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"Je Ne Veux Pas La Fin De Nous" ("I Just Can't Stop Loving You" - French Version)

Recording Dates Confirmed in Christine Decroix’s interview

Christine Decroix, translator, MJFrance Interview (Rough Translation)

I met Quincy in Los Angeles through friends of their friends. We sympathized. I moved there to learn English. Quincy invited me to the recording sessions of Bad. When I heard "I Just Can't Stop Loving You" I told Michael that he should sing it in French because it's a harmonious language which is appropriate for this kind of romantic melodies. Quincy proposed me to write the lyrics. I did it and Michael recorded it.

What is the title in French?

"Je ne veux pas la fin de nous" ("I Don't Want the End of Us"). It is intended for Francophone countries. Michael also recorded a beautiful version in Spanish with Ruben Blades for Hispanic countries. After that, I think Julio Iglesias will have problems.

How did it go?

At first I wrote a few sentences. It was hard, I have never done that. For me it was the first time. My English teacher asked me to stop. "I'm trying to teach English," he said, "and you spend your time writing in French; with that in mind you'll never speak well." So, I gave up. But after a while, Quincy encouraged me to continue. The lyrics pleased Michael so the recording began in July, after which he had to rehearse for the tour and we finished recording early September.

Does Michael speak French?

A little bit. He mostly learns on-the-fly. He repeats the words instantly without accent. The song is most touching in French. He gave his best, maybe because he makes an effort of attention.

What does the French text say?

The text begins with "Je ferme les yeux" ("I close the eyes"). At that moment, everything was said. The music is soft, his voice is very sexy. And it follows: "Je me sens fiévreux, sans toi j'ai froid" ("I feel feverish, without you I'm cold"). I will not say any more. I've already said too much. I'll ask Quincy if you can record it.

How's Michael?

He is great. He is a very sensitive and terribly shy man. When he doesn't know people, he doesn't dare talk to them. He doesn't dare even look at them. So in the first instance we can believe that he is rude, While he is quite the opposite. At the beginning, I thought I was disturbing him and that my presence was too much. It's very embarrassing. And then, gradually, after he saw me a few times with Quincy, he started looking at me. Then he said "Hello". He got used to me. He needs to be comfortable. When this happens, he is extremely caring, though he is still worried whether everything goes well, if people are happy. This is the most considerate guy I have ever met. And what people don't know, is that he has a lot of humor. It was a wonderful experience working with him. It's really strange what happened to me.

Brad Sundberg, Technical Director / engineer, Facebook Post (September 20, 2016)

During the latter part of recording the Bad album I was assigned to Westlake Studio C down the hall from Studio D to help Michael and Siedah record the French and Spanish versions of the song. I am told the French version is not a perfect translation, but I think it was an honest gesture from Michael to his international fans to give them something special. It was fun to watch him try to pronounce each phrase perfectly with the translators. Here's the funny thing: the engineer assigned to handle some of that recording (I won't mention his name out of respect) was in way over his head. He had never worked with anyone close to Michael's stature, and he was nervous. Like shaking nervous. I tried to calm him down, but he was a wreck! The problem with being that nervous is you make mistakes, and he made a lot. At one point he accidentally erased an entire section of Michael's finished vocals. I thought he (the engineer) was going to throw up. I explained to Michael that an honest mistake had been made and we had to re-record those vocals. I won't say Michael was thrilled, but he accepted the challenge without complaining and we started over.

Matt Forger, sound engineer, “MJ Data Bank” (October 9, 2012) (archived)

The mix of the song presented on BAD 25 is the final one that was done in 1987: “This is not a new mix”, confirms Matt Forger. “The mix existed at that time. I only knew there were a Spanish version and a French one.  There was a lot of research and an interest to release the song. I was told to mix it for BAD 25. However the people I worked with and I said we have to research this completely and we knew something was done in 1987. My entire philosophy is: every time I could find a very good mix representative of what the song should be and the way Michael would want the song from that era, my choice is: that’s the one that should be used. We did a lot of research and we found the mix and we were so happy we were able to find it. It was so authentic”.