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"You Are Not Alone"
Date range confirmed in Mike Smallcombe’s “Making Michael” (“[Michael and Kelly] spent the final week of November 1994 recording”)
R. Kelly, writer, “Soulacoaster: The Diary of Me” (June 28, 2012) (archived)
The day finally came. I got to the studio two hours early. I ordered my favorite Chinese food. I was sure to include some vegetarian dishes for Michael. I was so nervous that I started practicing in front of the food just how I would introduce Michael. Would I say, "Mike, would you like some Chinese food?" Or, "Mike, want some of this, man?" Or maybe it'd be better to say, "If you're in the mood for some Chinese food, Michael, you're welcome to it."
Thirty minutes and several phone calls from Jackson's people later, the legendary singer arrives.
He looked at least eight feet tall. He looked like an avatar. He was wearing a black mask over his face. Only his eyes were showing.
Finally, Mike walked over to me. He looked in my eyes, opened his arms, and gave me the hug of my life, whispering to me in his lighter-than-air, soft, high voice. "The world's gonna be singing this song."
I blurted out something silly like, "Congratulations on everything you've done, Mike. Congratulations on being Michael Jackson."
Just about then, Bubbles the chimp pranced into the room. In my mind, I called Bubbles "Trouble." The chimp made me nervous.
"He's friendly, isn't he, Mike?"
"Oh, yes, he's not going to hurt you."
"Anyway," I said, "I'm just glad you like the song."
"I don't like it, Rob. I love it. I don't want to change one thing. I want to sing it just the way you wrote it. You captured me beautifully. That's the reason I came here. We can get started just as soon as I do my vocal warm-ups."
"If you excuse me for a minute," I said, "I'll be right back."
I walked to the bathroom and just fell out on the floor. I broke down and cried. It wasn't that Michael Jackson was singing my song; it was that Michael had felt how I'd caught his spirit. Michael Jackson had come to Chicago to work with me!
"Rob," he said in that high, sing-song voice, "would you mind coming in here and singing backgrounds with me?"
Mind? Are you kidding? Michael Jackson was asking me to sing with him!
I had to practically stop myself from running to the vocal booth. I paced myself so I could walk slowly, but in my heart I felt like a little girl.
When we started to sing, the blend was perfect. We were butter and toast. He did that some rocking motion I'd seen him do on "We Are the World." Sitting there next to me – my voice over his, his voice over mine – I tasted heaven. Heaven on earth. Brother, this is as good as it gets.
"You know, Rob," he said later that afternoon, "sometimes it can take me a month to get a song where I want it."
"Me, too, Mike," I agreed. "Sometimes it takes me more than a month."
"I'm glad you understand. You'll be patient with me, won't you?"
"I'll be whatever you want me to be, Mike. It's still like a dream for me."
Then, the King of Pop made an unexpected request
"Can I ask you something else?"
"Sure."
"Is there a mall around here, Rob?
"Just a couple of blocks away."
"Would you go there with me? I love malls."
"I love 'em too, Mike. Let's roll."
With Bubbles and the security team in place, we went to Water Tower Place, one of the nicest malls in Chicago. Michael headed straight for the Disney store where he was fascinated by a larger-than-life statue of Donald Duck hung above the entrance.
"That's beautiful," said Michael. "Do you think they'd sell it to me? I'd love to have Donald Duck for Neverland."
"Couldn't hurt to ask," I said.
Of course Michael Jackson walking into the Disney store caused a near-riot. When the manager appeared, Michael couldn't have been sweeter: "Is there any way I could buy that Donald Duck?" he asked.
"I'm afraid not, Mr. Jackson. It's permanently built into the front of the store."
"Oh, that's a shame," Michael said politely. "But thank you anyway, sir."
I'd never met anyone with better manners.
The pair worked on perfecting the song over the next three weeks and spent time chatting together in the studio.
The experience of working with Mike was drama-free. Every night after he left the studio and got in his van, people were hanging out the windows of office buildings and hotels, stretching their necks to get a glimpse of him. He'd always stop and wave.
When the job was done and it was time for him to leave Chicago, he gave me another hug and said, "You're my brother."
I was too choked up to say anything.
When "You Are Not Alone" dropped as the second single off Mike's History album, it made the Guinness World Records book as the first song to debut at #1 on the Billboard Top 100 chart. It was #1 in the U.K. as well as in France, New Zealand, Spain, Switzerland, and Japan. Mike was right. They were singing it all over the world."
“Vibe” magazine (June/July 1995)
I thought it was funny when I told Michael Jackson I didn’t want to fly, and he was giving me reasons why I should. I kept looking him in the eye, and I kept saying “uh-huh, uh-huh” and “oh, I see,” knowing all the time that I would not be getting on a plane.
Working with Michael was definitely not just another day at the office.
Vibe: What kind of mood do you have to be in to write?
