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Jackson is gone but a local minister’s song remains

Michael Jackson - What Goes Around Comes Around

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By Andrew McGinn, Staff Writer 5:35 PM Friday, June 26, 2009

According to the laws of time travel, the slightest alteration of the past can result in drastic consequences in the future.

So had the late Michael Jackson not cut the Eli Williams song “What Goes Around Comes Around” at age 13 for his “Ben” album, he might never have owned a chimp, made friends with Emmanuel Lewis or spent long nights in the oxygen chamber.

He might never have released one of the best-selling albums of all time or become the undisputed king of pop.

Or not. It’s just a theory.

“It was certainly nowhere close to being a career-making or career-breaking song,” Williams confessed Friday, June 26. “But what a thrill. I’m sure it meant more to me than to him.”

Aside from North High grad John Legend — who had written songs for a Jackson comeback album — Williams is arguably the only other Springfielder who can claim they contributed to Jackson’s musical legacy, which came to a stunning close Thursday with his death at age 50.

“It was quite thrilling,” Williams said, “just to know that something that came out of your head made it onto the radio performed by no less than Michael Jackson.”

Now an ordained Pentecostal minister, the 58-year-old founder of Springfield’s Urban Light Ministries has a connection to Jackson.

In the early 1970s, when Williams left the Four Corners — a Dayton group modeled after the Temptations — he bequeathed his three original songs to them. No strings attached.

“I felt bad about leaving the group,” Williams said. “That was the least I could do.”

But the group ended up inking a songwriting deal with Motown, which is how “What Goes Around Comes Around” ended up on the early Jackson solo album, which made the Top 10 in 1972.

“Years later,” Williams said, “one of the members of the group called and said, ‘Hey man, we feel we owe you something.’ He gave me $70.”

Contact this reporter at (937) 328-0352 or amcginn@coxohio.com.

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