Sources : My personal research, Wikipedia, Michael Jackson: For The Record by Chris Cadman & Craig Halstead, Twitter account of Damien Shields and the amazing archives of the MJCast.
ERA
1989-1993 : Dangerous era
RECORDING DATE
Recorded in 1990 with Bryan Loren and Nancy Cartwright (the voice of Bart Simpson).
“Do the Bartman” is a song from the 1990 album The Simpsons Sing the Blues, featuring the voice cast of the American animated television series The Simpsons. It was performed by The Simpsons cast member Nancy Cartwright (the voice of Bart Simpson), with backing vocals from American singer Michael Jackson, alongside additional vocals from Dan Castellaneta (voice of Homer Simpson).
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 later stated during an appearance at the February 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 Epic Records. Groening told a crowd at the convention that had gathered for a “The Simpsons tribute” that it had “always [been] 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 the song “Happy Birthday Lisa” for the episode “Stark Raving Dad”, which was later included in the album Songs in the Key of Springfield. Bryan Loren has stated that Jackson had provided background vocals for “Do the Bartman”.
In July 2015, when Bryan Loren was selling the publishing and songwriting rights for the song, Loren stated that “despite Matt Groening’s repeated confessions, I am the sole writer of the song”. Loren stated that Jackson’s contributions included backup vocals and providing the title “Do the Bartman” and that Jackson insisted his own name be mentioned in the lyrics.
STUDIO(S)
Record One, Los Angeles
SONGWRITER(S)
Bryan Loren
PRODUCER(S)
Bryan Loren
RELEASE DATE :
November 20, 1990 (single)
December 4, 1990 (The Simpsons Sing The Blues).
LABEL
Geffen
LENGTH
5:10 (album version)
3:59 (single version and video edit)
ALTERNATE VERSIONS RECORDED BY MJ (covers and remixes by other artists are not included)
???
MUSICIANS
Nancy Cartwright – lead vocals
Michael Jackson – backing vocals
Dan Castellaneta, Julie Kavner, Yeardley Smith, and Matt Groening – additional voices
Bryan Loren – backing vocals, instruments
Paul Jackson Jr. – additional guitar
Laurie Rox, Bart Stevens, and Richard Voltrop – background shouting
Production
Richard Cottrell – recording engineer
Bryan Loren & Michael Jackson – producers
Julie Last & Bart Stevens – assistant recording engineers
Mixed at Larrabee Sound Studios
PEAK ON HOT 100 BILLBOARD :
Remains unreleased
SHORT FILM
The accompanying music video for “Do the Bartman” features the typical plot of Bart rebelling against authority when he decides to put his own spin on a rigidly choreographed dance presentation at Springfield Elementary School. The music video for “Do the Bartman” was directed by Brad Bird, with dance choreography by Michael Chambers. Nobody from the staff of The Simpsons wanted to direct it because they were busy doing the show, but Bird finally agreed to do it after having been asked four times. He had a very short amount of time to finish the video because it was supposed to coincide with the release of The Simpsons Sing the Blues.
The entire music video was storyboarded in only two days in the United States. Bird then got on a plane to Budapest, Hungary, where the video was animated by Varga Studio. They thought the video was going to be animated as simply as the original The Simpsons shorts, shown on The Tracey Ullman Show, so when Bird told them that it was going to be done in full animation with no repeated scenes, they “went into deep shock”. The animators added the wraparound at the beginning to set Bart against the crowd and put the video in “some sort of context.”
The video was nominated for Best Special Effects at the 1991 MTV Video Music Awards. It originally premiered on Fox after the episode “Bart the Daredevil” on December 6, 1990, and was the number one music video on rotation on MTV between January and March 1991. Along with the music video for “Deep, Deep Trouble”, the video was included on The Simpsons: The Complete Second Season DVD boxset in 2002. Following the death of Michael Jackson on June 25, 2009, the music video was broadcast by Fox on June 28, 2009—ahead of a rerun of the episode “Wedding for Disaster”—and featured a title card paying tribute to Jackson.
There is an alternative version of the music video that removes the references to Michael Jackson’s “hair strand” (by not including said hair strand in frame), people dancing to the Bartman on a cruise ship with the Statue of Liberty in the background moving side to side with the rhythm of the song and replaces it with extra frames of the Springfield “cool kids” dancing along. The alternative version also removes the lyric, “She can do it, you can do it, so can I”.
LIVE PERFORMANCES ON TV SHOWS
Never performed on TV
LIVE PERFORMANCES IN CONCERTS
Never performed in concerts
Jackson Dynasty 