feel-good anthem.
8) The Vamps – Lovestruck
A slightly darker track on The Vamps’ début album, this is a great song.
9) Robbie Williams & Brad Paisley – Collision of worlds
A perhaps less known track, this appeared on the soundtrack to the movie ‘Cars 2’. The lyrics are witty and very cleverly written and it’s such an awesome song.
10) John Mayer – 83
A great little song that appeared on John’s début ‘Room for Squares’ that deals with nostalgia and wishing to be a child again. It’s easy to relate to and a fantastically written song.
Mark Owen’s solo career is massively underrated. All of his four solo albums have been fantastic but have achieved only moderate success. 2013’s ‘The Art of Doing Nothing’ is probably his best and lead single ‘Stars’ is a masterpiece. Unusual chord structure, electronic sounding, fantastic instrumentation, beautiful vocals and thoughtful lyrics. SO good.
2) Mark Owen – Giveaway
The opening track to ‘The Art of Doing Nothing’. Haunting introduction, Mark’s echoing vocals and a fine way to open the album, building into a catchy track.
3) Demi Lovato – World of chances
I discovered John Mayer had co-written this song with Demi for her 2009 album so decided to check it out. It’s a beautiful song and I can hear both artist’s influences stamped all over it. Such a great track.
4) Republic of Loose – Comeback Girl
Catchy as hell with minimalistic instrumentation. Great summer track.
5) Take That – When we were young
Beautiful song that deserved to fare better in the UK singles chart. A song that returned Take That back to their pop-rock style after the whirlwind that was 2010’s ‘Progress’, it’s warm, heartfelt and beautifully performed.
6) Take That – Happy Now
One of my all time favourite Take That songs and one of the best from their career. An amazing backing track from Gary Barlow with paranoid, robotic and dark verses before a disco, Bee-Gee-esque chorus that’s catchy as hell. It’s an incredible piece of electro-pop with well-written lyrics and the blend of the dark verses with the optimistic, catchy chorus works fanatically and makes it stand out amongst other songs of a similar genre.
7) Take That – What do you want from me
Haunting, heartfelt and emotional. Mark Owen puts his heart and soul into this and Stuart Price’s production is incredible. Awesome song.
8) Michael Jackson – Scared of the moon
Out-take from the ‘Bad’ album which appeared on the 2005 box set; ‘The Ultimate Collection’. It’s simple with just Michael’s voice, a piano and strings but it is absolutely stunning. Michael & Quincy Jones were right to leave it off ‘Bad’ as it simply wouldn’t have fit but it’s an incredibly beautiful song nonetheless.
9) John Mayer/Lawson – Gravity
John Mayer’s signature tune, this is absolute perfection. Silky smooth, Blues-infused and with minimal but heartfelt lyrics. It’s a song John tried to write for a long time before finally getting it right. Lawson are one of my favourite bands who also admire John. They have performed a cover of this song a couple of times, both live in concert and on a live-stream. Their cover is absolutely beautiful so I am including it below too.
10) John Mayer – Wheel
Understated, soft closing track to 2003’s ‘Heavier Things’. It’s a beautiful song with fantastically written lyrics and it has the ability to leave you heartbroken. Gorgeous track and the perfect way to end an album.
Today marks the fifth anniversary of Michael Jackson. Michael Jackson was and remains one of my musical and artistic idols and I was gutted at his death. These days, my obsession levels with the king of pop have decreased a little but he remains one of my heroes and I am still a huge, die-hard fan.
I thought I would share a playlist as a celebration of Michael’s contribution to music and the entertainment industry. This playlist is a collection of unreleased or little known tracks that I believe are as good as Michael’s released works. The aim is for those who haven’t heard these before to fall in love with at least one of them!
