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Remember The Time was written by Michael Jackson, Teddy Riley & Bernard Belle and recorded at The Hit Factory (Miami) in 1991
The only other person involved in the recording of Remember The Time is Bruce Swedien, (another King of Music)! making this a signature Jackson, Riley & Swedien track – a sound music lovers would be familiar with!
Bernard Belle’s involvement becomes more obvious when you consider he was originally a Motown music writer, gospel music producer, brother to Regina Belle of The Manhattans and worked with Teddy Riley producing New Jack Swing with Whitney Houston, Bobby Brown and others....
in the late 80’s and early 90’s. Bernard also wrote Why You Wanna Trip On Me with Teddy Riley (Surprisingly, Michael didn’t write that song, despite it being slightly autobiographical in nature. Bernard also co-wrote Privacy, from Invincible).
Teddy Riley recalls in an interview with http://AccessOnline.com in 2009 that Michael said...
“That Melody, everything, everything is just great about it this song, and what I want to do is this, I want it to be full of love. I can’t tell you who I’m writing this about, but I ..
“That Melody, everything, everything is just great about it this song, and what I want to do is this, I want it to be full of love. I can’t tell you who I’m writing this about, but I ..
.. know this is gonna be our second single”… “I know who it’s for, but I can’t say, I would never” Some have said it was an apology for 'Dirty Diana', but considering people believe he was also shy of Princess Diana),
( - (removing Dirty Diana from the set list when she attended the Bad concert on 16th July 1988) – The whole thing is lost in history – Is there a story there? I don’t know, what do you think?
Michael is certainly not one single genre of music, even on an individual album because there are so many styles he blends together. In my opinion though, the first 6 tracks from Dangerous scream to me -->>,
New Jack Swing, Funk and Soul. As a cassette album (how I heard Dangerous for the first time) these tracks filled side A, with 30 minutes of brand new, fast paced Michael Jackson tracks (ending with Heal The World to take a breath).
In interview with MusicRadar (2009) Teddy says:
"One of the biggest things Michael really surprised me with on the Dangerous album was his vocal deliverance on Remember The Time. That really blew me away. I came to the project with this track.
"One of the biggest things Michael really surprised me with on the Dangerous album was his vocal deliverance on Remember The Time. That really blew me away. I came to the project with this track.
That was the sound I was thinking of for this album. Basically, it was the sound I wanted on Dangerous and he loved it - loved it from the beginning. I'd describe that sound as, really, like the New Jack Swing sound.
"The elements on this song that give it that New Jack Swing sound are the ones that I used when I recorded with Guy and Bobby Brown to pioneer it. Sort of like the twisted samples I brought in. There were no samples of other people on that; what I did was make the sounds myself
- I was sampling myself. I'd just jam with a riff and think, 'That's a cool bit there…' Yeah, it kinda really brought a lot to the production side. It worked."
Take a moment to appreciate Teddy Riley (Search Spotify) Seasoned Michael Jackson fans will have Teddy almost synonymous with Michael but open up your music streamers and search for Guy and Blackstreet.
If you enjoy the Dangerous album and late 80’s / early 90’s music – you will fall over yourself if you listen to Teddy Riley’s discography! – Roll a joint, drink some wine – stick your headphones on and just enjoy it!
In the meantime, thank you for reading this – I was planning on writing more about Remember The Time - Short Film Director / Boys N the Hood director, John Singleton who directed the video, Magic Johnson’s appearance in the video
(especially as he had (then) recently came out as HIV positive which was heavily stigmatised in the early 90’s)
and an all black cast including Eddie Murphy and Imam – not to mention the black co-dance choreographer for what is probably one of the best Michael Jackson dance breaks EVER – Fatima Robinson. <<== Go look her up she's incredible!! (in a good way)!
Happy 29th Anniversary Remember The Time, an iconic and timeless track. What do you know about it? What’s missing from this tweet? And do You Remember The Time….
