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"Don't Be Messin' Round"

Date range confirmed in “Bad 25” liner notes?

Date range assessed by the facts in Mike Smallcombe’s “Making Michael” (“Over the course of the second half of 1985 and most of 1986, Michael and the B-Team created many demos… Michael wrote several ballads, including ‘Fly Away’, ‘Loving You’, ‘I’m So Blue’... [and other songs, including] ‘Don’t Be Messin’ Round’, ‘Buffalo Bill’ and ‘Price of Fame’... these songs were never fully completed and wouldn’t be brought to the A-Team at Westlake”); vocals were most likely recorded in 1986.

Bruce Swedien, studio engineer, “Showbiz 411” (July 2, 2009) (archived)

One song Swedien does think was completed but not used is one of his favorites. “It’s called “Don’t Be Messin’ Around.” Michael plays piano on it, and it’s just beautiful. Oh my God, there’s nothing like it.”

Matt Forger, studio engineer, “MJ Data Bank” (June 1, 2012) (archived)

[Bruce] Swedien made it clear that the track was intended for the Thriller album. It finally did not make the final cut. Jackson had a history – like other artists – to develop a song and to discard it at the very last minute to keep the whole set of songs as tight and coherent as possible.

...Don’t Be Messin’ ‘Round is a track that had been in the pipelines many times. It was first considered for the Thriller album, then BAD, and then for further projects. But the version to be released is the actual mix crafted in 1987. Sound engineer Matt Forger mixed the song for the BAD 25 project and made it clear that the song will be presented “as is”: “I mixed the ‘Don’t Be Messin’ ‘Round’ track from tapes of that era. No new parts were allowed, not even parts that were recorded after ’87 but still done under Michael’s supervision.”.

“MJ Data Bank” (October 9, 2012) (archived)

Michael first recorded the song with sound engineer Brent Averill in the early 80’s. “This is one of the songs that was recorded very early, potentially for the Thriller album”, explains Matt Forger. “For whatever reason, it was not developed any further at this point in time. Michael brought it back and we did more work on it in the period of the BAD album.  Some additional recording was done at that time with Bruce Swedien at Westlake.  I did some additional work and mixes at that time for evaluation for Michael. “

The version released for BAD 25 is an attempt to give the best representation of the 1987 version of the track, the one that was left in the studio at that time: “Many of the elements that were worked on in the BAD era were some of the very basic elements from these earlier demos. Selected elements were transferred and then additional work was recorded for the BAD album. And then it was decided it wasn’t to be included on the album, and at that point no additional work was done. And for BAD 25 I had to go back to many multi track tapes because the elements of the recording were on different tapes: some were recorded at Westlake, and some at Hayvenhurst and I had to make sure that all these representative elements could be assembled in a single version, and a single mix of the song”.

Forger also confirms that other versions of the song were done later that were more refined than the earlier recordings. Don’t Be Messin’ ‘Round, an unfinished song that is now presented to the public as is and on purpose, shows Jackson’s spontaneity at his best: “I understood what the feeling of the song should be. What is interesting in the song is that you can hear Michael giving directions like “bridge” or “guitar” and he actually sings the parts himself. That was of course a work in progress session”.

“The Atlantic” (September 11, 2012) (archived)

The thing I love about these demos is the rawness. Michael had the freedom to just get the expression out there without thinking, 'Oh, Quincy is going to be judging the vocal, or it has to be perfect.' It's just Michael going for it, experimenting, having fun.