Pick of the Day: Michael Jackson's "A Place With No Name"

CDS Picks has officially been retired and will be replaced with a daily, more in-depth look at a single song. This new feature will be dubbed the Pick of the Day.

With the massive success of the first single from Michael Jackson's posthumous XSCAPE, "Love Never Felt So Good (feat. Justin Timberlake)", Epic Records has announced the release of "A Place With No Name" as the second official and third overall release from the late King of Pop's 400,000+ copy seller (as of yesterday, August 13th).

Among all of the possibilities for the next single, "A Place With No Name" is easily one of the smartest choices L.A. Reid and the rest of Epic Record executives could have made (with releasing "Chicago" also being a decent move) to continue to promote the album. Not only is "A Place With No Name" one of the best tracks from XSCAPE, it's also one of my favorite tracks by Michael Jackson in history. 

Hear a little bit about my initial thoughts on "A Place With No Name" directly after listening to "Loving You" during my review of the album as a whole:

"And now we come to one of the funkiest tracks on the album. Not because of its beat, but because of its story - well maybe both. "A Place With No Name" was Michael Jackson's answer to the 1972 smash hit "Horse With No Name" by a band called America. Rejected during two different album sessions, this track finally made its way to release courtesy of a modern update applied by producers StarGate. After a mouthful of Timbaland produced beats, it was nice to see a change in terms of production, with StarGate taking the reigns - and their time. According to official sources, Timbaland spent about a single day mixing each of his assigned tracks, while StarGate took over a week to come up with the production for this song. Luckily it paid off; "A Place With No Name" helps XSCAPE continue to wow me.

Original Version: The original version of "A Place With No Name" seems like a bit of a bore. It's surprising to learn that this "original version" was actually verified by Michael Jackson in 2008, 30 years after its initial recording and 1 year before his death. It seemed a bit simple to be deemed a "completed" track."


As to whether or not "A Place With No Name" will actually become a massive hit... I really have no idea. "Love Never Felt So Good" did reach #42 on the CDS Music Chart Hot 50, which leads me to believe it'll eventually chart for at least a week. All I know is that "A Place With No Name" is one of the first ever Picks of the Day.