After Jon Peters, I went back to work with Robert Abel in 1980 as head of Abel’s entry into the Music Video business. I was instrumental in introducing Robert Abel to Michael Jackson and the Jacksons, who wanted to produce the ultimate special effects Music Video. Michael made a deal with Robert Abel to produce the Music Video for the Jackson’s “Can You Feel It” song.
Michael created the video’s concept and the geniuses at Robert Abel fulfilled his vision. The result: the Video, entitled “The Triumph“. In 2001, it was voted one of the 100 best videos of all time, in a poll to mark the 20th anniversary of MTV.
(I would later come to know and talk movie ideas with Michael Jackson again, when Stan Lee and I entered negotiations to partner with Michael in a movie and TV company through his Kingdom Entertainment affiliation in 1997. Stan Lee and I met Michael a number of times, at his hotel suite in the Universal Sheraton hotel and in his dressing room and on the set of his “Ghost” video, co-written by horror novelist Stephen King and Directed by special effects mastermind Stan Winston.
When he was recording the monster hit song Endless Love in 1980, and Producing Kenny Rogers (recording his “Through the Years” album) — I was there, spending days and weeks at a time in the control room with Lionel Richie, trying to get him to commit time to write and produce with me a Broadway Musical. But as usual, I was 2 years too early, because Lionel did not start his solo-career without the Commodores until 1982.
Written by Larry Shultz