Background
The album The Simpsons Sing the Blues was released in September 1990. The first single from it was the pop rap song "Do the Bartman", performed by Bart Simpson's voice actor Nancy Cartwright and released on November 20, 1990. Rumors began spreading in the summer of 1990 that Michael Jackson would write a song for Bart on the album. This song was reported early on to be "Do the Bartman", but executive producer James L. Brooks issued a press release in September 1990 apologizing for the misunderstanding and stating that song was actually written by one of Jackson's friends, Bryan Loren.
However, The Simpsons creator Matt Groening revealed during an appearance at the 1998 World Animation Celebration convention in Pasadena, California that "Do the Bartman" was actually co-written and co-produced by Jackson, but he could not receive credit for it because he was under contract to another record label. Groening told a crowd at the convention that had gathered for a "The Simpsons tribute" that it had "always amazing to me that no one ever found out that Michael Jackson wrote that song. He was a big fan of the show."
Jackson was a fan of The Simpsons, especially Bart, and had called the producers one night offering to write Bart a number one single and do a guest spot on the show, which is how "Do the Bartman" came about. Jackson eventually guest-starred in the episode "Stark Raving Dad" (season three, 1991) under the pseudonym John Jay Smith. He also wrote a song for that episode called "Happy Birthday Lisa", which was later included in the album Songs in the Key of Springfield. It has been reported that Jackson also provided background vocals for "Do the Bartman".
Read more about this topic: Do The Bartman
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