August 27, 2008 12:41

Michael Jackson records album of Robert Burns poetry

Jackson has turned the bard's most famous works into showtunes

Photo Gallery: Michael Jackson
Photo: Pa Photos

Michael Jackson has recorded musical versions of Scottish poet Robert Burns' poems with a host of stars - including David Gest.

Gest told the Daily Record that Jackson organised the recording sessions in his own studio in California after plans to make a film musical about Burns fell through.

"Michael and I were originally going to do a musical on his [Burns'] life with Gene Kelly directing and Anthony Perkins as executive producer," Gest said, "but they both died.

"So Michael and I put all the poems to contemporary music in his studio in Encino.

"We did 'Ae Fond Kiss', 'Tam O'Shanter' and all that. We turned his work into show tunes. It is beautiful and I still have the recordings.

"I am thinking more and more about bringing 'Red, Red Rose' back to life because I went on that bridge when I was last in Scotland looking for Tam O'Shanter.

"I felt like I was a little kid looking for all those things Burns wrote about and the curator let me lay on the bed Burns slept in at his family home. The alarm went off. It was really surreal because Michael and I think of him as one of the most brilliant minds ever."