The Ultimate Collection is a box set by American singer and recording artist Michael Jackson. It was released on November 16, 2004, by Epic Records and consists of four audio CDs and one DVD. The album sold 57,000 copies in 2004 alone,[4] and on May 16, 2013, it was certified Platinum as a multi-disk package by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) for physical shipments of 200,000 copies in the United States.[5] The DVD marked the first physical release of Live in Bucharest: The Dangerous Tour, initially an HBO concert special in 1992, which was later released as an individual title on July 25, 2005. The set also features a 60-page booklet that contains photos and text by the American music critic Nelson George summarizing the artist's career.
Notable tracks on the box set include the first release of the demos of songs such as "P.Y.T. (Pretty Young Thing)", "Shake Your Body (Down to the Ground)", "Cheater" and the original demo of "We Are the World" featuring Jackson as a soloist. The set also contains 8 unreleased songs, including "In the Back", "Beautiful Girl", "The Way You Love Me" and "We've Had Enough".
The song "The Way You Love Me" was remixed for the posthumous album Michael with the title "(I Like) The Way You Love Me", and was released as a single on July 8, 2011.
The previously unreleased content from this box set was later included in an iTunes-only collection similarly titled The Ultimate Fan Extras Collection in 2013.
Rarities
The Ultimate Collection box set also contains songs previously out of print:
"Enjoy Yourself" is 15 seconds longer than the original album version.
"Sunset Driver" was originally recorded in 1979 and 1982 (the 1979 version remains unreleased), was left off the Thriller album. The demo version can be found on Thriller 40.
"Someone in the Dark" was recorded in 1982 and first released as a two-part song on the E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial double LP audiobook, and later included in a shorter version in the 2001 "Special Edition" of Thriller.
Both the early version of "Dangerous" and "Monkey Business" were recorded in 1989 and were previously available only on the rare 2001 Special Edition acetate of the Dangerous album, which was ultimately cancelled.
"Someone Put Your Hand Out" was originally recorded in 1987 and re-recorded in 1991. The song was released as a Pepsi-supported cassette single in Europe to promote the Dangerous World Tour (see below).
"On the Line" was recorded in 1996 and featured on the Get on the Bus movie released the same year. It was also part of the Ghosts box set released in 1997, but containing an earlier fade out.
"You Are Not Alone" is 15 seconds longer than the album version, featuring more vocals.
"You Can't Win" (alternate version) (recorded for single release by Epic Records, original version from The Wiz film; recorded August 1977 and 1978, during The Wiz soundtrack sessions)
Charlie Smalls
The Wiz
7:18
11.
"Shake a Body" (early demo) (previously unreleased; recorded August 1978, during Destiny sessions)
"Someone Put Your Hand Out" (recorded 1987, 1990 and 1991 – April 1992, during Bad and Dangerous era sessions and released as a Europe-only cassette single)
Michael Jackson, Teddy Riley
5:25
Disc 4
No.
Title
Writer(s)
Album
Length
1.
"You Are Not Alone" (extended version) (recorded September and November 6 and 8, 1994 – March 1995, during HIStory sessions)
"Someone Put Your Hand Out" (on disc three of The Ultimate Collection) is a song originally written by Jackson in 1987 for the Bad album and re-written in April 1992 with Teddy Riley, having failed to make it on to Jackson's 1991 album Dangerous. It was released May 1992 in Europe as an exclusive Pepsi promotional single, to promote Jackson's upcoming Dangerous World Tour. 500,000[citation needed] copies were made available by collecting a winning token from certain Pepsi products.
A cassette single of "Someone Put Your Hand Out" was also released as part of an exclusive Pepsi promotional pack in June 1992 throughout Europe. The promotional pack also included a Michael Jackson poster, a promotional sticker, and a press release about Jackson's upcoming Dangerous World Tour.
An instrumental version of the song was played by Jackson's band during some of the concerts of the Dangerous World Tour.
^Lecocq, Richard; Allard, François (2018). "Bad". Michael Jackson All the Songs: The Story Behind Every Track. London, England: Cassell. pp. 461–63. ISBN 9781788400572.
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