Note: If viewing Michael Jackson Ultimate Archive on archive.org (Wayback Machine), please view the latest snapshot of this page for the most up-to-date information and media.
Remember the Time (Music Video)
John Singleton, director, Rolling Stone (June 24, 2014)
Director John Singleton masterfully turned from the human drama of Boyz N the Hood to this stunning, CGI-laden Egyptian fantasy. "[Michael] said, 'Whatever you want to make this as cool as possible, let's do it. Let's get Eddie Murphy. Let's get Magic Johnson,'" says Singleton. Johnson had recently revealed he was HIV positive. "Michael said, 'We have to put Magic in this video.' I'll always remember that."
“When I first met him I didn't feel nervous because I kind of felt all my life was leading up to that moment. As a fan, he was always in my life. I was 15 years when I went to the Grammy Awards and saw him win all his Grammys at the Shrine. He asked me, ‘What songs do you like?’ and if I wanted to do a video. And I said, ‘OK, well, can we put black people in the video?’ [Laughs] I was challenging him. And he said, ‘Whatever you want.’ He was cool with me because I was straightforward with him, and I felt that everybody was always goose-stepping around him and never telling him the real deal.
On the set he was mischievous. My choreographer in that video was Fatima Robinson, and the three of us got together and she did the routine with him. It was really a great vibe. Just seeing how he would get every little move, bit by bit by bit, the whole routine, like we were putting on a Broadway show. He said, "Whatever you want to make this as cool as possible, let's do it. Let's get Eddie Murphy. Let's get Magic Johnson." Magic Johnson was going through his thing where he'd just revealed he had HIV. Michael said, "We have to put Magic in this video." I'll always remember that.
He was a very visual guy. They weren't videos to him. They were short films – visualizing the funkiness of what he was trying to accomplish in the music. He was always trying to set the bar higher.”
“The Real” Daytime Talk Show (March 6, 2017)
Loni Love: You directed Michael Jackson’s music video “Remember The Time.” Did he personally call you about that?
John Singleton: No, no, it started as a prank. It was a friend of mine, he’s no longer with us. His name is Lloyd Avery II. He’s the guy who shoots Ricky in Boyz n the Hood. He’s from my neighborhood and he called me up late at night. He did a high voice like Michael Jackson… I was like half asleep. I was like, “Fine, whatever. I’ll call you tomorrow. Is this really Michael?” “Yes!” He said, “Call me tomorrow, right.” So I call my agent and said, “Michael Jackson called me out of the blue saying you know, “. ”He wanted to meet with me. Can you go see what he wants?” They called Michael Jackson. Michael Jackson called me for a meeting and said, “Hey, I wanted to talk to you about doing a video.” I said, “You called me right?” He says, “No, I didn’t call you.” He said he thought his manager Sandy Gallin called me. But Michael said, “No, I didn’t call you.” And then we found out it was my friend Lloyd.
Adrienne Houghton: So it was all from a prank?
John: It was all from a prank that I ended up doing it.
Rollingout article (June 25, 2015)
Earlier this month, director John Singleton was in New York City for the American Black Film Festival and talked about how he came to direct the video for “Remember the Time” for Michael Jackson from his Dangerous album.
Singleton recalled being awakened by a phone call at about 3 a.m. He says he answered the phone, and a high-pitched voice asked “Is this John?” to which he replied yes. “This is Michael Jackson I want you to do my next video.”
Singleton then called his agent and told him about the call, and his agent set up a meeting with Jackson and his team. Singleton was a bit thrown off in the meeting, because when he referenced the phone conversation the two had, Jackson responded “I didn’t call you.” Still, the meeting continued, and Singleton asked Jackson if he’s seen Boyz N the Hood to which the King of Pop responded, “I don’t like Black violent movies.”
Thankfully for Singleton, when he started to toss ideas out, Jackson was pleased. “I don’t want to put nothing but black people in it,” Singleton said, and Jackson was in agreement. The video stars actor Eddie Murphy, model Iman, and Hall of Fame basketball player Earvin “Magic” Johnson, among others.
Soon thereafter, Singleton mentioned the encounter with Jackson to his friend, actor Lloyd Avery, who John appropriately describes as “the guy who kills Ricky in Boyz N the Hood, and Avery said, “you know I prank called you?”
So Singleton, very proudly says, “so I got “Remember the Time” because my friend prank called me.”
Fatima Robinson, choreographer, KCRW radio interview (May 19, 2010)
KCRW: Also, you got a chance to work with Michael on the "Remember The Time" video.