Kelly: I would prefer being in a quiet room with a piano and a light shining in. But that's not the way it happens. When I wrote "You Are Not Alone," I was in a hotel, and it was very loud. But the spirit of the song was so powerful, I could block anything out. In my imagination, I was in a room with that light and that piano, alone. I can hear melodies like that. I don't care how loud it is—I sang over loud els, in the subway, and I still heard melodies.
Vibe: If you're writing a song for Whitney Houston or Michael Jackson, do you try to get inside their personalities?
Kelly: Michael Jackson, Toni Braxton, Ronald Isley-they trip because [I'll sing a song I'm doing for them], and they'll be going, "This brother sounds just like me." I tell them before I sing it, "Don't laugh, now." But they don't expect it to come out sounding so much like them. It makes them love it even more. [Laughs] When Michael heard me do "You Are Not Alone," he wanted to show me how Michael Jackson really does it. The difference between me and Babyface is that I like to give the artist themselves, and not R. Kelly. Artists call and say, "I want that 'Your Body's Calling'-type thing; and I tell them, "That came out of me. I'm going to give you something that would come out of you."
Vibe: So it was cool working with Michael?
Kelly: I was so nervous, I was afraid I wouldn't be able to finish the project. When he first got to the studio, some-thing weird came over me. Michael was another level, and it was a hell of a level to go to. But passion took over, and it put a shield around me and allowed me to be just a normal guy who felt like he worked with Michael all the time.
Vibe: Was he really receptive, or was he, like, "No, muhfucka, l've been doing this for 30 years." Kelly: He was never that. That's why he's been here for 30 years. He was more humble than me-got up under my wing. He wanted to know what it was I wanted from him. And if he could give it to me.
Chris Cadman’s “Michael Jackson the Maestro”
I actually imitated Michael when I sent him my first copy. He was laughing at me because I was imitating him.
…
“I was amazed when Michael called me because, for years, I just didn’t expect to go to that level,’ admitted R. Kelly. ‘I was so nervous, I was afraid I wouldn’t be able to finish the project. When I first got to the studio something weird came over me. Michael was on a different level, and it was a hell of a level to go to. But passion took me over, and it put a shield around me, and allowed me to be just a normal guy who felt like he worked with Michael all the time.”
Mike Smallcombe, “Making Michael”
Now Michael had made the decision to record a whole new album he was still searching for more songs from outside producers and writers, so he contacted R. Kelly’s manager to see if the singer would write a song for him.
Kelly said he was ‘psyched’ once he entered the studio to work on material for Michael. “I feel I could have done his whole album,” he admitted. “Not being selfish. I was just that geeked about it.” Kelly sent Michael a tape of an R& B ballad about love and isolation, titled ‘You Are Not Alone’, which he had written after the loss of people close to him, including his mother. On the tape, Kelly sang the song imitating Michael’s vocal style. “I think I am him,” he said. “I become him. I want him to feel that as well.”
Another song Kelly sent to Michael was called ‘Life’, which would later be recorded by American R& B duo K-Ci & JoJo. Although Michael liked both songs, he actually preferred ‘Life’ to ‘You Are Not Alone’, but Kelly said he didn’t feel ‘Life’ would be as big a hit and had to argue his case. He recalls telling Michael, ‘This song is for you, trust me, it’s gonna be big’.
When Michael’s team received the tape of ‘You Are Not Alone’ they saw great potential in the song, but they knew it needed more work. Michael re-produced the track and added a choir in the final portion, which he said gave it ‘a sense of climax and structure’. But Kelly said Michael later proceeded to give himself a co-writer’s credit. “Naturally that got me a little upset,” Kelly admitted, “but the minute I put a call in to Mike, he got right back to me.” Michael told him it was a mistake, and the credits were amended.
As Kelly didn’t like to fly, his programmer travelled to New York to help Bruce Swedien with the music track. Michael and Kelly then spent the final week of November 1994 recording in Kelly’s home city of Chicago. “Wherever Michael Jackson went, the world knew about it,” Kelly said. “It was like there were secret agents putting out the word. So, days before he landed in Chicago, the city knew he was coming. The whole town was wired for his arrival.”
Kelly was excited to be working with Michael, but also extremely nervous. When Michael first arrived at the Chicago Recording Complex Kelly was afraid he wouldn’t be able to finish the project, but in the end passion took over. Kelly ordered Chinese and vegetarian dishes for Michael, and put Walt Disney items all over the studio. “I knew he was a big kid, everyone knew that,” Kelly said. “And I also got my little dog because I knew he loved animals, I couldn’t afford giraffes, but I did have a dog. It broke ice and we talked. And I went to the bathroom and my manager came with me, and I remember that I fell to the floor because I just couldn’t believe it, but I got back up and straightened myself out because I realised that I had to be professional.”...
Every night after Michael left the central Chicago studio and got in his van, people were hanging out of office buildings and hotels to get a glimpse of him. “He’d always stop and wave,” Kelly said.