"Human Nature" | ||||
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Single by Michael Jackson | ||||
from the album Thriller | ||||
B-side | "Baby Be Mine" | |||
Released | July 4, 1983 | |||
Recorded | 1982 | |||
Studio | Westlake (Los Angeles, California) [1] | |||
Genre | ||||
Length |
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Label | ||||
Songwriter(s) | ||||
Producer(s) | Quincy Jones | |||
Michael Jackson singles chronology | ||||
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Audio video | ||||
"Human Nature" on YouTube | ||||
Audio sample | ||||
"Human Nature" |
"Human Nature" is a song performed by American singer-songwriter Michael Jackson,and the fifth single from his sixth solo album, Thriller . The track was produced by Quincy Jones and performed by some band members of Toto with Jackson providing vocals.
It was originally written by keyboardist Steve Porcaro,based on a conversation he had with his young daughter Heather after a boy hit her at school, [7] Porcaro said "he probably likes you and it's human nature". Porcaro,along with some Toto bandmates,had been assisting with the production of Thriller,but he had not intended for "Human Nature" to be used by Jackson. However,Jones inadvertently heard a demo version of the track and thought it would be a great fit for the album. Jones then brought in songwriter John Bettis to rewrite the verses,whose lyrics are about a passerby in New York City. [8] The song would ultimately replace the track "Carousel",which had been already recorded for Thriller. [9]
"Human Nature" was released as a single on July 4,1983. Like the four Thriller singles before it,the song became a top 10 hit in the US,reaching number seven on the Billboard Hot 100. It also reached number two on the Billboard Adult Contemporary chart and is certified platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA). In Canada and the Netherlands,the single reached number 11. The single was not released in the UK. The song garnered positive reviews from music critics. "Human Nature" has been sampled by numerous artists,including Nas with "It Ain't Hard to Tell",and Teddy Riley who remixed SWV's single "Right Here" with a sample of "Human Nature",with the remix reaching number two on the Billboard Hot 100. [10]
The first version of "Human Nature" was written and composed by Steve Porcaro of Toto. [11] He wrote the song when his first-grade daughter came home crying after a boy pushed her off the slide. He blurted out three reasons for the incident to comfort her:the boy liked her,people can be strange,and "it's human nature". [12] He recorded a rough demo of the song in their studio while the Toto song "Africa" was being mixed. [8] Fellow Toto keyboardist David Paich added some synthesizer strings on top of the demo. Originally,the song was offered to Toto but they passed on it as they preferred stadium rock-oriented material. [13]
Paich had prepared some demo tracks for producer Quincy Jones to listen to as possible songs for Thriller and asked Porcaro to make Jones a tape with the songs. [11] Running low on cassette tapes,Porcaro used the tape on which he had already recorded his "Human Nature" demo,putting Paich's songs on the reverse side and marking that on the label as the side that Jones should listen to. [8] Jones listened to Paich's songs but did not think they were right for Thriller. However,he did not stop the tape when the songs finished playing,and the cassette deck playing the tape had "auto-reverse" capability,meaning that it started playing the other side as soon as the first side was finished. [8] As Jones described it,"All of a sudden,at the end,there was all this silence,there was:'why,why,dah dah da-dum dah dah,why,why'. Just a dummy lyric and a very skeletal thing—I get goosebumps talking about it. I said,'This is where we wanna go,because it's got such a wonderful flavor'". [14] However,Jones was dissatisfied with the original lyrics for the verses and asked John Bettis,who had written lyrics for hits by the Carpenters and the Pointer Sisters,among others,to write new lyrics for the song. He completed the song in two days. [15] Jones asked if the song could be included on Jackson's album,to which Porcaro and Bettis agreed. [11] Porcaro discusses Bettis' input in "Human Nature":
"At the last minute, Quincy (Jones) asked me if I'd mind if John Bettis took a shot at the verse lyrics, and I said, 'No, not at all.' I didn't consider myself a great lyricist. Sometimes what just came out of my mouth when I was writing, I mean like the chorus on "Human Nature" could be keepers. But I was wide open. But with John Bettis, I didn't change a single syllable, he just nailed it. He turned my record into a song, with a beginning, middle and end. Those lyrics are amazing and I don't talk about that enough." [16]
The song, as it turns out, did not change much musically from the demo through to the final album, as Jones liked the song as it was. [17] It was, for the most part, recreated in the studio. [16] Even engineer Bruce Swedien asked Porcaro, who played most of the parts and helped Jackson with the vocal phrasing, to help reproduce the phrasing of the accents of the "Why, why" that can be heard on the demo. [17]
A template for new jack swing and hip-hop soul ballads, "Human Nature" is comparatively slower and more intimate than Thriller's other songs. "If this town is just an apple, let me take a bite", quivers Jackson's voice over a cascading synthesizer and percolating bass line. Though written by John Bettis and Steve Porcaro of Toto, the lyrics resonate with Jackson's yearning to break free from his tower of celebrity and mingle with young people in a "city that winks its sleepless eye".
