If Michael Jackson and Prince switched voices?

This came into my head the other day when I was thinking about how Billie Jean or Thriller would sound with Prince's voice. How would their top hits sound different? Would either have been as big of a success, with swapped voices?

 

Not good, but i think Michael could do Prince, no pun intended.

 

Sounds like a nightmare scenario!

 

Indeed, but perhaps if Prince sang like MJ he could pull it off, getting rid of his singing style kinda. Thieves in the Temple is an MJ sounding song of his. The songs would be a little deeper though, but that might make them more powerful.

 

I don't think any Prince songs would sound better with Jackson singing them. Quite the opposite in fact. All that "Shomone" nonsense and hiccuping. It was bad enough of his own songs, let alone Prince's. Anyway, Prince did a fine job (and probably would've made Jackson's more bearable if he'd sang them).

 

1999, shamone, hee hee!!

 

I've always thought Michael could have pulled off Eye Wish U Heaven.

That's about it. Two totally different artists.

 

Yeah, it's almost if you could combine the two voices the end product would be great. I definitely think Prince could do more of MJ's stuff than the other way around. I can vision in my head Prince singing a lot of the things on Thriller and Off The Wall, almost as if he could go high to the level of Michael, and he could.

 

"If Michael Jackson and Prince switched voices"..

OMG!!! THAT WOULD BE LIKE SOOOOO FREAKY!!!

 

The thread title is just asking for trolling but I'll spare you since you're new...LOL!

I think Prince would have KILLED on "Billie Jean". As for Michael singing Prince tunes, not sure how that would work. I don't think I'd believe MJ's voice singing Prince's lyrics.

Ed

 

I'm pretty sure I saw Prince live do "Don't Stop Til You Get Enough" and it was perfectly convincing. I do think Prince could slay "Billy Jean" as well, and while I don't think he could beat MJ on "Human Nature" I'd enjoy hearing him try....

I spent a day listening to a shuffle of MJ and Prince hits and what struck me is how much more people-pleasing MJ seemed---his stuff seemed generally carefully custom designed to be pleasing smooth and satisfying, while Prince was just so frequently prickly strange and dissonant it's far less obvious WHY he was so successful....

 

I think the lyric is the problem with "Human Nature". I don't hear Prince singing those lyrics. I have absolutely no clue what John Bettis was getting at with them (I'm not sure he knows either) but they don't sound like something that would come out of Prince's mouth. "Don't Stop..." makes perfect since, really. Didn't think of that one.

Ed

 

To OP:
I'm just playin.
sorry.

 

I was thinking about Beat It and while lyrically, like you say about Human Nature, it doesn't sound Prince-ly, on a simple physical level I can barely think of a Prince song in which he spits out words at such a fast and steady pace. It's not his approach to vocal melody.

 

I'm guessing the two men were probably great fans of each other's work, Prince very likely having grown up listening to the Jackson 5 around the house and with friends.

I'm sure there was an almost visceral competitiveness to their relationship as their stars rose throughout the 80s but I'm also sure there was a huge amount of respect.

So yeah, I bet they sang each other's songs in the shower.

 

Dealin' and squealin'...

 

Indeed, when the idea of this topic first came to mind, I thought of an alternate history adult Michael Jackson having Prince's voice. I can't see Prince in our world ever coming up with songs like Human Nature.