Friday June 25th marks the one- year anniversary of the death of the King of Pop, Michael Jackson. On June 25th, 2010 beginning at 4:30 pm, Rev. Al Sharpton will join close friends of the Jackson family for a Memorial Service at the Harlem State Office Building's Plaza located at: 163 W. 125th street, New York City.

Jeffrey Paul Bobrick is honored to have been invited to join the tribute to Michael being held today in Harlem. We believe the tribute will be broadcast live on WBLS radio http://www.wbls.com/ beginning close to 4:30pm. Of course, if you can make it in person, please come!

Jeffrey will be performing his Michael Jackson tribute song "Michael (The One And Only)." Please download your free copy from our web site if you haven't done so already!

We will be celebrating the life of Michael Jackson in Harlem where Michael Jackson's name lit up 125th street for so many concerts through out the decades where he revolutionized Pop Music. As you may know National Action Network is one of the leading Civil Rights organizations in the nation with over 45 chapters around the country.

For decades the music of Michael Jackson has changed the world and deeply impacted the lives of our children and artists currently at the top of the Billboard Charts. We all witnessed the nation come to a complete stand still after hearing the news blasted on the airways that the world's best selling recording artist of all time had passed away. We all crowded around our televisions and stood in line for hours to witness the largest memorial service of this generation in which Rev. Sharpton and other iconic figures gave their personal and respectful tributes to the King of Pop. One year later we want to remind the nation that we will not forget Michael Jackson and that his legacy will continue to live on forever.

Aside from selling millions of records and giving us many of the best songs recorded in this nations history, Michael Jackson cared about helping others and donating to underserved communities. Michael spent many hours donating time and money to make a difference for the generation that succeeded him and the voiceless who currently couldn't speak up for themselves. He was amongst many celebrity icons that came to National Action Network's Headquarters to fight for the equality of all people. On June 25th we hope that you can join us as we celebrate the life of Michael Jackson.

After a brief memorial service, Rev. Sharpton will lead a march to the Apollo Theater, where he will conduct a National Moment of Silence for the King of Pop at 5:26 pm (the exact time of Michael's death).

Sometimes in our grief, great art is there to help us through. Shakespeare has a sonnet that speaks about the nature of love, stating that love “bears it out even to the edge of doom.” I was thinking about this line today, this “edge of doom.” Taken out of context from the sonnet, in my life there have been times when I felt like I was at that precipice, that “edge of doom.” It was a terrible loneliness.

I was a child. Young people have incredibly strong emotions, but they don’t have the abilities that adults have to deal with these emotions. I was a lost boy, helpless and hopeless. No one understood, and even though people cared about me and people loved me, I felt very much alone. I think, if we’re honest, we can all remember a time like that.

In those moments, and there were many of them when I was a child, Michael Jackson comforted me. I saw in him loneliness and a longing that I felt within myself. I saw in him love and joy that I felt within myself. I saw him finding himself in his art the way I wanted to find myself. Or was it lose myself in art and creativity? Sometimes it seems like it’s the same thing (as Michael sang in his song Speechless: “…I am in the light, where I cannot be found.”)

In my tribute song to Michael Jackson, I wrote “To me you were my mother, father brother.” Since I’m performing Michael (The One And Only) at a Memorial in Harlem on Friday, I’ve been practicing it and was wondering about this lyric of mine. It makes no sense. How could he be all three things? Or any of them? Especially since I do have great parents who love me and have even been comforting me even today as grieve. Emotionally, he was these things. When I was so lost and lonely, it was Michael who pulled me through, who served as inspiration, mentor and mirror. Sometimes an emotional truth trumps logic. Or as Michael once said “I’m Peter Pan in my heart.”

This experience of Michael as brother, Michael as savior, seemed unique to me, as if only I felt this way. But when I looked and look around the world, I see there are millions of people who feel the way I do. This doesn’t count the more casual fans who simply like his music. There are millions more of those. But to millions of us, he is “our Michael,” transcending language, culture, class, race, and nations.

Bruce Springsteen once said about another icon of his generation, Elvis Presley: “It’s like he came along and whispered a dream in everybody’s ear, and then we all dreamed it somehow.” We all dreamed the dream that was Michael Jackson. And whether we loved him passionately to the brink of doom as I did or had ambivalent feelings, he captivated us, spoke to us and captured us. When I say “captured,” I don’t simply mean that he captured our attention. Yes, he did command our attention, whether moon walking at Motown 25 or simply clapping for 5 seconds on top of a car). I mean that he was us. Michael is US. And of course he isn’t us at all. All great artists are full of contradictions. Perhaps the greater the artist, the greater the contradiction.

A final thought. I was speaking with a friend of mine today. She is a Chinese woman in her 70s. We were both sad about Michael. She said to me “There will never be anything like him again.” I agreed with her but I told her I thought that culturally, there are and will be other phenomena that capture the public’s imagination as Michael did. “Look at Harry Potter,” I said, “or Star Wars.”

