I Just Can't Stop Loving You by lazarus57

lazarus57 - I Just Can't Stop Loving You

lazarus57

May 08, 2025 11:01pm

SOULFEST 11 - ROUND 1<img src="https://singsnap-cdn.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com/message-board/threads/QT4T/c54ff25928_9NVQ_media.gif">BONUS SONG ROUND ONE (MICHAEL JACKSON) "I Just Can't Stop Loving You" is a 1987 duet ballad by <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Jackson" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" style="color: rgb(6, 69, 173);">Michael Jackson</a> and <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Siedah_Garrett" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" style="color: rgb(6, 69, 173);">Siedah Garrett</a>, and was the first single released from his seventh album, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bad_(album)" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" style="color: rgb(6, 69, 173);">Bad</a>. The song was written by Jackson, and co-produced by Jackson and <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quincy_Jones" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" style="color: rgb(6, 69, 173);">Quincy Jones</a>. The presence of Garrett on the track was a last-minute decision by Jackson and Jones, after Jackson's first two choices for the duet, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barbra_Streisand" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" style="color: rgb(6, 69, 173);">Barbra Streisand</a> and <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whitney_Houston" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" style="color: rgb(6, 69, 173);">Whitney Houston</a>, both decided against participating. Garrett, a protégé of Jones's who co-wrote another song on Bad, "<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Man_in_the_Mirror" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" style="color: rgb(6, 69, 173);">Man in the Mirror</a>", did not know that she would be singing the song until the day of the recording session. It became her first hit since <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dennis_Edwards" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" style="color: rgb(6, 69, 173);">Dennis Edwards</a>' 1984 song "<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Don%27t_Look_Any_Further" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" style="color: rgb(6, 69, 173);">Don't Look Any Further</a>"."I Just Can't Stop Loving You" reached number one on the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Billboard_(magazine)" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" style="color: rgb(6, 69, 173);">Billboard</a> <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Billboard_Hot_100" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" style="color: rgb(6, 69, 173);">Hot 100</a>, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hot_R%26B/Hip-Hop_Songs" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" style="color: rgb(6, 69, 173);">R&B Singles</a> and <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hot_Adult_Contemporary_Tracks" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" style="color: rgb(6, 69, 173);">Adult Contemporary</a> charts, making it the first in a string of 5 number-one singles from Bad. It was Jackson's second number-one song on the Adult Contemporary chart after "<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Girl_Is_Mine" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" style="color: rgb(6, 69, 173);">The Girl Is Mine</a>" with <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_McCartney" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" style="color: rgb(6, 69, 173);">Paul McCartney</a>.<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/I_Just_Can%27t_Stop_Loving_You#cite_note-2" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" style="color: rgb(6, 69, 173);">[2]</a> "I Just Can't Stop Loving You" was released without an accompanying <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Music_video" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" style="color: rgb(6, 69, 173);">music video</a>. Jackson and Garrett later recorded "Todo mi amor eres tú", a <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spanish-language" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" style="color: rgb(6, 69, 173);">Spanish-language</a> version of the song, with lyrics translated by <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rub%C3%A9n_Blades" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" style="color: rgb(6, 69, 173);">Rubén Blades</a>, and "Je ne veux pas la fin de nous", a <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/French_language" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" style="color: rgb(6, 69, 173);">French language</a> version, with translation by Christine "Coco" Decroix. All three versions are featured on the 2012 reissue album <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bad_25" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" style="color: rgb(6, 69, 173);">Bad 25</a>. The original English-language version was re-released as a single in 2012, as part of the Bad 25 release.