We went to the studio and some guy told us we were going to be singing one word... "Childhood". He sang it for us once or twice then began recording. All we heard in the cans (headphones) were tracks with no lead vocal. We still couldn't figure out what or whom this was for. After singing the one word a few times, I saw a man behind the glass in the recording studio step forward out of the darkness with a black hat, a red shirt and a black curl in front of his face. On the talkback we heard, "Can you sing it a little more like this... Childhood" As soon as I heard the voice I grabbed my sister's hand and spoke without moving my lips "It's MICHAEL JACKSON!!!!"
I cooly sang "Childhood" about a dozen more times and the engineer thanked us and said we were done. We went back to the green room where our parents were waiting and I grabbed the Bad album cover from my mom and brought it to Michael's assistant. I asked her if she could please bring it to Michael and have him sign it. The other kids who sang with us began ripping little pieces of paper for him to sign. They were no where near as prepared as my family!!
The assistant said "Let me see what I can do", and she disappeared for about five minutes. She came back and said, "Can I have all of the kids follow me?" We followed her to a door in the Hit Factory that had a star on it and said "Jackson". We went into the room and there he was, greeting us at the door with a hand shake and a smile and telling us that it was a pleasure to meet us. Can you imagine? A pleasure to meet us?? His room was filled with some pretty strange things: life-size cut-outs of the Power Rangers, a train set, and a giant globe that rotated. He had pictures of children that he had helped attached to the country they were from.
Michael had many questions for us like if any of us went to camp for the summer. He said that he always asked his parents if he could go to summer camp because it looked like so much fun and of course they told him no!! This was right around the time when the media was questioning whether or not he had married Lisa Marie Presley. I noticed a ring on his hand and I said, "so does that ring mean you are married to Lisa Marie?" He nodded his head yes and said "shhhhhh". We chatted for a while, he signed our album cover and we went home having what I thought was the greatest day of my life.
A week or two later my mother got another call from our contractor. This time she said Michael wanted to have us back to the studio to record a Christmas song. It was July but when we got to the studio, it was decorated for the holidays. There was snow all over the ground, a tree, Santa who gave us all presents (we each got a Gameboy... tells you how long ago this was!!) and reindeer. Michael came walking right into the studio this time and didn't hide behind the glass. I guess he felt more comfortable with us this time. He taught us the song himself and stayed with us in the sound booth as we were singing it. After we recorded the song he invited our parents into the studio and had the whole thing catered. We sat around the piano as he played the piano and we all sang Christmas songs. It's just like Christmas Eve at the Elefante's (my in-laws)!!!
So on June 25th, when the whole world was in shock of Michael Jackson's death, these were the memories that all came flooding back for me.
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