“But those weren’t REAL!” she told me. “Michael was REAL! Moonwalk was REAL!” She’s right. Michael wasn’t someone else’s creation in an alternate universe. He was our creation, or his creation, but in our universe. He was real and his music was honest and spoke to our deepest hearts, our greatest yearning and our brink of doom. And now he is gone.

I miss you Michael.



“Every song you ever sang was true
We wish that we could give them same to you
Michael, you know we’ll always love you!”

- Michael (The One And Only)

"Everybody Hurts" is one of my favorite REM songs. It's message that we all go through difficult times and to stay living really resonates with me.

This is my last American Idol Response of Season 9 and I decided to sit down and play the piano. Just me and my instrument and a beautiful song.

I've already done "Hallelujah" in American Idol Response but I love the song so much I just couldn't pass it up. I do love "Come To My Window" and "Maybe I'm Amazed," but this speaks to me.

I decided to do more verses this time as well. I should say, about the verses, Leonard Cohen wrote 7 I believe, and I did not want to do all of them with just voice and a guitar (Cohen does four in the original version and six in his recent live version). All the lyrics sung here are, to my knowledge, correct Cohen lyrics (including his recent substitution of pilgrim for somebody -- actually, his substitution is pilgrim who claims to have...).

Watching American Idol tonight, I was impressed with Lee DeWyze's version. I would have loved to have that kind of powerhouse instrumentation, even though it may have been a little much. But my man Rick Warren did a great job on acoustic guitar as usual and I feel like this version is very complete for just voice and guitar.

That said, my favorite version of this sung is still Jeff Buckley's. It is such a fine moment by a talent taken from us too soon. K.D. Lang's version is extraordinary too. I hope you like my Hallelujah. It is one of the greatest songs ever written in my opinion.

Looking at the songs available this week -- and with a plane to catch early Wednesday morning -- I decided to do a song not sung on Idol but on the list of possible songs.

"Moon River" has a gorgeous melody, chord progression and lyrics. It is truly a beautiful and haunting song.

We looked at a number of ways to approach it and went with a slow croon approach. Perhaps if I had a full band I might have done something more uptempo/modern with it but with only guitar and vocals, I think this works well.

Fly Me To The Moon is a classic and I love Sinatra's version as well as Tony Bennett's.

Often part of the challenge of doing these every week is not knowing a song well (or not knowing it at all!) and then performing it with hardly any time to prepare. The great thing about this song is it is a song I have performed before, so I know it well. It's truly a phenomenal song and the arrangement by Quincy Jones swings like nobody's business.

The song ends with "I Love You" and this goes out to all my fans who have supported me and encouraged me. And if you're not one of those people, no problem...just click away!

This week I only had 6 songs and I'm glad I found one I liked and could relate to. I have a lot of respect for Shania Twain as a pop/country powerhouse, but her music and me are not necessarily a perfect fit.

This song "No One Needs To Know" is written for a woman to sing, but since it is supposed to be shorter anyway with the Idol time restrictions, I had enough verses that could be sung by a guy to make it work.

The structure is almost like an old fashioned musical theater song to me, but it feels very country, with a lovely, lilting melody.

This was Inspirational Songs week on American Idol. If I could choose any song, I’d probably choose something like “I Believe” and perhaps be called old fashioned by Simon. But I have seven songs to choose from and none of them are “I Believe.” The one I choose is “The Boxer,” sung originally by Simon and Garfunkel. Like Lee DeWyze, who sang the song on American Idol Tuesday night, I heard this song growing up, probably because my parents liked it and listen to it. Lee said “The Boxer” inspired him to pick up a guitar. While I still am not inspired to pick up a guitar, it may have been a song that inspired me to start writing music. I always found this melody haunting and Paul Simon and I both have the New York Jewish kid thing going for us. I’m not sure that it is inspirational in any other way though. It’s a sad song to me, depressing even. I’m not sure why this is considered for Inspirational Songs week but I’m glad it was. “The Boxer” is beautiful and harrowing and it is a privilege for me to sing it.

Elvis Week on American Idol! Elvis is truly one of my favorite performers and singers of all time. I am in the small minority of people who think he's underrated, not overrated. Or as Phil Spector once said: "You have no idea how great he is, really you don`t. You have no comprehension - it`s absolutely impossible. I can`t tell you why he`s so great, but he is."

The feeling and emotion in Elvis' voice moves me so much. I am always inspired by his singing and his approach to songs.

This week I took on "Suspicious Minds." We reworked the song a little bit, especially the bridge.

You want more energy? Excitement? Passion? HERE YOU GO!!!

This week was a little tough for me because I found a song I loved but I didn't really love my version. Now, granted, it's challenging to do this with basically no rehearsal, but I know I could have done it better/differently. But putting myself on the line each week is part of the fun of American Idol Response! I hope you like this. "The Long And Winding Road" by Paul McCartney (credited to Lennon/McCartney) is truly a beautiful song.

