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“You Are Not Alone,” released in August 1995, is the second single from Michael Jackson’s album HIStory. The R&B ballad was officially written by R. Kelly in response to difficult times in his personal life. He then forwarded a bare demo tape to Jackson, who liked the song and decided to co-produce it with Kelly. Jackson’s interest in the song was also linked to recent event’s in his personal life; highly publicized allegations of child sexual abuse and his recent marriage to Lisa Marie Presley.
The vast majority of critical reaction to “You Are Not Alone” was positive, although it did not attain unanimous praise. The song was the recipient of Grammy and American Music Award nominations. The corresponding music video, which featured Jackson and his wife was also notable for its scenes of semi nudity.
Commercially, the song was a significant success. It holds a Guinness World Record as the first song in the 37 year history of the Billboard Hot 100 to debut at number one; it was later certified platinum by the RIAA. The song peaked highly in all major markets. In 2007, a court ruled that Kelly had plagiarized another song while making “You Are Not Alone”. The verdict and consequences are only recognized in Belgium.
In 1993, Jackson was accused of child sexual abuse. Although never charged with a crime, Jackson was subject to intense media scrutiny while the criminal investigation took place. The media coverage was subject to criticism that included using sensational headlines to draw in readers and viewers when the content itself did not support the headline,[1] accepting stories of Jackson’s alleged criminal activity in return for money,[2] accepting confidential, leaked material from the police investigation in return for money paid,[3] deliberately using pictures of Jackson’s appearance at its worst, a lack of objectivity and using headlines that strongly implied Jackson’s guilt.[4]
The entertainer began taking painkillers, Valium, Xanax and Ativan to deal with the stress of the allegations made against him.[5] A few months after the allegations became news, Jackson had lost approximately 10 pounds (4.5kg) in weight and had stopped eating.[6] Jackson’s health had deteriorated to the extent that he canceled the remainder of his Dangerous World Tour and went into rehabilitation.[7][8] Jackson booked the whole fourth floor of the clinic, and was put on Valium IV to wean him from painkillers.[7][8][9] The singer’s spokesperson told reporters that Jackson was “barely able to function adequately on an intellectual level”.[8] While in the clinic, Jackson took part in group and one-on-one therapy sessions.[7][8]
In 1994, Jackson married singer-songwriter Lisa Marie Presley, the daughter of Elvis Presley. They had first met in 1975 during one of Jackson’s family engagements at the MGM Grand, and were reconnected through a mutual friend in early 1993.[4] They stayed in contact every day over the telephone. As child molestation accusations became public, Jackson became dependent on Lisa Marie for emotional support; she was concerned about his faltering health and addiction to drugs.[5] Lisa Marie explained, “I believed he didn’t do anything wrong and that he was wrongly accused and yes I started falling for him. I wanted to save him. I felt that I could do it.”[10] In a phone call he made to her, she described him as high, incoherent and delusional.[5] Shortly afterward, she tried to persuade Jackson to settle the allegations out of court and go into rehabilitation to recover—he subsequently did both.[5] Jackson proposed to Lisa Marie over the telephone towards the fall of 1993, saying, “If I asked you to marry me, would you do it?”.[5] Presley and Jackson married in the Dominican Republic in secrecy, the parties denied that they had married for nearly two months.[11] The marriage was, in her words, “a married couple’s life … that was sexually active”.[12] At the time, the tabloid media speculated that the wedding was a ploy to prop up Jackson’s public image in light of prior sexual abuse allegations.[11] Jackson and Presley divorced less than two years later, remaining friendly.[13]
“You Are Not Alone” is an R&B ballad about love and isolation.[9][14] The song was written by R. Kelly and co-produced by Kelly and Jackson.[9] Kelly wrote the song after the loss of close people in his life.[15] Kelly was delighted to be able to work with his idol, explaining “I was psyched … I feel I could have done his whole album. Not being selfish. I was just that geeked about it. It was an experience out of this world … It’s amazing to know that five years ago I was writing songs in a basement in the ghetto and now I’m writing for Michael Jackson … I’d be a fool not to say it’s a dream come true.[16] Jackson contacted Kelly to see if he had any material available. Kelly forwarded a tape recording of the song and Jackson then agreed to work with Kelly on the piece.[16] On the tape sent to Jackson, Kelly sung “You Are Not Alone” mimicking Jackson’s vocal style, explaining, “I think I am him. I become him. I want him to feel that as well.” Jackson found the interpretation amusing.[17] They spent a day together in the studio working on the track.[16]
Jackson explained that he instantly liked the song, but listened to it twice before making his final decision. Although the song was written by Kelly, Jackson was adamant that the production should be a collaborative effort amongst the two musicians.[15] The tape sent to him had no harmony or modulations, so Jackson added a choir in the final portion and added a sense of climax and structure to the final piece.[18]
