Songwriter Siedah Garrett co-wrote 'Man in the Mirror' for Michael Jackson. Here's how

During Nashville's Tin Pan South songwriters' festival, Nashville Songwriters Association International Executive Director Bart Herbison sat down with singer and songwriter Siedah Garrett to talk about her Michael Jackson hit. The two discussed how the song was written with her co-writer Glen Ballard and how she convinced legendary producer Quincy Jones to choose it for Jackson.

Garrett told Herbison that she'd been writing songs for Jones for several years that no one had recorded. She remembers a gathering of Jones' songwriters to talk about what he needed for Jackson's "Bad" album.

"He had a meeting of all of his West Coast songwriters, of which I was one," she told the crowd. "There were six or eight of us at his house. He started talking about what he needed for a song to round out the album... he said 'I just want a hit.'"

Garrett took good notes and then called co-writer Ballard, who has some massive accomplishments including co-writing and producing Alanis Morissette's Grammy-winning 1995 album "Jagged Little Pill" as well as writing for Jackson's albums "Thriller," "Bad," and "Dangerous."

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While Ballard noodled around with some melodies on the piano, Garrett thumbed through her lyric book and the words "man in the mirror" popped off the page.

"We had the first verse and chorus of 'Man in the Mirror' in like 10 to 12 minutes," she said. "Then Glenn said 'You go home and write the second verse and I'll finish the track and we'll meet up on Friday and demo the song.'"

She said after the demo was recorded, she and Ballard stood up and hugged each other because they knew they had a great song.

But they still had to convince Jones and ultimately Jackson that it was the one missing hit song needed for the album. There were still, in Garrett's words, so many hoops to jump through before the song could end up on the record.

Paying a visit to Quincy Jones' house

Garrett said she had never called Quincy Jones before, even after working with him for years. She was so fired up about this song, she picked up the phone and called him to say "We have a written a great song that we think would be great for Michael."

Jones said for her to turn it in the following week. To which she then asked if she could just drop it off at his house. After a little convincing, he caved in and she dropped off a cassette with what could potentially be her first Michael Jackson cut.

She said within a few hours, Jones called her back and said "Sid, this is the best song I've heard in 10 years." The next call from Jones was from the studio with Jackson himself and they were recording the song.

But Jackson wanted to talk to Garrett about a line or two, so Jones put him on the phone.

"I don't know about you, but when I was coming up, Michael was my husband, OK?" she said laughing. "My cousin had Jermaine, my sister had Marlon, but Michael was my husband. So in my mind, I'm on the phone with my husband, but I did not want to geek out and fangirl like I was truly feeling."

She said the first thing Jackson said to her was, "I love this song." He followed that comment with, "I love your voice."

The rest, as they say, is history.

Garrett went on to have a No. 1 hit with "I Just Can't Stop Loving You," (a duet with Jackson.) She was later nominated for two Academy Awards for Best Original Song, and won the Grammy Award for Best Song Written for Visual Media at the 50th Annual Grammy Awards for co-writing "Love You I Do" (performed by Jennifer Hudson) for the 2006 musical film, Dreamgirls.

About the series

In partnership with Nashville Songwriters Association International, the "Story Behind the Song" video interview series features Nashville-connected songwriters discussing one of their compositions. For full video interviews with all our subjects, visit tennessean.com/music.

This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: We have the story behind Michael Jackson's 'Man in the Mirror'