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KIRKUS REVIEWS
“Michael Jackson fans will be captivated by this unique behind-the-scenes account..”
Just Backdated
“This gripping insider memoir reveals the ruthless power plays, impossible expectations, and chaotic orbit surrounding Michael Jackson—told by the Epic Records product manager who had to navigate it all.”
International Musician
“Beck handled everything from frequent 2 a.m. phone calls to runaway video budgets to corporate damage control on a monumental career on the precipice of collapse.”.
The New Black ViewFrom the moment Dave Glew, then Epic Records Chairman, stepped into Dan Beck’s office, giving him the casual directive, “Dan, you got Michael,” his life instantaneously jumped aboard the Michael Jackson bullet train. A non-stop exhilarating experience that took Beck on a five-year journey, regularly interacting with one of the most talented entertainers to walk this earth or the halls of Epic/Sony Music. Beck’s appropriately titled book “You’ve Got Michael: Living Through HIStory” (Trouser Press Books 2025) is a vivid recollection of his excursion working with Jackson on his album “HIStory,” from concept to its 1995 worldwide release.
Beck is a master storyteller, a recorder of precise facts with moving memories reflecting a thrilling experience with the King of Pop that will last him and readers a lifetime. Beck introduces readers to Michael Jackson: the genius, persevering perfectionist and the man still residing inside that young, talented, inquisitive kid from Gary, IN. “I loved Michael the person; he was fun to be around, cared a lot about people, and was a great collaborator,” said Beck.
We share Beck’s angst of working with Jackson, the late 1 a.m. phone calls, and the jubilation when deadlines and major situations were solved. The experienced project manager explains many of his team members’ positions, their project contributions, along with the inner workings of the record business, and his complicated obligations to the company, and his client Jackson.
No gossip, no innuendos, just the hard truth mixed with compassion and excitement about the music business, a superstar, and HIStory. “It’s important for people to understand how challenging Michael’s life was, the many struggles he faced daily, outside of his sphere as a music innovator,” said Beck.
Ronald E. Scott
Amsterdam News
Anthony DeCurtis, author of Lou Reed: A Life, says, “If you thought there was nothing more to learn about Michael Jackson, Dan Beck has news for you. Beck worked as a product manager for Jackson’s HIStory project and has gripping tales to tell. Not the sordid revelations you already know, but the day-to-day agonies and occasional ecstasies of being on the front lines as the career of the biggest pop star in the world goes up in flames. His torn professional and personal loyalties are so easy to relate to — uncomfortably so. Beck writes with honesty, clarity and force; the only sensationalism comes from your own memories of Jackson’s highly public self-incineration.”
Pez Jax of MJVibe.com: “Celebrated by fans but dismissed by critics, HIStory was Jackson’s answer to a world waiting, watching and demanding more from him. Beck cuts through the frenzy to reveal the careful orchestration required to balance artistic ambition, media scrutiny, business pressures and the hopes of fans. “You’ve Got Michael” deepens our understanding of Jackson’s legacy — and belongs on every fan’s shelf.”
The goal of Dan Beck’s nuanced memoir is threefold. First, he makes clear how profoundly digital technologies have changed the ways pop music stars are made and marketed. Then he stresses how impossible replicating the peaks of Michael Jackson’s solo career would be under today’s streamlined business model(s). Third, he underscores how he still respects Jackson’s creative achievements even as he reveals how the increasing pressures of fame, market competition, hostile publicity and Jackson’s unrestrained ambition, inevitably destabilized the artist’s health, reputation and finances. (Beck even reminds us that record labels seldom try to protect their superstars from such predictable hazards.)
No family member or label president could have told this story so well, because only a veteran interdepartmental product manager like Dan Beck really knows how the pop song sausage gets made — and has the moral strength to tell the hard truths about it.”
-Journalist Carol Cooper, Ph.D