Someone Put Your Hand Out

One of Michael Jackson’s deep cuts, “Someone Put Your Hand Out” was first released in May 1992 as a Pepsi exclusive: about 500,000 copies of the cassette single were manufactured and distributed in Europe ahead of the Dangerous tour, and a version was released on CD single in Japan. Eventually, the song became more widely available when it was included on The Ultimate Collection in 2004.

Michael originally wrote the song years prior, under the title “Someone Put Your Hand Down”. It was demoed circa 1986-87 for the Bad album, but ultimately never made the final cut.

Later, the song was revisited and re-recorded during the Dangerous sessions. As per DAT tapes, “Someone Put Your Hand Out” was pulled out and worked on as early as February 1990, either adding to the previous Bad era version or recording a new version. This was before Michael re-wrote the song with Teddy Riley, who helped change the verses. A new version produced by Bruce Swedien was recorded in April 1991 at Larrabee Studios, which was further developed over the next few months. By the time Paulinho Da Costa added percussion to the track on 17 August 1991 (as filmed by assistant engineer Brad Sundberg), the track was mostly done and sounded very close to what was eventually released. Despite being considered as the 7^th track on Dangerous in an early alternate sequence, the song was left off the final selection.

Let’s address a few rumours. For a long time, it was widely believed that the released version was a re-recording from April 1992 – a month before release – as attributed in the liner notes of The Ultimate Collection. However, it’s clear from various sources (including leaked footage) that this was the same version recorded for Dangerous. Nonetheless, it’s possible Michael made additional tweaks to the recording before its eventual release.

Also, there are conflicting credits over the same version concerning the co-producer: Bruce Swedien on the Pepsi single, Teddy Riley on The Ultimate Collection. However, it’s clear from the leaked session footage that Bruce Swedien was hands-on in the production of the song. Which makes sense, given Teddy Riley usually played most (if not, all) of the instruments on his productions and on “Someone Put Your Hand Out” other musicians like Oscar Castro-Neves, Paulino Da Costa and Brad Buxer were involved.

Sources

Michael Jackson Mexico Deposition 1993 – mark 2:39:53, 2:49:50 to 2:50:52

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OPqd2n9uKDI (Leaked session footage)

https://publicrecords.copyright.gov/detailed-record/2429222 (Copyright registration)