Michael Jackson's biggest selling UK single wasn't Thriller or Billie Jean — but a song about the environment

<blockquote>"I remember writing Earth Song when I was in Austria, in a hotel. And I was feeling so much pain and so much suffering of the plight of the Planet Earth. And for me, this is Earth's Song, because I think nature is trying so hard to compensate for man's mismanagement of the Earth. And with the ecological unbalance going on, and a lot of the problems in the environment, I think earth feels the pain, and she has wounds, and it's about some of the joys of the planet as well. But this is my chance to pretty much let people hear the voice of the planet. And this is 'Earth Song'. And that's what inspired it. And it just suddenly dropped into my lap when I was on tour in Austria."
- Michael Jackson</blockquote>


Michael Jackson's biggest selling UK single wasn't Thriller or Billie Jean — but a song about the environment

Earth Song was a cloying anthem about dead elephants and deforestation but that didn't stop it being Christmas number one

Leo Hickman
guardian.co.uk
Friday 26 June 2009
Source

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It would certainly rank fairly low down my own list of Michael Jackson classics – give me something from Off the Wall anytime of the day - but it is often forgotten that his somewhat cloying environmental anthem Earth Song was actually his biggest selling single in the UK – over a million copies sold and six weeks at the top of the charts, including the 1995 Christmas number one.

The song is a very rare thing: a hit record with a powerful message about our impact on the environment. How many others can you think of? Joni Mitchell's Big Yellow Taxi? Marvin Gaye's Mercy Mercy Me? The Pixie's Monkey Gone to Heaven? All great records, but none of them come close in terms of sales when compared to Earth Song.

Although never released in the US as a single, the song became the defining, closing song on Jacko's HIStory tour, especially when it climaxed with scores of children joining Jackson on stage to sing the song's rousing finale. It was a sight of such pomposity - which included Jackson striking a Christ on the crucifix-like pose - that it famously sent Jarvis Cocker over the edge at the Brits Awards in 1996 and led him to jump up on stage and start gesturing at Jackson before being bundled away by security guards.

And then there was the video – among the most expensive ever made - which starts with a long tracking shot through a lush rainforest that then cuts to a scene showing a sombre Jackson walking through a scorched, desolate landscape. The environmental emoting then comes thick and fasting: dead elephants, evil loggers, belching smoke stacks, snared dolphins, seal clubbing, and hurricane winds.

Here's what Jackson himself said of the song:
<blockquote>I remember writing Earth Song when I was in Austria, in a hotel. And I was feeling so much pain and so much suffering of the plight of the Planet Earth. And for me, this is Earth's Song, because I think nature is trying so hard to compensate for man's mismanagement of the Earth. And with the ecological unbalance going on, and a lot of the problems in the environment, I think earth feels the pain, and she has wounds, and it's about some of the joys of the planet as well. But this is my chance to pretty much let people hear the voice of the planet. And this is 'Earth Song'. And that's what inspired it. And it just suddenly dropped into my lap when I was on tour in Austria.</blockquote>

What struck me today watching the video was how it is very much the product of an age before climate change had become a mainstream concern. The lyrics and imagery speak of over-fishing, deforestation, and smog. All of them are still huge and legitimate concerns, of course, but they have all now become somewhat dwarfed by climate change, the most compelling and over-arching environmental issue of our age.

But that shouldn't distract us from the song's impact on its fans. Given its universal success and the repeated showing of its powerful video, it is highly likely that it was the spark that made many people - particularly young Michael Jackson fans, which, even in the mid-1990s, would have numbered many millions of people around the world - stop and think about environment for the first time.