Michael Jackson’s engineer tells real story of “Smooth Criminal”

0:00 But this is how Michael's mind worked is he starts with a hook. It starts with that that chorus hook thing and then he he would flesh out a story that would fill in the verses of the song behind it. So it it it's kind of like it comes into focus in different elements. Annie, are you okay? So, are you okay? Are you okay? >> Here with Matt Forger, recording engineer for Michael Jackson, who worked with the legend Bruce Swedine, Quincy Jones, Rod Temperton, and Michael Jackson. We're here to talk about specific things about that group. And I was wondering about the song Smooth Criminal. Who is Annie and is she really okay? >> Uh, no. uh she suffered a fate as is

0:47 described in the song. Uh she was uh brutally attacked, but that was part of the creative nature of how Michael pieced together things in a storyline uh to create a song lyric. Uh, Annie is the name for if you take a CPR class. Uh, it's the resuscitation. Annie is the mannequin that you practice the the process of of CPR. So, you're not doing it on a on a human being. You're doing you're doing it on this this fake. >> That's the term they call that mannequin an Annie. >> A resuscitation Annie. At one point um

1:34 the brothers uh as a group uh traveled extensively touring the Jacksons and at one time uh someone had the presence of mind of you know we should give everybody uh CPR license. The principle of giving CPR is here is someone in distress. The first thing you need to do is evaluate well are they breathing? Are they conscious? Can they respond? So you go up to your your subject and because the device is called an Annie, you say, "Annie, Annie, are you okay? Are you okay, Annie?" Because you are evaluating is this person >> capable of breathing or not?

2:20 >> So anyone that like clearly I didn't study CPR or I wouldn't be asking you this. >> True. >> But anybody that has would know what an Annie is >> probably. And so Michael pulled like this was when he was with the brothers like how long before >> he had the CPR lesson when he was at some point working with his brothers in touring. But this is one of those things that you know that that little catchphrase stayed in his memory and that triggered that was the trigger thing like we were talking about. uh um conditioning yourself and giving yourself that that uh post-apoc uh conditioning. you you plant the seed

3:05 and then later it comes back in this other form that all of a sudden developed into uh writing a song about this person Annie who had suffered the fate of being uh having someone breaking in and and uh attacking this woman. And that's what the song is about. It's about this this victim of this uh uh attack. But Annie, the reason why he's he's saying that line is that is the exact line you are taught to say in CPR class. >> And and I was recently speaking to a lyricist about this. >> A lot of times she's working with gibberish lyrics, you know, like that you just come up with and said like most of the time there's key words in there

3:50 that I'm just not going to change cuz that's it's it's the suggestion of what the whole song's really about. So I don't know if if in Michael's case like how that came about and if if he just started singing the song and make you know and then he just went to that and then the song comes out of it. But that's a lot of times the point I'm making is don't like underestimate those initial words you just start when you're writing a song and you just start singing along with just these gibberish words like there might be something deeper in there that it was a suggestion and that's what led you to the song so you could explore it and don't just toss it so quickly you know try to write all new lyrics cuz there could be definitely some and like in this case obviously he was writing a song about it wasn't just about a a CPR mannequin No, no,

4:36 >> cuz the song's not really about that. >> The the the phrase is such a catchy hook. Michael recognized how catchy this hook was and then he expanded that on. Okay, this Annie is a person and this person then he built the story out. I I He didn't explain to me how he fleshed out the story. >> He told you this? Well, he told me who Annie was told. Yeah. He didn't he didn't tell me uh the circumstances of of uh Annie being attacked and and where that came from. But this is how Michael's mind worked is he starts with a hook. It starts with that that chorus hook thing and then he he would flesh out a story that would fill in the

5:24 verses of the song behind it. So it it it's kind of like it comes into focus in different elements >> and then you always know that it's going to that hook's there and it's going to groove and he's going to move >> cuz that's the most that's the most important critical part of a song is that groove of and that that power of that hook melodically and and you know >> and for him he he kind of had to move. >> Oh yeah. >> Cuz I always noticed when he wasn't moving I would be getting a little concerned if I was in the studio. I wanted it moving. >> Yes. >> Cuz that's when everything was right. >> Absolutely. >> If you like this video, click right here. There's another video I know you're going to love. And if you want to go deeper into synthesizers, click right here and check out my course, Think Like

6:12 a Synth. It's the exact method that I've used on hit records and films. And I know you can learn it, too. Looking forward to seeing you on more