Most people may not know that Michael Jackson didn’t sing the birthday song to Lisa when he guest-starred on The Simpsonsin 1991. With the second anniversary of his death this past weekend, the actress who voices Lisa recounts the incident and how that recording session must have felt for the singing double.
Jackson guest starred on the early-nineties episode, “Stark Raving Dad,” in which he played a mental patient who believed he was the King of Pop. But when it came to singing the song for Lisa, his record company wouldn’t allow him to sing for the episode. So, what does he do?
“He literally hand-picked a guy to sing like him,” Yeardley Smith, who voices daughter Lisa on the show, tells TMZ.
Jackson entrusted Kipp Lennon, a founding member of the folk band, Venice, with the job. He has contributed to several episodes of the animated show, but the actress says this must have been uniquely stressful for him.
“How unnerving would it be to sing like Michael Jackson in front of Michael Jackson?” she says.
Listen to Lennon’s performance again below and a real one by MJ himself:
