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.

“Whatever Happens”

Date confirmed in Mike Smallcombe’s “Making Michael” (“By April [2001], Teddy Riley had seemingly grown weary of working out of a remote recording truck and returned to his home in Virginia Beach… One of the songs that stood out for Riley at this time was called ‘Whatever Happens’.”)

Michael Jackson, “GetMusic” interview (October 26, 2001), speech transcript (Original GetMusic website archived)

DeCurtis: Do you have any special guests?

Michael: Umm, oh yeah, Carlos Santana. He and I have done, like, a duet. He plays the guitar and I sing and it's something that, uh, we've written. And it's really, really a nice song.

DeCurtis: Now had you known him from over time or did you meet him recently?

Michael: I've met him before, but we've been talking a lot on the phone recently. After winning his Grammy award he said to the press that he would like to meet me and he's ready to work with me. So everybody's been telling me that, and uh, I called him up and he said he really would, it would be his dream come true. And he was the nicest man. He's so kind and so spiritual. I found him to be so humble, so I said to myself, "We have to make this work."

DeCurtis: And so you wrote a song together?

Michael: Well, there's a song that myself and two other people wrote and he was a part of it, and uh, Whatever Happens.

Geoffrey Williams, co-writer, “The Courier” (January 16, 2013) (archived)

Whenever Geoffrey Williams would hear the songs from Michael Jackson’s Off The Wall record in the early 1980s, he would put on his dancing shoes and go wild.

Little did he know that 20-odd years later, his own song Whatever Happens would feature on another of the King of Pop’s albums.

The Ballarat musician had written the song while sitting in an old car in front of a hospital in the UK, but he never thought anything would come of it.

After combining the lyrics with a backing track his friend had created, the song was sent off and picked up by Michael Jackson years later.

“It was the most amazing thing to hear someone who I had revered and been dancing to for decades sing those words I had wrote in that old car,” Williams said.

“I still put the record on today and think, ‘oh my God’. It’s so exciting to have him actually sing those words. It’s still unbelievable to me.”

Carlos Santana, guitarist, “MTV News” (April 18, 2001) (archived)

"I was very honored that he called on me to work with him, and I love the song," Santana said. "He gave me a call last week, and he was really happy with it."

Bruce Swedien, audio engineer, Monster Cable interview (June 11, 2001)

Monster Cable: Did any well known musicians play on INVINCIBLE?

Bruce: Carlos Santana played on the album. He did a guitar solo on a song called, "Whatever Happens". It is just phenomenal. Everybody that hears that goes bananas.

Teddy Riley, co-producer, TheBoombox interview

We [had a full orchestra] on the Invincible album, song [“Whatever Happens”]... These songs, you know, that’s college, working with an orchestra. You can’t get no better, you can’t get more organic than that.

Mike Smallcombe, Making Michael

By April, Teddy Riley had seemingly grown weary of working out of a remote recording truck and returned to his home in Virginia Beach. Michael decided to join him, and stayed in a two-bedroom condo belonging to the producer. Getting away from New York enabled Michael to focus for the first time in many months, and he spent two weeks recording with Riley at his Future Records studio.

One of the songs that stood out for Riley at this time was called ‘Whatever Happens’. The song, which is about a girl who discovers that she is pregnant, came from an artist signed to Riley’s label. “We were going to sign him to Interscope, but this guy started tripping out,” Riley said. “So I ended up going to the writers of that song [Gil Cang and Geoffrey Williams] and asked them could I produce the song for Michael. They let me do it.” Michael also received a writing credit, even though he did not write the song. For decades, less established songwriters have been forced to give up a slice of their publishing rights as part of the condition of having their song recorded by the superstar artist.

Riley wanted a 40-piece orchestra to perform strings on ‘Whatever Happens’, and Carlos Santana to play guitar. “Michael was like, ‘Okay, we will make that happen,’ I wanted ‘Whatever Happens’ to be special,” Riley said. But Santana was spending time with his family and didn’t want to leave his San Francisco home to travel to the East Coast, so he recorded his parts at his home studio. The musician admitted he was honoured to receive the call, and the respect was mutual. “He [Santana] was the nicest man,” Michael said. “He’s so kind and so spiritual. I found him to be so humble, so I said to myself, ‘We have to make this work’.” Michael also loved the improvisation of Santana’s whistling, which can be heard at the beginning of the track, and kept it on the final recording.