—Serena Kim, South Coast Today . [18]
"Human Nature" was released in July 1983, as the fifth single from Thriller. [11] It was not released as a single in the UK. The song achieved chart success in the US. [11] Reaching number two on Billboard's Hot Adult Contemporary chart and number seven on the Hot 100, the song became Jackson's fifth top 10 hit from Thriller. [19] [20] "Human Nature" charted at number 27 on the R&B singles chart. [19] In the Netherlands, the single reached number 11. [21]
John Rockwell of The New York Times stated that "Human Nature" was a "haunting, brooding ballad" with an "irresistible" chorus. [22] AllMusic noted that the "gentle and lovely" "Human Nature" coexisted comfortably with the "tough, scared" "Beat It". [23] They later added that the song was a "soft rocker". [24] Reflecting on Thriller, Slant expressed their fondness of the song, stating that it was "probably the best musical composition on the album and surely one of the only A/C ballads of its era worth remembering". [25] The magazine added that the track's "buttery harmonies" were powerful. [25] Stylus also praised the song, describing it as "the smoothest of ballads". [26] However, they further added that the music "does little to embody the song's message" and that it couches Jackson's "glazed voice" in "bubble synths and drum pillows". [26]
About.com's Bill Lamb looked back on the track 25 years after its release. He felt that the song "set down a blueprint for what would become known as adult R&B". [2] Kelefa Sanneh of Blender described the "soft-serve balladry" of the song as a "silk-sheets masterstroke". [27] In a 2008 IGN review, Todd Gilchrist explained that the elements of "Human Nature" worked better today than they did before. He added that it may be because modern R&B "sucks". [28] Tom Ewing, reviewer for Pitchfork Media , described the song as "meltingly tender", with MTV adding that it was an "airy ballad". [29] [30] Rolling Stone claimed that the "most beautifully fragile" "Human Nature" was so open and brave it made "She's Out of My Life" seem phony. [31] The Los Angeles Times concluded that it was Jackson's delivery that made the "middling ballad" take off. [32]
The song was first performed during the Jacksons' Victory Tour. Michael started to sing "Ben", but stopped and proceeded to sing "Human Nature". It was also performed during Michael's Bad World Tour and Dangerous World Tour. Jackson also performed the song live during his 1996 Royal Brunei concert. It was going to be performed for Jackson's This Is It concerts, which were canceled due to his death; however, it was included on the posthumous album to coincide with the concerts. Live versions of the song are available on the DVDs Live at Wembley July 16, 1988 and Live in Bucharest: The Dangerous Tour . Toto has performed the song in some of their shows with vocals by Joseph Williams. A live version is available on the 2019 DVD 40 Trips Around the Sun.