R. Kelly would help write and produce two more singles for Jackson: “Cry” (2001) and “One More Chance” (2003).
James Hunter of Rolling Stone noted that, “the excellent current single ‘Scream’ or the first-rate R&B ballad ‘You Are Not Alone’ – manage to link the incidents of Jackson’s infamous recent past to universal concepts like injustice or isolation. When he bases his music in the bluntness of hip-hop, Jackson sketches funky scenarios denouncing greed, blanket unreliability and false accusation”.[14] Jon Pareles of The New York Times said that it was the only conventional love song on the new material on HIStory. He compared it to Mariah Carey’s song “Hero” and said it “sounds like a surefire hit”.[9]
In more recent years, Stephen Thomas Erlewine of Allmusic expressed the opinion that “You Are Not Alone” was amongst some the best song’s Jackson ever released, calling the song seductive.[19] The R&B critic and journalist Nelson George described the song as lovely and supple.[20] Writer and journalist J. Randy Taraborrelli wrote of the song in 2004, “[it] remains among Michael’s best song’s … On listening to ‘You Are Not Alone’, one wonders how many times Michael tried to tell himself, during his most desperate and anguished times, that he did have support in his life, from a higher power, or even friends and family, whether he actually believed it or not”.[21]
Fred Shuster of the Daily News of Los Angeles described it as the best song on the album.[22] Conversely, while Steve Holsey of Michigan Chronicle gave the album a positive review, he described the song as the worst on the album, calling the Kelly penned lyrics “trite” and below the standard set by Jackson’s own lyrical skills.[23] “You Are Not Alone” received an American Music Award nomination and a Grammy nomination both for “Best Pop Vocal Performance”.[24]
The music video beings with a large number of paparazzi taking photographs of Jackson. The plot then centers around two locations: a temple where Jackson appears in an affectionate semi-naked scene with his then wife Lisa Marie Presley and a theater where Jackson performs the song to an empty hall. Jackson also appears alone in other locations such as deserts and mountain tops. It is the first high profile video where Jackson’s hair is cut relatively short. The slightly extended version that appeared on HIStory on Film, Volume II was notable for a scene where Jackson appeared as a guardian angel over his wife, special effects were used to give Jackson white feathery wings.
Jackson originally appeared in complete nudity, but just before the video aired a decision was made to use special effects to remove or cover these aspects.[25]
Despite giving the song a positive review, Taraborrelli said of the video, “The only problem with ‘You Are Not Alone’ was the bizarre video for it, in which Michael and Lisa Marie frolic about semi-nude against an ethereal backdrop…The semi-nudity made no sense and was a bit disconcerting; one wished they would put their clothes back on”.[21] Afterward Presley expressed regret about doing the video, saying she was “sucked up in the moment. It was kind of cool being in a Michael Jackson video. Come on!”.[21]
Commercially, “You Are Not Alone”, remains one of Jackson’s best selling singles. It holds the Guinness World Record for the first song ever to debut at number one on the Billboard Hot 100 chart.[26] First week sales were 120,000 copies, it was certified platinum by the RIAA for shipments of at least one million units within the US.[27][28][29] It broke the record set by his previous single “Scream/Childhood”, which was the first song in the 37 year history of Billboard to debut at number five—where it peaked.[28]
It peaked at number one in the UK after a debut at number three in the prior week.[28][30] The song also reached number one in Wallonia, France, New Zealand, Spain and Switzerland.[31] With the exception of Italy, it became a top ten hit in every major market.[28][31]
In 2007, a Belgium court ruled that R. Kelly had plagiarized the 1993 song “If We Can Start All Over” when composing “You Are Not Alone”. The court transferred rights of Jackson’s hit to the twin composer brothers, Eddy and Danny Van Passel. The judgment is only recognized in Belgium and airplay of the hit has been banned in that nation.[32][33][34]
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i love u not alone it makes me cry alot and i miss mj soo much !!!!!!!!!!! he was my insipration. i would have liked to met him first
It’s my all time favorite of his as well. Every time I see the video I fall in love with it over and over again.