LOST MICHAEL JACKSON TRACK FOUND ON YOUTUBE! “TOUCH THE ONE YOU LOVE”

“In 1973, I was General Manager of Warner Brothers Music when I accompanied one of our Warner Brothers staff songwriters, George S. Clinton Jr. (who went on write the score for the three “Austin Powers” movies), to the Tokyo Music Festival. It was my first trip to Japan, which turned out to be one of the most significant times of my life.

I met South African/ songwriter and producer Terry Dempsey, who complained that no one would listen to his song because of his country’s stance on apartheid. When he assured me that he wasn’t a racist, I listened, loved it, and he gave me the US subpublishing rights without an advance. A year later,”Daydreamer” by David Cassidy had sold five million records all over the world!

It was also during this festival that I became friendly with Olivia Newton-John (“Let Me Be There”), who a year later recorded a song I gave her, “I Honestly Love You”, which became the song of the year in 1974!

George and I hung out with my friend, Paul Williams (“We’ve Only Just Begun”, “Old Fashioned Love Song”), his bass player Colin Cameron, and his guitarist, Art Munson, who became my longtime collaborator.

The most important connection I made, however, was with “Papa” Joe Jackson and his sons, The Jackson Five, which included a 12 year old Michael! Michael had just recorded “Little Christmas Tree” (Clinton/Wayne), and George and I were excited to meet him.

He was a magical little fella’, who was surrounded by aura that could touch the most cynical of hearts. I was taken aback, however, when he showed up on the front page of all the Japanese papers with Linda Purl, who was representing Japan in the Festival…the girl I had fallen in love with.

OK, he might have been 12 years old, but he was still Michael Jackson!

After placing 3^rd in the competition, George and I returned to Hollywood. A few weeks later, while I was longing for Linda, Motown producers, Marcellino and Larson, asked George and me for another song for Michael.

TOUCH THE ONE YOU LOVE

By George S. Clinton, Jr. and Artie Wayne

If I had a penny for every time
I didn’t hold your hand
If I had a nickel for every time
I didn’t understand
I’d be the world poorest millionaire
‘Cause you’re not there
And no one ever told me
What you’re willing do
If I had only reach out
I might still be touching you

You got to TOUCH THE ONE YOU LOVE If you want the one you love to touch you.

You got to TOUCH THE ONE YOU LOVE If you want the one you love to touch you.

(You’ve got, you’ve got to touch
You got touch the one who loves you)

I would get embarrassed for every time
a movie made you cry
you’d get sentimental, and
I would never know the reason why
I hold the world’s greatest record

for my selfish pride
Is it really over?
Can I get close to you?
I only want to show you
that I’ve learned a thing or two

You got to TOUCH THE ONE YOU LOVE If you want the one you love to touch you.

You got to TOUCH THE ONE YOU LOVE If you want the one you love to touch you.

(You’ve got, you’ve got to touch
you got touch the one who loves you)

(Fade out)

Copyright 1973/ 2009 by Warner Brothers Music

Although Michael made a great record, it remained in the can for over 10 years. Then in 1984 I was hosting Allan Rinde’s Genghis Cohen, a hot Hollywood Chinese restaurant, when manager Benny Medina (Will Smith, Jennifer Lopez), came in for dinner. At the time he was an A&R man for Motown Records and was putting together a package of unreleased Michael Jackson masters to capitalize on the success of “Thriller”. You can imagine how I felt when he said that, “Touch The One You Love” was finally coming out in the “Farewell My Summer Love” album!”

Copyright 2009 by Artie Wayne from his forthcoming autobiography, “I Did It For A Song” https://artiewayne.wordpress.com/about-artie-wayne/

THE TOP, THE BEST, AND THE GREATEST MICHAEL JACKSON VIDEOS! https://artiewayne.wordpress.com/2009/06/26/top-best-and-greatest-michael-jackson-videos/

MICHAEL JACKSON R.I.P.  ROCK IN PERPETUITY! https://artiewayne.wordpress.com/2009/06/25/michael-jackson-r-i-p-rock-in-perpetuity/

THE STORY BEHIND MICHAEL JACKSON”S “LITTLE CHRISTMAS TREE” https://artiewayne.wordpress.com/2009/06/29/michael-jackson-and-the-story-behind-little-christmas-tree/

To contact George S.Clinton http://www.georgesclinton.com/

Art Munson http://over50music.com

Paul Williams http://www.myspace.com/paulwilliamssongwriter

Colin Cameron http://www.colincameronbass.com/

Allan Rinde http://allanrinde.com