Weekly charts
| Year-end charts
|
Region | Certification | Certified units/sales |
---|---|---|
Canada (Music Canada) [61] | Platinum | 80,000‡ |
Denmark (IFPI Danmark) [62] | Gold | 45,000‡ |
Mexico (AMPROFON) [63] | Gold | 30,000‡ |
United Kingdom (BPI) [64] | Silver | 200,000‡ |
United States (RIAA) [65] | Platinum | 1,000,000‡ |
‡ Sales+streaming figures based on certification alone. |
Songs that have sampled "Human Nature" include:
"Human Nature" was covered by Miles Davis on his 1985 album You're Under Arrest ; at the time Davis also suggested that the song could become a jazz standard. [67]
Toto has occasionally performed the song as part of a tribute to Jackson and to celebrate the 40th anniversary of the band.
David Frank Paich is an American keyboardist, singer, and songwriter, best known as the co-founder, principal songwriter, keyboardist, and secondary vocalist of the rock band Toto since 1977. He wrote or co-wrote much of Toto's original material, including the band's three most popular songs: "Hold the Line", "Rosanna", and "Africa". With Toto, Paich has contributed to 17 albums and sold over 40 million records. He and guitarist and singer Steve Lukather are the only members to appear on every studio album.
Toto, stylized as TOTO, is an American rock band formed in Los Angeles, California, in 1977. Toto combines elements of pop, rock, soul, funk, hard rock, R&B, blues, and jazz. Having released 14 studio albums and sold over 40 million records worldwide, the group has received several Grammy Awards and was inducted into the Musicians Hall of Fame and Museum in 2009.
Toto IV is the fourth studio album by American rock band Toto, released on April 8, 1982, by Columbia Records. The album's lead single, "Rosanna", peaked at number 2 for five weeks on the Billboard Hot 100 charts, while the album's third single, "Africa", topping the Hot 100 chart, became the group's first and only number 1 hit. Both songs were hits in the UK as well, reaching number 12 and 3, respectively. The fourth single, "I Won't Hold You Back", also peaked within the top ten on the Hot 100, at number 10 and atop the Billboard Adult Contemporary charts for three weeks. It also went into the top 40 in the UK. With the success of "Africa", the album climbed back into the top 10 in early 1983 on both sides of the Atlantic.
Jeffrey Thomas Porcaro was an American drummer, songwriter, and record producer. He is best known for being the co-founder and drummer of the rock band Toto, but is one of the most recorded session musicians in history, working on hundreds of albums and thousands of sessions. While already an established studio player in the 1970s, he came to prominence in the United States as the drummer on the Steely Dan album Katy Lied (1975).
"The Girl Is Mine" is a song recorded by American singer-songwriter Michael Jackson and English singer-songwriter and musician Paul McCartney for Jackson's sixth solo album, Thriller. The track was written and co-produced by Jackson and produced by Quincy Jones. The song was recorded at Westlake Studios, Los Angeles, from April 14 to 16, 1982 and was released on October 18 of that same year as the album's first single. The year before, Jackson and McCartney had recorded "Say Say Say" and "The Man" for the latter's fifth solo album, Pipes of Peace (1983). Although "The Girl Is Mine" was released as a single, Jackson and McCartney never performed the song live.
Michael Sherwood was an American keyboardist and singer.
"P.Y.T. " is a song by American singer, songwriter and dancer Michael Jackson, released as the sixth single from his sixth album, Thriller (1982). The song was written by James Ingram and Quincy Jones.
Steven Maxwell Porcaro is an American keyboardist, songwriter, singer, and film composer, known as one of the founding members of the rock band Toto and the last surviving Porcaro brother ; as the songwriter of "Human Nature" by Michael Jackson and songs by Toto; and as the composer of the TV series Justified. He has won three Grammys, including Record of the Year for "Rosanna" and Album of the Year for Toto IV, and three nominations.
"Gone Too Soon" is a ballad recorded and popularized by American singer and recording artist Michael Jackson. It was written and composed by Larry Grossman and Buz Kohan.
"Hold the Line" is a song by American rock band Toto from their 1978 eponymous debut studio album. Written by the band's keyboardist David Paich, the lead vocals on the song were performed by Bobby Kimball.
