On February 24th, 1999 the Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles played host to the 41st Grammy Awards, attended by the music industry’s biggest artists, producers and executives.
At the time Elliot Straite, a talented songwriter and producer better known in the music industry as “Dr. Freeze”, was fortunate enough to have recently begun collaborating with the King of Pop, Michael Jackson, on ideas for his next album.
They recorded in several studios including The Hit Factory in New York and Record One in Los Angeles, as well as at Jackson’s personal studio at his Neverland Ranch.
However, at the time of the 1999 Grammy Awards, the pair were working out of Marvin’s Room – an iconic Hollywood recording studio owned by John McClain – a mutual friend of Freeze and Jackson.
Jackson’s record label, Sony Music, was hoping to release the work-in-progress album at some stage before the new millennium, however after several postponements it became apparent that Jackson was not concerned with meeting their desired deadlines. As of early 1999 the label had not heard any of the new material.
But that was about to change.
Cory Rooney, Senior Vice President of Sony Music Entertainment at the time, recalls being invited to the studio by Jackson for a rare listening session with some of the Epic Records executives.
“Michael invited us to the studio to listen to some music because we were all out there for the Grammys.”
The prospect of hearing what Jackson was working on was mouth-watering for the executives at the label.
“You know, for Michael to wanna unveil some music, that was a big treat for us because he never did anything like that,” Rooney explained. “You would rarely get the chance to hear what he was working on.”
Naturally the Epic Records team, including Rooney, took Jackson up on his extraordinary offer and attended Marvin’s Room, where Jackson was set to debut the music for them.
“It was myself, Tommy Mottola, John Doelp, Polly Anthony and David Glew – all the top Epic Records people,” recalls Rooney.
“So we walked in the studio and he played one record. Just one record.”
The song Jackson showcased in the session was the Freeze-produced “Break Of Dawn” – a track that would ultimately be released on the ‘Invincible’ album two-and-a-half years later.
Although they went in expecting to be shown more than just one song, the Epic executives were thrilled with what they heard. Tommy Mottola in particular commented that if the rest of the record was as good as “Break of Dawn”, they had a guaranteed smash hit album on their hands.
Mattola’s appetite had been whet. He wanted to hear more.
“Michael promised us that he would send another record a few weeks later”, tells Rooney.
READ MORE: http://www.damienshields.com/exclusive-story-michael-jacksons-she-was-lovin-me/
Source: damienshields / MJ-Upbeat.com
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