You may think that I missed the boat when I chose to blog about the Fourth of July instead of the most important story in the history of music. Ever. Okay, so maybe not ever. But in quite a long time. At least in this century. Namely, the sudden death of Michael Jackson. If I was on a major media outlet and didn't comment on something like that, I'd get fired for sure. Fortunately, I can't get fired from my own blog. At least not yet.
Having said that, I would like to think that maybe, just maybe, the music took a back seat to the story of his death and legacy. And now it's time to get back to what matters most about his life. The music.
It would be hard to pick just one song to profile. There are so many good songs and so many stories about these songs. From "Thriller" to "Beat It" to "Bad" to "Billy Jean". These are all terrific songs. So why am I picking a song about a rat.
"Ben" is actually a touching song and is one of the few Michael Jackson songs I can dance to. The only Michael Jackson dance move I can make is grabbing my crotch. And nobody, and I mean nobody, wants to see that.
The movie "Ben" is about a boy who befriends a rat, which he names Ben. The rat is the leader of a pack of rats who kill people. It is a sequel to "Willard", which is another movie about killer rats.
I've always found it interesting as to who winds up recording the song first. It can be as simple as someone being on tour so they give it to somebody else. This is precisely what happened to Donny Osmond. They wanted to give it to him but he was on tour. So Michael wound up doing it. I'm surprised Michael was not top billing. Maybe Donny was hotter at that point in time.
The song turned out to be Michael's first solo #1 hit. It won a Golden Globe award for best song, but lost the Academy Award for best original song to "The Morning After" by Maureen McGovern from the movie "The Poseidon Adventure."
Michael was on an episode of "The Simpsons" during the shows third season, which is pretty impressive. I know the show now has had a huge amount of celebrity voices throughout it's long life. In fact, it's probably a coup to land a spot on the show. But I can't imagine it being like that during it's third season. Maybe Michael started the ball rolling.
In any event, Michael liked the show and personally called Matt Groening to be on the show. Michael didn't actually sing "Ben" on "The Simpsons". He was only signed on to act. The song was sung by Kipp Lennon. Michael also wrote, but didn't sing, the song "Happy Birthday Lisa" for the show.
If you ever get a chance to dance to "Ben" by all means take it. It's a good song to dance to. Even if it is about a rat.
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