"This Place Hotel" (originally named "Heartbreak Hotel") was a hit recording by The Jacksons released in 1980. Written and composed by Michael, the song would precede Jackson's own hit, "Billie Jean". While his brothers did not sing background vocals, they were credited with playing percussion on the album while brother Tito contributed a guitar solo. The song has a tempo of 98 beats per minute, making it notably slower than many of the other disco-based songs on the album. In the song, the protagonist speaks of a time when ten years ago, he took his girlfriend to a hotel for a romantic night - only to find out that it was designed specifically to break couples up. The staff at the hotel gave the girl the impression that he had cheated on her with someone else, something he did not do, which caused her to break up with him in the hotel.
Chart success
Michael Jackson - HeartBreak Hotel (This Place Hotel) - Michael Jackson - HeartBreak Hotel (This Place Hotel)
The song reached number twenty-two on the Billboard pop singles chart and number two on the R&B singles chart. "This Place Hotel" was the group's second biggest single off their Triumph album, behind "Lovely One." The song, in turn, became a popular concert performance for the group's next two tours right into Michael's own Bad tour. The song, like the aforementioned "Can You Feel It," was sampled fairly often in hip-hop.
Name change
The song's title was changed because of the 1956 Elvis Presley hit, "Heartbreak Hotel". Michael claimed to be unaware of the Presley song but had the title changed nonetheless.
Performances
The song was performed on the Jacksons' Triumph Tour (thus appears on The Jacksons Live album) and was subsequently used on the Jacksons' Victory Tour. When Michael Jackson first toured as a solo act, "This Place Hotel" was the only Jacksons song to be used in both legs of the Bad World Tour, whereas the other songs by the group (with the exception of a medley of early Jackson 5 hits) were retired during the second leg. A spoken word and synth recording preceded the song on the first leg of the Bad tour, but for the second leg of the tour (and on the subsequent Dangerous World Tour) that recording was used as an intro to Jackson's hit "Smooth Criminal" instead.
The song was included on Michael Jackson's The Ultimate Collection and it has been remixed on the Immortal album in 2011. A live version of the song is available on the 2012 DVD Live at Wembley July 16, 1988. On March 23, 2014, a video clip of a live performance of the song from the Victory Tour was uploaded to The Jacksons' official YouTube account.
Release
The original title of "Heartbreak Hotel" was used and released commercially on 7" vinyl in many countries, though a 2-track 12" maxi single was produced and promotional-only copies, given to radio stations and reviewers and a limited 2-track Japanese mini CD single was commercially released in November 1988 (using the newly chosen title), to coincide with the Michael Jackson Bad tour.
Notable samples
This track has been sampled on at least 20 different hip-hop, R&B and gospel songs, including most notably:
- "Peaceful Journey" by Heavy D & the Boyz feat. K-Ci & JoJo (Peaceful Journey, 1991)
- "N.E. Heart Break" by New Edition (Heart Break, 1988)
- "Heartbreak Hotel" by The Game feat. Diddy (The Red Room, 2010)
- "You Are the Only One (Remix)" by God's Property feat. Kirk Franklin (God's Property from Kirk Franklin's Nu Nation, 1997)
- "You Be Killin Em" by Fabolous (There Is No Competition 2: The Grieving Music EP, 2010)
- "Lookin' Fly" by Redman feat. Method Man (Reggie, 2010)
- "The Center of Attraction" by Ghostface Killah feat. Cappadonna (Twelve Reasons to Die: The Brown Tape, 2013)
Track listing
These are the formats and track listings of major single releases of "This Place Hotel" (previously "Heartbreak Hotel").
Personnel
- Written, arranged and composed by Michael Jackson
- Produced by The Jacksons
- Associate Producer: Greg Phillinganes
- Lead and background vocals by Michael Jackson
- Additional background vocals: Stephanie Spruill, Maxine Willard Waters and Julia Tillman Waters
- Horn arrangement by Tom Tom 84
- Prelude arrangement by Jerry Hey
- Instrumentation:
- Keyboards: Greg Phillinganes
- Guitars: Tito Jackson, David Williams, Mike Sembello, Paul Jackson, Jr.
- Bass: Nathan Watts
- Drums: Ollie E. Brown
- Percussion: The Jacksons, Paulinho da Costa
- Timpani: Marlon Jackson
- Scream: La Toya Jackson