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Liberian Girl From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

"" was the ninth single released from American recording artist Michael "Liberian Girl" Jackson's 1987 album . The song was written as early as 1983 and was among those considered for The Jacksons' Victory album. It was reworked and rewritten for Bad. The song was released as a single in Europe and Australia.

Contents

1 Critical reception 1.1 Reaction in Liberia Single by 2 Chart performance from the album Bad 3 4 Track listing B-side "Girlfriend" 5 Covers and sampling Released July 4, 1989 6 Personnel 7 References Format CD single, 12" 8 External links Recorded 1987 Genre R&B

Length 3:53 (album version) Critical reception 3:40 (edit)

The Times editor Jon Pareles wrote Label Epic that a melody line from reappears in Writer(s) Michael Jackson [1] this song. Rolling Stone's Davitt Sigerson Producer(s) praised the song: "'Liberian Girl' — is Michael's Michael Jackson (co- filler, which makes it richer, sexier, better than producer) Thriller's forgettables" and he also described that it "glistens with gratitude for the existence Michael Jackson singles chronology of a loved one."[2] In 2003, Q Magazine ranked "2300 "Liberian "Black or the song at number 1,001 in their list of the Jackson Girl" White" "1001 Best Songs Ever".[3] Street" (1989) (1991) (1989)

Reaction in Liberia Bad track listing

The song received a positive reception in "Speed "Liberian "Just Good Demon" Girl" Friends" [4] Liberia, with women from the country viewing (3) (4) (5) [4] the song as empowering. Liberian woman Music video Margaret Carson said in an interview with the Washington Times "When that music came out "Liberian Girl" … the Liberian girls were so astonished to hear (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f3V- a great musician like Michael Jackson thinking 7DEAgdc) on YouTube about a little country in Africa. It gave us hope, especially when things went bad … . It make us to feel that we are still part of the world."[4] Chart performance

Peak Chart (1989) position Australian Singles Chart 50 Dutch Singles Chart 14 French Singles Chart 15 Irish Singles Chart 1 Swiss Singles Chart[5] 12 UK Singles Chart 13 Peak Chart (2009) position French Digital Singles Chart[6] 34 Swiss Singles Chart[5] 36 UK Singles Chart[7] 86

Music video

Directed by Jim Yukich, the video for the song featured many of Jackson's celebrity friends who gather on a soundstage to film the music video for "Liberian Girl", only to discover that Jackson was filming them all along. As named in the closing titles, featured in the video are:

Beverly Johnson Malcolm-Jamal Warner Sherman Hemsley Brigitte Nielsen Carl Weathers Quincy Jones Jackie Collins Jasmine Guy Rosanna Arquette Lou Diamond Phillips Olivia Newton-John Corey Feldman Debbie Gibson Rick Schroder Blair Underwood "Weird Al" Yankovic Suzanne Somers Lou Ferrigno Don King and "Son" Mayim Bialik Virginia Madsen David Copperfield Billy Dee Williams Richard and Emily Dreyfuss Dan Aykroyd Steve Guttenberg

There was also a mummy that was shown during the ending credits. The mummy was credited with a question mark but it could have been Jackson trying to state that he was watching all of them.

The music video of the song was included on the video albums: HIStory on Film, Volume II, Vision and the Target version DVD of Bad 25. Track listing

7"

1. "Liberian Girl" (edit) – 3:40 2. "Girlfriend" – 3:05

12"

1. "Liberian Girl" (edit) – 3:40 2. "Get on the Floor" – 4:44 3. "Girlfriend" – 3:05

CD single

1. "Liberian Girl" (edit) – 3:40 2. "Girlfriend" – 3:05 3. "The Lady in My Life" – 5:00 4. "Get on the Floor" – 4:44 Covers and sampling

"Liberian Girl" has been sampled and covered by various musicians:

