Today’s song was written by one of the members of the band Toto. They were in the middle of finishing the song “Africa.” He got to the studio and had just seen his daughter, who had a real rough day at school. She'd fallen off a slide and a boy had hit her, and she was in second grade and kept asking him “Why?” and it was just ringing in his head.
He told his daughter that the boy probably LIKED her and that acting like he did was sort of human nature. He was quickly inspired to write today’s song and put a demo down on cassette. Toto had been assisting with the production of the ICONIC album from which this song comes, but they had not intended for it to be used by today’s superstar singer.
However, Super Producer Quincy Jones inadvertently heard that rough demo version of the track and thought it would be a great fit for the album. He explained, “It was a very personal song. It was about this episode with my daughter and Quincy asked me, "Do you mind if I let someone take a stab at the first lyrics?" Another songwriter came in and kept the chorus and the verse but tuned up the rest of the lyrics into the song we know today.
The song is the fifth single from this MONSTER album and was released as a single in July 1983. Like the four singles before it, the song became a top 10 hit in the US, reaching number seven on the Billboard Hot 100.
Today’s song was first performed during this singer’s family band’s Victory Tour. He started to sing "Ben", but suddenly stopped, apparently moved in that moment to change the set list on the spot, and he proceeded to sing today’s song live for the very first time.
Today’s singer was also going to perform this at his ‘This Is It’ concert tour, which was canceled due to his death in 2009.
Micheal Jackson...Human Nature...I Know That Song
Who remembers this 90's gem? SWV's Human Nature remix of "Right Here."
Please tell me you too had those Bongo jean shorts?!