Fatima Robinson: I was 21 when I did that video, so it really set the precedent for my work ethic, in being around someone who was such a perfectionist and so great at the time. It was good.
KCRW: How was he really like in person? You got to work with him -- was he really just a normal person -- was he sweet or could you tell there was this kind of disconnection?
Robinson: No, he was really just a normal person, I mean, he listened to music in a different way. As a choreographer, you're so used to counting for an artist and Michael didn't like to count at all; he liked for you to kind of repeat the rhythm of a song. So, in a normal setting, I would count ‘Okay, here we go - 5-6-7-8 and 1-2-3-4,’ whereas Michael, he would like you to go, ‘Uhn-Ah-Uhn-Ah, Uhn-Ah-Uhn-Ah,’ and so you would dance to the rhythm of the song as opposed to counts because it made you feel the song more.
KCRW: Wow.
"Jet" magazine (February 17, 1992)
Reminiscent of one of Hollywood's old biblical epics, Michael Jackson chose ancient Egypt as the setting for his exotic and lavish new video Remember the Time. The upbeat song entertains while the story and setting recall a time when Blacks ruled one of civilization's greatest empires.
"Usually in big spectacles when filmmakers do ancient Egypt, they don't show or tell the truth", said John Singleton, who directed the seven-minute short film. Singleton, who also directed the acclaimed Boyz N the Hood, said, "they don't show the beauty of Black people. Michael wanted to do something to show us as we are—very beautiful people."
The video features Eddie Murphy as Pharaoh Ramses, supermodel Iman as Queen Nefertiti, and Earvin "Magic" Johnson as the court announcer. In the video, Nefertiti tells the pharaoh that she is bored. To entertain her, he has the announcer summon a juggler and flame-thrower. But, she was not amused.
Finally, a mysterious robed figure appears, disappears, and reemerges as Jackson. After he (Jackson) lightly flirts with the queen, an outraged pharoah has his men chase him through the palace and the market. After taking dancers through well-choreographed routines, he moves through the palace and has a surprising, passionate kissing scene with the queen. Just as he is about to be cornered, he disappears again and re-emerges as a cat.
Singleton and Jackson collaborated on the theme and casting for several weeks before the video was shot in less than a week's time last month.
Singleton had been a fan of Jackson's all his life. "I just called him up and said that if he wanted me to shoot a short film for him, I'd be available to do it," he recalled. "We talked and it so happened that the next single from the Dangerous, album, 'Remember the Time', was coming up and he needed a director for it. It was a collaboration deciding who could play the pharaoh, who'd be really funny, because we wanted to make it entertaining. I said, 'Why not Eddie Murphy?', and he said, 'Yeah.' So, Michael called up Eddie to see if he'd be down for it, and he said yes. We wanted a really beautiful sister to play the queen. He said, 'You know who I think is really beautiful?' We looked at each other and we both said 'Iman!' It was like osmosis!"
Singleton said he wants the film to be seen as educational as well as entertaining. "We have a proud heritage."
The video was choreographed by Fatima, who has done choreography for Whitney Houston, Stevie Wonder and Keith Sweat. "John said he wanted the dancing to be hip hop", she told JET. "Everything is going into this hip hop area. Hip hop is sort of like aerobics. It's fast-moving and basically from our African roots.
With Michael, what we did was more technical dancing. We still made it Egyptian but still street. It's kind of techno hop. This was a new style for Michael, but he was great. He picks up steps very easily. And he had a great time. We had to rehearse five or six hours a day for two weeks, but it was fun. We're happy this is an all-Black thing."
The single "Remember the Time" was written by Jackson, along with Teddy Riley and Bernard Belle. It is the follow-up single to "Black or White" which spent seven weeks at the top of the music charts. Overall, Jackson's "Dangerous" album has been at or near the top of the charts since its debut last fall. Although no figures were released, the lavish and authentic set for the "Remember the Time" video reportedly cost approximately $2 million.
Singleton told JET that Jackson makes short films, not videos. Although he did a number of short films as a student at the University of Southern California, this was his first as a professional. He is now working on his second feature film Poetic Justice, a film set in South L.A. and Oakland. He called that film "a street romance, a common love story, not bourgeois folks."
Michael's spokeswoman Joanna Burns said yesterday: He's very concerned about AIDS.
"He hopes the appearance of Magic Johnson will help raise public awareness."