<h2>Background, writing and recording</h2>For the duet <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ballad" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" style="color: rgb(6, 69, 173);">ballad</a> "I Just Can't Stop Loving You," Michael Jackson wanted to share vocals with <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barbra_Streisand" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" style="color: rgb(6, 69, 173);">Barbra Streisand</a> or <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whitney_Houston" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" style="color: rgb(6, 69, 173);">Whitney Houston</a>. Streisand took a pass on the invitation. Houston’s label, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arista_Records" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" style="color: rgb(6, 69, 173);">Arista Records</a>, thought that, if she performed on the song, it might detract from the promotion of her sophomore album, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whitney_(album)" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" style="color: rgb(6, 69, 173);">Whitney</a>. Ultimately, a different singer duetted with Jackson on “I Just Can’t Stop Loving You:” Siedah Garrett. Interestingly, Garrett co-wrote another one of Jackson’s ballads called “Man in the Mirror” and performed backing vocals on it. Garrett remains known primarily for her work with Jackson to this day.<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/I_Just_Can%27t_Stop_Loving_You#cite_note-allmusic-3" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" style="color: rgb(6, 69, 173);">[3]</a> The co-duet duties were given to <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Siedah_Garrett" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" style="color: rgb(6, 69, 173);">Siedah Garrett</a> who had previously dueted on former <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Temptations" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" style="color: rgb(6, 69, 173);">Temptations</a> member <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dennis_Edwards" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" style="color: rgb(6, 69, 173);">Dennis Edwards</a>' "<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Don%27t_Look_Any_Further" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" style="color: rgb(6, 69, 173);">Don't Look Any Further</a>." Garrett first came to the attention of producer <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quincy_Jones" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" style="color: rgb(6, 69, 173);">Quincy Jones</a> after auditioning for and winning a spot in the group Deco. She later signed as a recording artist with Jones' Warner Bros.-distributed <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Qwest_Records" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" style="color: rgb(6, 69, 173);">Qwest Records</a>.<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/I_Just_Can%27t_Stop_Loving_You#cite_note-allmusic-3" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" style="color: rgb(6, 69, 173);">[3]</a> The singer was constantly sent song demos including one for "I Just Can't Stop Loving You", though she didn't know that the demo was a song written and sung by Jackson. While reporting for a recording session, Garrett thought that she was summoned to do overdubs for a song she'd co-written titled "<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Man_in_the_Mirror" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" style="color: rgb(6, 69, 173);">Man in the Mirror</a>." Instead she was surprised to learn that she'd been chosen to sing a duet with Jackson.<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/I_Just_Can%27t_Stop_Loving_You#cite_note-allmusic-3" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" style="color: rgb(6, 69, 173);">[3]</a> To some, the wispy ballad was reminiscent of Jackson's Motown classic "<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Got_to_Be_There" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" style="color: rgb(6, 69, 173);">Got to Be There</a>."<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/I_Just_Can%27t_Stop_Loving_You#cite_note-allmusic-3" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" style="color: rgb(6, 69, 173);">[3]</a>The original album version of the song opened with Jackson cooing a spoken intro backed by a longer version of the opening music. According to Jackson, he recorded that part of his song while lying in bed. The intro went, in part, "I just want to lay next to you for a while. You look so beautiful tonight... A lot of people misunderstand me. That's because they don't know me at all. I just want to touch you and hold you..."<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/I_Just_Can%27t_Stop_Loving_You#cite_note-la-4" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" style="color: rgb(6, 69, 173);">[4]</a> This intro was mixed out on the 7" single, on future releases of Bad and on most compilation albums. An alternate version of the single, featuring the original mastered album version mix with the spoken word intro for "I Just Can't Stop Loving You" backed by the album <img src="https://th.bing.com/th/id/R.28a5225bbeef37faafe08d56d741f288?rik=8mE0N%2bKsarge9Q&riu=http%3a%2f%2fimages5.fanpop.com%2fimage%2fphotos%2f28700000%2fI-Just-Can-t-Stop-Loving-You-michael-jackson-28763304-500-217.gif&ehk=EelDZnYs6MGHHrOTnfW78tl38GLvVo3n8zplWI1ZpVQ%3d&risl=&pid=ImgRaw&r=0" alt="See the source image"><img src="https://www.tv80s.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/michael-jackson-i-just-cant-stop-loving-you-video.jpg" alt="See the source image">