R&B Week on American Idol. I love R&B music but I'm not really an R&B singer. I can't help thinking of something the legendary Little Richard once said: "R&B means 'Real Black" (just so you know, the term "R&B" actually stands for "Rhythm and Blues" and was coined by the Jewish writer and A&R man Jerry Wexler, but Richard is speaking about meaning, not acronym).

So how will I do this week? What will they sing that I can choose from?

Turns out there are a few songs I like for me. I think about the classics "Ain't No Sunshine" (sung by Aaron Kelly) and "What Becomes of The Broken Hearted (sung by Didi Benami) as well as "Ready For Love" (sung by Michael Lynch). But I settle for "Sweet Love," originally recorded by Anita Baker (and sung on Idol by Tim Urban). I decide to play piano for the first time in American Idol Response. It's a cool, subtle song with a great turnaround from the chorus into the verse and I was happy with how it came out. How do you like it?

Since I've been doing all these American Idol Responses, I thought it might be fun to blog on occasion with commentary about the show.

Sometimes I wonder about these judges. American Idol is, at least in part, a singing competition and they so rarely give actual advice on singing.



Case in point, Siobhan Magnus this week, who gave a performance well below her usual standard. In critiquing her and looking at what may have gone wrong, the judges spoke about song choice and gave vague commentary about flaws with “pitch,” “pushing” and “screaming,” but they never actually got to the source of the problem.

That song, "Through The Fire," had major sections that were problamatic for the talented Siobhan. The second part of the chorus was especially difficult. She was attempting to "belt" a staccato section and she could not pull it off. Perhaps if the notes were sustained (meaning, held longer) she would have had an easier time but to bring the "chest voice" so strongly into play simply didn't work for her on these briefly held notes. In a more classical tradition, she would want a blend of "chest voice" (a heavier mechanism) and "head voice" (a lighter mechanism).

"Belting" this high can be challenging if not foolhardy for any singer, especially one who is just starting out. Siobhan would need to have more vocal control in that area of her voice to tackle this song in this key. It may have been the wrong song for her or it may have simply been the wrong key. That’s the advice I wish she had been given. What the judges might have suggested is to find songs or keys that better suit her, as she has many times in the past and also do the vocal work necessary to have greater mastery, which is something many singers, including me, work on all the time.

I'm having so much fun doing these songs every week. I'm especially grateful for the positive feedback I've been getting on youtube. Thanks to everyone who is commenting there. It's awesome and humbling to get comments like this:

This week I'm singing the classic Queen hit "Crazy Little Thing Called Love." It's actualy the first true up-tempo song I've done for American Idol Response. I've been a Queen fan for years so I already knew the song very well before singing it. This week and last week I recorded these with Rick Warren, the producer I worked with for my MJ Tribute song, "Michael (The One And Only)." Rick and I really enjoy each other and you see me talking to him right before the song starts.

I was a little nervous when I heard it was Rolling Stones week on American Idol, because I'm not primarily a rock singer. But when I heard Didi Benami perform "Play With Fire," I knew I had a song I could call my own. I worked on this with Rick Warren, who produced "Michael (The One And Only)." I really like working with Rick.

This might be my personal favorite so far, along with "Wicked Game," which is also dark with a slightly similar vibe. I hope you like it. I've been getting a lot of comments on youtube but not a lot here so please feel free to comment here or there as you like.

Most importantly, please share with your friends! It means the world to me. This is the link to the video to share it with people: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SX2KuBk6QQE (you can cut and paste and send to people so they can see it).

Leonard Cohen's Hallelujah is one of my favorite songs of all time. The music and lyrics are so beautiful, clever, eloquent and heart wrenching. Their are so many amazing versions of Hallelujah, with my favorite still being Jeff Buckley's. I remember crying the first time I heard it. This is actually a song I've covered in my life show (you can see a clip of that here if you want: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oC1xKZC7GMo).

When I saw this sung on Wednesday night, I knew this was the song I wanted to do. It's a little challenging to perform this song in such a shortened version, but I was happy with how it came out.

The pianist on this one, Alexander Clough, is a friend of mine who I actually met in a New York subway. He plays jazz at a lot of cool spots in New York City.

I recently returned from the most amazingly wonderful time in Puerto Rico. I want to share with you some of the natural beauty. This was taken by me at the Camuey Caves.

I'll be honest with you. I wasn't really happy with this week's American Idol Response. But I promised I would have one song up every week and I am keeping my promise. Next week will be better.

There are many great versions of this song, including the original and a cool cover by the band HIM. It has a beautiful melody, dark interesting lyrics and I wanted to do it justice. I also really enjoyed working with Raul Perez, a guitarist based in Puerto Rico, where I recorded this.

Happy Valentine's Day to my friends and fans. I HEART YOU!

Today would have been Elvis Presley's 75th birthday. To celebrate, here is a special performance of "Heartbreak Hotel."