Liberian Girl From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia "Liberian Girl" was the ninth single released from American recording artist Michael "Liberian Girl" Jackson's 1987 album Bad. 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 Michael Jackson 2 Chart performance from the album Bad 3 Music video 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 New York Times editor Jon Pareles wrote Label Epic that a melody line from Billie Jean reappears in Writer(s) Michael Jackson [1] this song. Rolling Stone's Davitt Sigerson Producer(s) Quincy Jones 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 Paula Abdul Carl Weathers Whoopi Goldberg Quincy Jones Jackie Collins Amy Irving Jasmine Guy Rosanna Arquette Lou Diamond Phillips Olivia Newton-John John Travolta Corey Feldman Steven Spielberg Debbie Gibson Rick Schroder Blair Underwood "Weird Al" Yankovic Bubbles Suzanne Somers Lou Ferrigno Don King and "Son" Mayim Bialik Virginia Madsen David Copperfield Billy Dee Williams Richard and Emily Dreyfuss Danny Glover Olivia Hussey 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 jazz 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 Xscape. The song released first on the soundtrack for Sunset Park and later on MC Lyte's fifth album Bad As I Wanna B.[9] In 1999, American singer Jennifer Lopez's song "If You Had My Love" 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 John Robinson: Drums Douglas Getschal: Drum programming Paulinho Da Costa: Percussion Christopher Currell: Synclavier John Barnes, Michael Boddicker, David Paich, Larry Williams: Synthesizers Steve Porcaro: Synthesizer programming Letta Mbulu: Swahili chant Rhythm arrangement by Michael Jackson, John Barnes and Quincy Jones Synthesizer arrangement by Jerry Hey, John Barnes and Quincy Jones Vocal arrangement by Michael Jackson and John Barnes Swahili chant arrangement by Caiphus Semenya 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 Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php? title=Liberian_Girl&oldid=669965009" 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 blues ballads 1987 songs Epic Records singles Multilingual songs This page was last modified on 4 July 2015, at 21:09. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License; additional terms may apply. By using this site, you agree to the Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. 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