18 Greatest MJ unreleased tracks
1) For all time
An absolutely gorgeous track. This surfaced on the internet many years ago before a remastered version was stuck on the release of Thriller 25. I’m not keen on the remastered version, however. There’s very little different about it but there’s some extra instrumentation that just seems to remove some of the magic from the low quality version that still exists. I’ve embedded my preferred version!
2) Love never felt so good
Technically it’s now released but not in Michael’s lifetime. This is an Off The Wall-era track which is so catchy and fantastic. I’ve embedded Michael’s original demo. Do love the new versions though, including the one with Justin Timberlake!
3) Carousel
An outtake from Thriller. I really love the melody to this. I think it’s right that it wasn’t included on the final version of Thriller as it wouldn’t have fit in with the rest of the tracks but it’s a lovely song all the same.
4) The way you love me
Two versions of this exist. The first appeared on the definitive Michael Jackson box set – 2004’s Ultimate Collection as a demo (which sounded like a finished product). I always loved this. It then appeared on the controversial posthumous album ‘Michael’ back in 2010. I love both versions. Just such a happy, beautifully written song. I’ve embedded the original demo
5) Best of joy
It’s sickly sweet and a little repetitive but this is a gorgeous song that was included on the first posthumous MJ album, ‘Michael’ in 2010.
6) Beautiful Girl
A smooth, soulful track that appeared on The Ultimate Collection back in 2004.
7) Scared of the moon
Another beautiful song that appeared on The Ultimate Collection. Many fans aren’t as keen on this but I think it’s truly beautiful. It’s apparently an outtake from Bad.
8) Trouble
An outtake from Thriller, this was eventually recorded by Musical Youth. SO catchy. It wouldn’t have fit in on Thriller, however.
Michael’s version:
Musical Youth’s version:
9) Elizabeth I love you
Michael wrote this song and performed it for his friend Elizabeth Taylor at her 65th Birthday Gala in 1997. This was the only time we heard the song as a studio version isn’t known to exist. Beautiful, cleverly written song.
10) I am a loser
A demo of this appeared around a year after Michael’s death. You can tell it’s not finished as it has very little instrumentation. Beautiful song, however.
11) Xscape (Original version)
This appeared on the internet back in 2002. The version that appears on the latest posthumous MJ album is far inferior and an awful interpretation. Check out the original version. It’s funky, catchy and an MJ classic.
12) What more can I give
A planned charity single written by Michael Jackson before Sony refused to release and promote it. It therefore never fully saw light of day. Plenty of stars on this – Nsync, Beyonce, Usher, Celine Dion, Michael himself amongst others. A truly beautiful song that should have been released.
13) Joy
Gorgeous song co-written by Michael with his Dangerous album producer Teddy Riley. Michael wrote the melody and backgrounds before deciding he wasn’t happy with it. He gave permission for Teddy Riley to finish the song lyrically and record it with his band BlackStreet for their debut album in 1994.
Here’s the eventual version by Blackstreet:
And a snippet of Michael’s original idea:
14) To Satisfy You
Another fantastic song co-written by Michael with Bryan Loren. Again, Michael wasn’t happy with this so he gave it to his co-writer who released it as a solo effort. Love how soulful this is and the use of the strings. The version on the net is sung by Bryan Loren with Michael singing the chorus.
15) Mind is the magic
Written by Michael and Dangerous era collaborator Bryan Loren. Catchy as hell. It was written in 1989 before being re-written for German illusionists Siegfried and Roy for one of their stage shows.
16) Someone put your hand out
A smooth and beautiful song written by Michael with Dangerous producer Teddy Riley for the Dangerous album. Found its way around thorough its inclusion on rare MJ releases.
17) On the line
Gorgeous ballad which should have been released. Recorded for a Spike Lee movie but wasn’t featured on the soundtrack album. Written by Babyface (Bobby Brown, Whitney Houston, Boyz II Men, Beyonce and many more).
18) We’ve had enough
Powerful song which found it’s way onto 2004’s Ultimate Collection. Dramatic and an awesome song.
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