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“Speechless”

Date Assessed from the fact that “after returning from Germany” (referring to his March 2000 trip) Michael recorded the vocals at Neverland. He didn’t return to Neverland until June 2000, and “was eager to record the song”, (Mike Smallcombe, “Making Michael”) so most likely that summer

Michael Jackson, News of the World interview

News of the World: What made you write the track Speechless?

Jackson: Oh, I love Speechless. I'd had a water balloon fight with kids. And right afterwards I ran upstairs and wrote Speechless in, like, 45 minutes, I really did.

Vibe Magazine interview

VIBE: Tell me about the inspiration for "Speechless". It's very loving.

MJ: You'll be surprised. I was with these kids in Germany, and we had a big water-balloon fight - I'm serious - and I was so happy after the fight that I ran upstairs in their house and wrote "Speechless". Fun inspires me. I hate to say that, because it's such a romantic song. But it was the fight that did it. I was happy, and I wrote it in it's entirety right there. I felt it would be good enough for the album. Out of the bliss comes magic, wonderment, and creativity.

Online Audio Chat

Anthony: Absolutely. Now we have Vernay who writes to us from Newark, Delaware, the good ole USA, and Vernay says, "I'm so pleased with the new album but I was particularly touched by Speechless. What was your inspiration for this song?"

Michael: Speechless was inspired to me by--I spend a lot of time in the forest. I like to go into the forest and I like to climb trees. My favorite thing is to climb trees, go all the way up to the top of a tree and I look down on the branches. Whenever I do that it inspires me for music. There are these two sweet little kids, a girl and a boy, and they're so innocent; they're the quintessential form of innocence, and just being in their presence I felt completely speechless, 'cause I felt I was looking in the face of God whenever I saw them. They inspired me to write Speechless.

Bruce Swedien, audio engineer, “Monster” interview (June 11, 2001) (archived)

“Monster”: You are certainly one of the elite in Michael Jackson's entourage, having the privilege of documenting every step of the creative process, as Michael makes it happen. What was a standout moment during the recording sessions this time?

Bruce Swedien: Everything with Michael is a stand out moment, but an absolutely gorgeous piece of music called "Speechless" was really an event. Michael sings the first 8 bars a cappella. At the end he closes it off a cappella. It was Michael's idea to add the acapulco parts. We also had the Andrae Crouch choir on it. I used my Neumann U-47 tube microphone that I bought new in 1956! No one has ever used it. Of course the signal path is the microphone through Monster Cable and direct to tape. The sound is just spectacular.

At first, we tried it a day or two, and the a cappella just didn't work. His mood and his feeling…it just didn't work. With Michael, it's a deal where you don't just walk up to the mic and sing a piece of music and that's it. That's just not the way it works. We worked a couple of days on this particular thing and he called me in the evening and said, "Bruce it's not right, we have to do it again." But, he's a perfectionist.

Mike Smallcombe, author, “Making Michael” (April 5, 2016)

In March 2000, he spent some time in Germany’s second city of Hamburg with the family of Sony executive Wolfgang Schleiter, close friends of his. Michael said it was on this trip that a water balloon fight with two children from the family became the inspiration for a song called ‘Speechless’. “There are these two sweet little kids, a girl and a boy, and they’re so innocent; they’re the quintessential form of innocence, and just being in their presence I felt completely speechless, ’cause I felt I was looking in the face of God whenever I saw them,” he said. Michael admitted it was the fun that inspired him. “I hate to say that, because it’s such a romantic song, but it was the fight that did it. Out of the bliss comes magic, wonderment, and creativity.”

After returning from Germany Michael was eager to record the song, so he called producer Brad Buxer at 4.30 in the morning from Neverland to sketch out the idea over the phone. “We put the entire song together in two hours,” Buxer recalls. “I was at my house in Sherman Oaks and Michael was calling from the ranch. We frequently worked on songs over the phone for marathon amounts of time, sometimes days straight, and ‘Speechless’ was just one of those songs that came together immediately. Two hours later, at 6.30 in the morning, the song was complete.”

Just days later, Buxer and engineer Michael Durham Prince travelled to Neverland to record vocals with Michael in the dance studio, using portable equipment. Frank Cascio stood outside the studio listening to the session. “I remember thinking it was the most beautiful song I’d heard in a very long time,” he said.