Peter Sagal, played a “snake charmer”, New Republic (March 30, 1992)
Everyone in Los Angeles, says the stereotype, sits around and waits for his or her agent to call. One day mine did, and told me that I had landed a job as an extra, the role of the “Snake Charmer” in fact, on the new Michael Jackson music video, “Remember the Time.” The shoot was non-union and the pay was below scale, and I couldn’t see how this would help my career, but it seemed like a chance to be a part of history, if only recent history. Besides, how could I turn down the chance, however slim, to meet the Ludwig of Bavaria of the entertainment world?
The shoot was based in Soundstage 36 on the Universal lot, which housed a large set representing an ancient Egyptian temple. The video—the script of which was a tightly guarded secret even on the set—was to depict Jackson on the go in a kind of Ebony magazine version of ancient Egypt, ruled over by such African-American luminaries as Eddie Murphy and Magic Johnson. But the stars had been dispensed with the day before—today was the grub work, the filler shots involving the extras or, as we were called, “background.”
Most of the other backgrounders were black, and all of them told more or less the same story. “I never do extra work,” they said, “but for this I made an exception.” For most, it was the chance to meet John Singleton, the director of the video, rather than Jackson that made them forgo their pride. The Industry had anointed the young director of Boyz N the Hood, and for black actors in particular a relationship with him might lead to great things.
Once word got around that I was the Snake Charmer I immediately became the object of envy. Everyone knew Jackson preferred animals to people, so in the hopeful logic of the extra I was guaranteed at least a close-up. I began fantasizing too—maybe the snake would be Jackson’s own, from his famous menagerie. Maybe I would have the chance to save it from—from whatever it is that could endanger a snake, and earn Michael’s undying gratitude. One of the other extras turned out to be a real snake charmer, and I could tell he was bitter when I told him the closest I had ever come to a snake was from behind the glass at the Reptile Museum and Show in Sarasota, Florida. “Well,” he sniffed, “I’m glad I’m not doing it. I don’t like working with strange snakes. They’re more likely to bite you.”
Eventually I was sent with the group of Shopkeepers to the makeup wagon outside. We were waiting for the harassed staff to finish with the group ahead of us—”What are you?” “I’m a Miscellaneous Woman”—when a very young black man in a goatee and round sunglasses wandered up and shook our hands. He looked like a production assistant trying to dress like Spike Lee. “Anybody here speak Arabic?” he asked. “I do, I do!” said Anthony, the guy next to me. “Great,” said Goatee, and he wandered away to sit in a golf cart and stare off into space. “That’s him,” whispered somebody. “That’s who?” I said. “That’s Singleton. That’s the director.” Anthony, proud at having grabbed an opportunity, took me by the shoulder. “Hey,” he asked. “You know any Arabic?”
My first glimpse of Jackson was both lucky and brief. I was wandering back into the soundstage, having waited around for more than four hours, when a golf cart shot out. At the wheel was an older man, Jackson’s “chief of security,” and on the right side was a blond woman. Between them was Jackson. His nose and mouth were covered by a black cloth mask, his eyes with sunglasses. He waved languidly to the crew members as he shot by, and vanished around a corner.
I turned and looked back into the north end of the soundstage. That end of the building was empty except for an ultra-deluxe Winnebago, almost completely hidden by black curtains. Two security guards stood nearby. “Our company works for Michael all the time,” one told me. “He likes us, because we protect his privacy. We keep people away from him, fans, people who are hanging around, extras like you. He’s very sensitive -- if he doesn’t feel safe on the set, he just doesn’t show up. On ‘Black or White’ he just didn’t show up for two days.” The guard said he liked his employer, although he thought him odd at times. I asked him why Jackson wears the mask. “To keep out the smog,” he said. “And not to be recognized.” The entire crew, I was told later, had to sign agreements not to approach, talk to, or harass Jackson in any way, including asking him for an autograph or simply staring.
At about 3 p.m., seven hours after we arrived, vans took us to Soundstage 40, the location of the “Marketplace” set. The first shot, which featured the Pharaoh’s guards rooting through the marketplace, presumably looking for the evasive Jackson, went off well. Watching on a monitor, I saw that Anthony had landed a prominent role, playing the Irritated Shopkeeper. He gesticulated wildly and shouted as the guards overturned his baskets and boxes. I hoped he was shouting the line I taught him in makeup, the one Arabic phrase I could remember: “Anna mish khawaga,” or, “I’m not a dumb tourist.”
