"You Are Not Alone" is the second single from Michael
Jackson's album HIStory. The R&B ballad's
composition has been attributed by R. Kelly in
response to difficult times in his personal life. He then forwarded a bare demo
tape to Jackson, who liked the song and decided to produce it with Kelly.
Jackson's interest in the song was also linked to recent events in his personal
life. However, the song has been faced with allegations of plagiarism by two
Belgian songwriters. The song was later covered by R. Kelly himself
as a hidden track on his tenth studio album Love Letter.
Commercially, the song was a significant success. It holds a Guinness World Record as the first
song in the 37-year history of theBillboard Hot
100 to debut at number one; it was later certified platinum by the RIAA. The song peaked
highly in all major markets. "You Are Not Alone" was Michael
Jackson's last number one hit song in the United States during his lifetime. It
was also the 800th number one hit on the Billboard Hot
100 pop singles chart. The single has sold over 10 million copies
worldwide, and 4 million digital downloads in USA.
"You Are Not Alone" is a R&B ballad about
love and isolation.[2][3] The
song was written by R. Kelly and produced by Kelly and Jackson.[2] Kelly
wrote the song after the loss of close people in his life.[4] Kelly
was delighted to be able to work with his idol, explaining "I was
psyched ... I feel I could have done his whole album. Not being selfish. I
was just that geeked about it. It was an experience out of this world ...
It's amazing to know that five years ago I was writing songs in a basement in
the ghetto and now I'm writing for Michael Jackson ... I'd be a fool not
to say it's a dream come true."[5] Jackson
contacted Kelly to see if he had any material available. Kelly forwarded a tape
recording of the song and Jackson then agreed to work with Kelly on the piece.[5] On
the tape sent to Jackson, Kelly sung "You Are Not Alone" mimicking
Jackson's vocal style, explaining, "I think I am him. I become him. I want
him to feel that as well." Jackson found the interpretation amusing.[6] They
spent the last week of November 1994 together in the studio working on the
track.[5]
Jackson explained that he instantly liked the song, but listened to
it twice before making his final decision. Although the song was written by
Kelly, Jackson was adamant that the production should be a collaborative effort
amongst the two musicians.[4] The
tape sent to him had no harmony or modulations, so Jackson added a choir in the
final portion and added a sense of climax and structure to the final piece.[7]
'You Are Not Alone' received positive views from music critics.
James Hunter of Rolling Stone noted that,
"the excellent current single 'Scream'
or the first-rate R&B ballad 'You Are Not Alone' – manage to link the
incidents of Jackson's infamous recent past to universal concepts like
injustice or isolation. When he bases his music in the bluntness of hip-hop,
Jackson sketches funky scenarios denouncing greed, blanket unreliability and
false accusation".[3] Jon
Pareles of The New York Times said that it was the
only conventional love song on the new material on HIStory. He
compared it to Mariah Carey's song "Hero" and said it "sounds like a
surefire hit".[2] In
more recent years, Stephen Thomas Erlewine of Allmusic expressed
the opinion that "You Are Not Alone" was amongst some the best songs
Jackson ever released, calling the song seductive.[8] The
R&B critic and journalist Nelson
George described the song as lovely and supple.[9]
Writer and journalist J. Randy Taraborrelli wrote of the song
in 2004, "[it] remains among Michael's best songs ... On listening to
'You Are Not Alone', one wonders how many times Michael tried to tell himself,
during his most desperate and anguished times, that he did have
support in his life, from a higher power, or even friends and family, whether
he actually believed it or not".[10] Fred
Shuster of the Daily News of Los Angeles described
it as the best song on the album.[11] Conversely,
while Steve Holsey of Michigan Chronicle gave the album a
positive review, he described the song as the worst on the album, calling the
Kelly penned lyrics "trite"
and below the standard set by Jackson's own lyrical skills.[12] "You
Are Not Alone" received an American Music Award nomination and a Grammy nomination
both for "Best Pop Vocal Performance".[13]
Commercially, "You Are Not Alone" remains one of
Jackson's best selling singles. It holds the Guinness World Record for the first
song ever to debut at number one on theBillboard Hot 100
chart.[14] First
week sales were 120,000 copies, it was certified platinum by the RIAA for shipments
of at least one million units within the US.[15][16][17] It
broke the record set by his previous single "Scream/Childhood,"
which was the first song in the 37 year history of Billboard to
debut at number five—where it peaked.[16] It
peaked at number one in the UK after a debut at number three in the prior week.[16][18] The
song also reached number one in Wallonia,
France, New Zealand, Spain and Switzerland.[19]With
the exception of Italy, it became a top ten hit in every major market.[16][19]
The music video was directed by Wayne Isham on
July 12, 1995 and begins with a large number of paparazzi taking photographs of
Jackson. The plot then centers around two locations: a temple where Jackson
appears in an affectionate semi-nude scene with his then-wife Lisa Marie Presley and a theater where
Jackson performs the song to an empty hall. Jackson also appears alone in other
locations such as deserts and along tide pools. The slightly extended version
that appeared on HIStory on Film, Volume II was
notable for a scene where special effects were used to give Jackson white,
feathery, almost angelic wings. The other version of the video is included on Number Ones and Michael Jackson's Vision. The temple
scenes were a homage to Maxfield Parrish's 1922 painting "Daybreak".[20]
In one scene, Jackson originally appeared in complete nudity, but
just before the video aired a decision was made to use special effects to
remove or cover these aspects.[21] Despite
giving the song a positive review, Taraborrelli said of the video, "The
only problem with 'You Are Not Alone' was the bizarre video for it, in which
Michael and Lisa Marie frolic about semi-nude against an ethereal
backdrop...The semi-nudity made no sense and was a bit disconcerting; one
wished they would put their clothes back on".[10]Afterward,
Presley expressed regret about doing the video, saying she was "sucked up
in the moment. It was kind of cool being in a Michael Jackson video. Come
on!".[10]
In live performances, You Are Not Alone was always lip-synced until
the end, when the chorus is repeated in a capella and Jackson sings ad-libs
live. Michael first performed "You Are Not Alone" at the 1995 Soul Train Music Awards, then at
the 1995 MTV Video Music Awards. At the
latter awards ceremony, the song was performed without the second verse.
Jackson then performed the song at the Royal Brunei concert in 1996 where it was
performed as a complete song. Jackson also performed it during the HIStory World Tour as a complete song,
during which one lucky girl was allowed to dance with him on stage, similar to
the Soul Train Music Awards performance. Michael's next performance of
"You Are Not Alone", which also turned out to be the song's last
performance by Jackson himself occurred in 1999 during the two MJ & Friends
concerts inSeoul and Munich, the former
performance bei ng ten years to the day of his death. The song was performed
without the second verse, similar to the "1995 MTV Awards"
performance. The song was also due to be performed at the This Is It concert
series, however the shows were cancelled due to his untimely death.
Diana
Ross recorded a version of this song on her international -only
released album, "Voice of Love" produced by Nick Martinelli.
Diana would also close her successful 2010-12 "More Today Than
Yesterday: The Greatest Hits Tour with this song as a tribute to
Jackson.
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