Whenever any of us start humming a little tune or singing the words of a song lately, Eli will almost immediately ask, “You have that song stuck in your head?” And I wish you could actually hear him ask it. I  can hear it in my head, but I haven’t figured out yet how to transcribe that into my typing. He certainly doesn’t speak the words so clearly and his inflection is different, not to mention his high pitched tone. I love it. And, I love that he has learned what it means to have a song stuck in your head! So, recently, when I was humming, yes-bear with me, a Michael Jackson song, as if on cue, Eli asked me if it was in fact stuck in my head. It was, and it has been for a couple weeks now, since I was last at Barnes and Noble enjoying the children’s section with him. It was an instrumental version of MJ’s song,Smooth Criminal, that was playing at the time.

1. I’m on the fence about turning well-known, hugely successful songs with words into an instrumental. But, that’s just me, and actually why not? But I happened to not like this version of it.

2. If a well-known, hugely successful song with words is made into an instrumental, I might enjoy it better if it didn’t sound as if the string instruments were scratching out the tune of the song. Such was the case here, and I felt sad that I was left with an other wise excellent MJ song stuck in my head. This was not in the way that I remember it and love it.

Not long after Barnes and Noble, I saw a preview at the movie theater for The Michael Jackson Experience, which is unclear to me if it is a movie coming out or even a video game? I’m not sure, I can’t quite wrap my brain around a Michael Jackson video game, but I evidently have a hard time accepting instrumental versions of his music, so clearly this  is my problem to work through! In the preview, I saw glimpses of MJ back in his prime around his 1984 Thriller album through his 1988 Bad album. This was the period of time when it was actually sad when the Pepsi incident happened, catching his hair on fire during a concert. This was when he was so mainstream that even my dad bought my mom the Thriller album for a gift-giving occasion and my little girlfriends and I, at the time, used to claim him as our future husband (it was between MJ and Lionel Richie-who would you have chosen?). Little girls do weird things, what can I say?

Something happened in me during the preview that day and I found myself even a little emotional, not shedding a tear, but feeling a stirring in my heart, as I watched the man that he was-the man that was given the title King of Pop. He wasn’t given that title because of some interesting choices he made later in life ,when he unveiled the raw ick that was the media and paparazzi. He was given that title because he was a true showman with extraordinary talent. Come on now, you can’t hear an MJ song and not want to groove to it a little or hum along. I think it’s impossible!

Sometimes when I have a song stuck in my head, I need to actually hear it in order to release it, so I started perusing You Tube a few days ago and wound up enjoying so many of my favorites of his that I had long since forgotten about! But, here, check out the original of Smooth Criminal and tell me either A. That it doesn’t get stuck in your head or B. That he isn’t one of the most talented artists in the last 50 year despite any images you may have of him that cloud your memory of him in his prime or C. That you aren’t tapping your toe or finger when you hear it? I’m so serious!

 

 

I love this one.Incredible choreography, too! I might even change my ringtone on my phone to it! I remember the day the news broke of his death, I was watching my friend’s kids and when she came to pick them up, she so casually asked us if we heard that Michael Jackson had died. And, do you know what my response was? “Huh, wow! That’s too bad!” Something so uncaring. I didn’t even really watch his funeral when it aired on TV. I had so many visions of the interesting (I’m being gentle, there’s a lot of other adjectives that come to mind) man that he had become, that I forgot what an amazing man he had been! I often think about how tragic it will be when the time comes for such actors as John Travlota or Al Pacino and the tribute that will be made in their honor-but why shouldn’t I have felt something more like that upon MJ’s death? Anyway, I’m not loosing sleep over my lack of concern for that day, but I’m really remembering how his music so much shaped, and was present, during my youth. It’s impossible to ignore that. As I’m getting older, more and more, I gain an appreciation for the collection of things that shaped me during those crucial years as a kid. While every bit as much of it comes from my parents molding me into a fine citizen with solid values and character, the other comes from the pop culture that constantly surrounded me-from the influence of music and film, even TV shows. I’m proud of the generation that I come from and I’d be remise if I didn’t give a little nod to the man I once hoped to marry!

Here’s one of my top five MJ songs (Guess I’d better get the others figured out!):