After lunch at 5 p.m., we were back on the set to prepare for the first shot with Jackson. After an hour of rehearsal, everything was set and silence suffused the cavernous stage. A door swung open and two large, well-dressed men entered, followed by an attendant or two, and then Jackson himself, resplendent in his Neo-Egyptian skirt and something resembling a brassiere made from fish scales, followed by his entourage. For a man who didn’t want to attract attention, Jackson certainly knew how to make an entrance. He held the hand of a remarkably beautiful young girl of ten or eleven years; his niece, someone said. Whenever he was not on camera, he was holding her hand. The security guards cleared the way through the soundstage for him, and of course everyone stared, although we tried not to be obvious about it.
The shot called for Jackson to enter the set from a doorway, lip-synching the song, and sashay across the marketplace; no serious dancing. Jackson handled himself well, and the shot soon wound down. Afterward I tracked down Singleton, who was talking to some of the extras. I said hello and was trying out an opening schmooze gambit when everyone became distracted by something over my shoulder; they straightened and fell silent. I turned to find myself not two feet from Jackson, on his way off the set.
“Hello,” he said to me, holding out his hand. “Nice to meet you,” I said, shaking it. His grip was very weak and gentle; so was mine. Another extra cheerfully called out something about a softball team that he had played on, apparently, with one or two of Jackson’s brothers; Michael nodded gracefully and said he remembered. But he was eager to leave, and so he did, his hand tightly held, his way carefully prepared. The door closed behind the last of his entourage, his personal archivist turned off his camcorder, and we broke for dinner.
What happened to the snake? Union troubles delayed the shoot, and the “Snake Charmer” sequence was cut to save time. At 11:30 p.m., after sixteen hours of standing around, I was told to turn in my burnoose and go home. I did. They say out here that if a film is made well, you can see the money “up on the screen.” I can say with certainty that there is $92.16 of “Remember the Time”’s budget that even my mother can’t see.
Via a friend who worked as a casting director, I was hired to be an extra in the marketplace scene, in which Michael — I call him Michael — flees (while singing and dancing, of course) from the pharaoh's guards... You won't see me, though. I was on the set all day, in costume as the snake charmer, hanging around with the other extras, all of whom were — like me — actors, writers, directors, whatever, who had taken the job in order to meet Jackson, or Singleton, or just to be able to spend the rest of their lives telling a great story. However, the shoot went long, and they broke before shooting my "scene."
It was a remarkable day, though. We all were herded from holding pen to costume to makeup to holding pen to set, as the hours ticked by. The preparation for the marketplace scene, a few seconds of film, took hours, as the cinematographer and choreographer blocked out the sequence with a man who, I was told, was the foremost Michael Jackson dancing double in the industry. Finally, late in the afternoon, the doors to the sound stage swung open and something I can only describe as a pharaonic procession marched in — there were videographers, bodyguards, attendants, aides, and in the midst of it, Michael himself, in resplendent costume, holding the hand of the most beautiful little girl I had ever seen. (Somebody told me it was his niece.)
Everyone treated him like royalty, of course, from the staring, grinning extras to the obsequious technicians to the deferential director. On the way out of the set, Michael decided to Greet his People, and started shaking hands with everyone. I didn't notice, at first, interested as I was in talking to Singleton, who was holding court in a corner. I noticed the people around me grow silent, and stare at something behind me. I turned, to find myself face to face with the King of Pop.
"Nice to meet you," he said.
"Nice to meet you," I said. I shook his hand. It was warm, dry, and soft.
And then he was gone. I've told this story many times… But the part I don't always tell is this:
Once he was on the set, once the entourage had departed to go hug the walls and wait, once the music was cued up on the playback system, once the camera was rolling, he was once again just a performer. And man, was he good. I ran the length of the set, on the outside of the fake shop walls, so I could see the entirety of his dance riff, annoying the assistant director, who told me to get lost. I saw somebody who possessed, despite everything, an unearthly talent, and was possessed by it.
Chris Cadman, author, “Michael Jackson the Maestro”
Promo nine minutes short film, directed by John Singleton, had an Egyptian theme. Co-starred Eddie Murphy as Pharaoh Ramses, supermodel Iman as Queen Nefertiti and pro-basketball star Magic Johnson as a slave. Michael shared his first on-screen kiss with Iman (Mrs David Bowie).
Also appearing in the video was the late Wylie Draper, who played the part of Michael in The Jacksons An American Dream. Draper passed away 20th December, 1993 from a rare form of leukaemia.