As a Michael Jackson fan, we all want or have the E.T. Story Book album box set which includes Michael Jackson telling the story of this extra terrestrial fairy tale.
As many of us know, the album was released and then removed from the market back in 1982 making this item Extra Rare!
But what really happened?
It’s 1982! Steven Spielberg releases “E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial” and Michael Jackson’s “Thriller” is out in this world! Both came to our eyes and ears in November!
So can you imagine both forces coming together? Well, it happened but it didn’t end well!
Michael loved the alien and the story. He even said: “He’s in a strange place and wants to be accepted—which is a situation that I have found myself in many times when travelling from city to city all over the world. He’s most comfortable with children, and I have a great love for kids. He gives love and wants love in return, which is me. And he has that super power which lets him lift off and fly whenever he wants to get away from things on Earth, and I can identify with that. He and I are alike in many ways”
Michael just finished recording “Thriller”, his second solo album with Quincy Jones who, knowing Michael’s love for E.T., he introduced him to Spielberg and ended up working together on an audiobook album that told the story of the movie. Michael was so inspired that he even wrote a song to include in the album: “Someone in The Dark”.
MCA, the music label behind Universal Studio, created an amazing package for the audiobook including the record, a full color book and a poster of the King of Pop with E.T..
When Michael and Quincy agreed to make the E.T. Story Book Album, they had few conditions. As Thriller was coming November, they asked MCA to delay the release of the Audiobook ntil Christmas and not to release “Someone in The Dark” as a single.
But MCA didn’t listem and not only released E.T. The Storybook on November 7 but they also gave the song to radio stations to promote the album.
And here comes Epic Records in the mix! Epic promptly sued MCA for $2 million and both companies settled for $500,000 and agreement that MCA would stop the sales of the audiobook and the release of the single.
But a million copies of the Story Book had already been shipped and sales were shut down.
And despite the short run of this project, the album won critical acclaim and Michael even won a Grammy Award for Best Recording for Children!
That’s right, the 8 Grammys received that night in 1984, 7 were for “Thriller” and one for E.T.!
During his acceptance speech, he said “Of all the awards I’ve gotten, I’m most proud of this one, honestly.”
Quincy said later that both him and Michael never got paid for their work on the audiobook!
But what a piece of collector to have! The song was later included as a bonus track on the 2001 special edition of Thriller, as well as the box set Michael Jackson: The Ultimate Collection
An important part of the story is that Walter Yetnikoff of CBS records knew he’d made a mistake about the rival (ET Storybook) release and asked Michael’s lawyer how he could make it up to him. Branca told Yetnikoff to give Michael ownership of his master recordings, which he did. So some good came of the situation.