A theory: Michael himself bought in a vocal double on the Cascio songs.

[Hess]

I don't think so - because it is MJ himself singing on all 10 songs.

 

[HornyForMike]

What has MattyJam been smoking?

 

[Hess]

What has MattyJam been smoking?

I don't think we need to be personal.

MattyJam just shared his thoughts - and they can be as good as everyone elses.

However I believe it's MJ on the Cascio tracks, so I don't think there is a double.

 

[PaceMioDolceCuore]

I was about to write on this issue, but you beat me to it. I see this a lot--people assuming Michael's voice was out of shape because he did not sing on an album for some years. Has anyone lived or been close to someone who loves to sing? They sing or hum while they are engaged in other tasks. Of course, it is not the same as singing in a studio or on stage, but nevertheless, the vocals are always at practice.

Sometimes singing around the house is even BETTER because you are totally unobserved. You can experiment without ANYONE listening in and giving advice. You have total freedom to experiment and at times it'll sound like utter cr*p if you give yourself permission to do so, to try new things.

Singing in a studio production is also something completely different than practicing your vocal chords to literally keep them "movable".

In a studio you are trying to lay down one particular song in the style you have chosen for that song. You're going for a certain "sound" and particularly Michael was doing that. Compare the "passionate roar" in the chorus of "Another Day" with the sweetness of "Best of Joy" or "Much too soon". If he sang all day long the way he sang the chorus of "Another day" he'd be hoarse the next day.

Singing in a live concert is also something completely different than a vocal lesson or studio production.

Particularly at home you can sing your daily 2 hours without risking getting hoarse- and just to keep your vocal chords flexible.

It's common to "mark" the way he mostly did in TII, because unlike a a violin the human body has limits.

I don't think he'd be hiring any impersonators for a basement friendship production, when all he has to do is hit the record and erase button 50 times if he pleases so. That was not an official production with a huge overhead of people who all have an "opinion" on what you're doing/

 

[botdf]

I have a theory as well, a huge theory, I know it's hard to believe, but my theory is that Michael sang all these songs, to varying levels of finality, some in demo/rough shape, some that he was further along with (but none final), and then producers came in and used these vocals to create songs. Michael's voice, producer's visions. They looped some vocals (repeating the same verses in some cases), they used varying degrees of processing (listen to the weird processing in Best of Joy), they used different equipment in their studios, different mixing equipment, and different levels of fidelity. And then they put all these songs on a single CD. Now guess why they would sound different. It's not too difficult to figure out. They're all Michael, just presented differently, by different producers.

 

[ivy]

I'll close this thread as we already have enough controversy that doesn't need the addition of any more speculation. Plus we have other threads that address this issue in detail. Any explanation/justification about the vocals can be made on those threads.