Rare Gems: Michael Jackson- Hot Street

Happy Saturday #Musicheads! So I found this jam some years back while going through MJ’s unreleased music. This tune was written by Rod Temperton (another favorite of mine) and was originally to be included on Thriller. Both Temperton and Quincy Jones felt that it was too weak of a song to go on the album. Considering the sheer caliber of tunes that were on Thriller, yeah I might be able to understand that (Personally, I always thought that “The Girl is Mine” was the weakest link on Thriller, but I digress).

While I really like the song, I must admit that it does sound dated……in an early 80’s-video game-sound- sorta way.  Now how they could tell that was the case back in 1982, when everything else sounded exactly like that, is beyond me. I guess the approval process was pretty strict, and they wanted material that they knew would still hold up years later….they were right.

Enjoy this rare cut from 1982…