In 1990, Chicago-based musician Chico Freeman recorded an instrumental jazz version for his album You'll Know When You Get There.[8] In 1996, hip-hop artist MC Lyte sampled the song on "Keep On, Keepin' On" featuring R&B group . The song released first on the soundtrack for and later on MC Lyte's fifth album Bad As I Wanna B.[9] In 1999, American singer Jennifer Lopez's song "" contains a sample from "Liberian Girl" only on a remix called 'Dark Child Master Mix'.[10] In 2001, the song was sampled on the late American rapper 2Pac's songs "Letter 2 My Unborn",[11] on his fourth posthumous album Until the End of Time and "The Thug in Me" (original version).[12] In 2007, Canadian rapper Roi Heenok sampled the song on his track "La Coka Coka", in French and released on his album Cocaïno Rap Musique: Volume 1.[13] In 2009, Mac Dre sampled Jackson's song on "Black Buck Rogers".[14] In 2013, The Great Extender released an extended take on "Liberian Girl" which has become wildly popular among Jackson fans. "The Great Extender Mix".[15] Personnel

Written and composed by Michael Jackson Produced by Quincy Jones Co-produced by Michael Jackson Michael Jackson: Solo and background vocals : Drums Douglas Getschal: Drum programming : Percussion Christopher Currell: Synclavier John Barnes, , , Larry Williams: Synthesizers : Synthesizer programming : Swahili chant Rhythm arrangement by Michael Jackson, John Barnes and Quincy Jones Synthesizer arrangement by , John Barnes and Quincy Jones Vocal arrangement by Michael Jackson and John Barnes Swahili chant arrangement by References

1. Pareles, Jon (31 August 1987). "Pop: Michael Jackson's 'Bad,' Follow-Up To A Blockbuster" (http://www.nytimes.com/1987/08/31/arts/pop-michael-jackson-s-bad-follow-up-to-a- blockbuster.html). The New York Times. 2. http://www.rollingstone.com/music/albumreviews/bad-19871022 3. http://www.muzieklijstjes.nl/Q1001bestsongsever.htm 4. http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2009/jul/02/king-of-pop-uplifts-liberia/?page=all 5. "Swiss Singles Chart Archives" (http://hitparade.ch/showitem.asp? interpret=Michael+Jackson&titel=Liberian+Girl&cat=s). hitparade.ch. Retrieved July 18, 2009. 6. "Download French Single Top 50" (http://lescharts.com/weekchart.asp? cat=si&year=2009&date=20090627). France. lescharts. Retrieved 2009-12-31. 7. "UK Singles Chart" (http://www.theofficialcharts.com/top40_singles.php). The Official UK Charts Company. Retrieved 6 July 2009. 8. AllMusic http://www.allmusic.com/album/r166068 9. WhoSampled http://www.whosampled.com/sample/view/791/MC%20Lyte%20feat.%20Xscape- Keep%20On,%20Keepin%27%20On_Michael%20Jackson-Liberian%20Girl/ 10. WhoSampled http://www.whosampled.com/sample/view/9394/Jennifer%20Lopez- If%20You%20Had%20My%20Love%20%28Darkchild%20Master%20Mix%29_Michael%20Jackson- Liberian%20Girl/ 11. WhoSampled http://www.whosampled.com/sample/view/731/2Pac- Letter%202%20My%20Unborn_Michael%20Jackson-Liberian%20Girl/ 12. About.com http://rap.about.com/od/songs/tp/RapSongsSampledMichaelJackson.htm 13. WhoSampled http://www.whosampled.com/sample/view/14310/Roi%20Heenok- La%20Coka%20Coka_Michael%20Jackson-Liberian%20Girl/ 14. http://www.last.fm/music/Michael+Jackson/_/Liberian+Girl 15. https://soundcloud.com/lseagull2k/michael-jackson_liberian-girl External links

Official video (http://myplay.com/videos/michael-jackson/liberian-girl) on a website from Sony BMG

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Categories: 1989 singles Michael Jackson songs Songs written by Michael Jackson Song recordings produced by Michael Jackson Song recordings produced by Quincy Jones Rhythm and ballads 1987 songs singles Multilingual songs

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