"Rosanna" is a song written by David Paich and performed by the American rock band Toto, the opening track and the first single from their 1982 album Toto IV. This song won the Grammy Award for Record of the Year at the 1983 ceremony. "Rosanna" was also nominated for the Song of the Year award. It is regarded for the half-time shuffle which drummer Jeff Porcaro developed for the song, and for its production, which is generally seen as being one of the best mastered songs of all time. The groove has become an important staple of drum repertoire and is commonly known as the "Rosanna shuffle".
"I'll Be Over You" is a hit single by the American rock band Toto. Released as the lead single from their 1986 album, Fahrenheit, the song reached number 11 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart in 1986. Lead vocals were sung by guitarist Steve Lukather, who co-wrote the song with hit songwriter Randy Goodrum. Guest musician Michael McDonald provided the vocal counterpoint on the recording.
John Gregory Bettis is an American lyricist, best known for his long-term songwriting partnership with Richard Carpenter of the Carpenters. He wrote the lyrics for "Top of the World", a hit for both Lynn Anderson and the Carpenters. He wrote several more hits for the Carpenters, including "Only Yesterday", "Goodbye to Love","Yesterday Once More" and "I Need to Be in Love". He later wrote hits for other artists including: Madonna, Michael Jackson, the Pointer Sisters, Conway Twitty, Diana Ross, Westlife, Jennifer Warnes, Peabo Bryson, Maria Vidal, George Strait ("Heartland"), Juice Newton, Ronnie Milsap, Barbara Mandrell, Louise Mandrell, 38 Special, New Kids on the Block, Donna Summer, Barbra Streisand, Eric Clapton and Whitney Houston.
"I Won't Hold You Back" is a song by American rock band Toto, written and sung by Steve Lukather for their fourth album, Toto IV, released in 1982. The song features the Eagles' bassist Timothy B. Schmit on backing vocals during the choruses.
"I'll Supply the Love" is a song written by David Paich and recorded by Toto, with lead vocals by Bobby Kimball. It was issued on Toto's debut album, Toto, and released as a single in January 1979. It peaked at number 45 on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100, where it spent nine weeks on the chart.
"I'll Be Good to You" is a 1976 hit song by R&B duo the Brothers Johnson. George Johnson, one of the two Johnson brothers in the band, wrote the song after deciding to commit to a relationship with one woman, instead of dating several at a time. While George was recording a demo for the song, family friend Senora Sam came by and added some lyrics. Brothers Johnson producer and mentor Quincy Jones heard the song, liked it, and convinced George to sing lead on the finished track. Released from their debut album, Look Out for #1, it was a top-ten hit on the Billboard Hot Singles Charts, peaking at number three, and a number one song on the Billboard R&B Charts during the summer of 1976. The single was later certified gold by the RIAA.
"Beat It" is a song by American singer-songwriter Michael Jackson from his sixth studio album, Thriller (1982). It was written and composed by Jackson, produced by Quincy Jones, and co-produced by Jackson. Jones encouraged Jackson to include a rock song on the album. Jackson later said: "I wanted to write a song, the type of song that I would buy if I were to buy a rock song... and I wanted the children to really enjoy it—the school children as well as the college students." It includes a guitar solo by Eddie Van Halen.
"Africa" is a song by American rock band Toto, the tenth and final track on their fourth studio album Toto IV (1982). It was the second single from the album released in Europe in June 1982 and the third in the United States in October 1982 through Columbia Records. The song was written by band members David Paich and Jeff Porcaro, produced by the band, and mixed by engineer Greg Ladanyi.
"Miss Sun" is a 1980 hit for Boz Scaggs first recorded in 1977 by David Paich along with David Hungate, Steve Lukather, and Jeff Porcaro.
"Waiting for Your Love" is a song by American pop and rock band Toto from their 1982 album Toto IV. In 1983, it was released as a single, peaking at number 73 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart.
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