Not to be a conspiracy theorist, but does anyone else think it’s possible that Rod Temperton’s estate might be standing in MJ’s estate’s way?
It’s very suspicious to me that the Temperton material simply isn’t being addressed at all, other than “Got the Hots” (which we’ve had for almost 15 years now). “Hot Street” and “Roll the Dice” weren’t chosen for T40, and “Groove of Midnight” mysteriously couldn’t be located for use on B25. I also recall hearing that Temperton asked for a hefty fee to allow “Thriller” to be used in This Is It, so there seems to be some bad blood there to begin with.
Perhaps we’re seeing another Steve Porcaro/will.i.am/Cory Rooney/RedOne situation, where the release is being blocked by the opposite party? Even for the estate, it seems odd that they’d say, “Rod is considered to be one of the best songwriters MJ ever worked with. Let’s just not use his stuff. Who needs it?”
Edit: there’s also “Starlight,” but the argument could be made that a demo of “Thriller” is an easier sell than a completely new track.