13th November 1989 - Michael Jackson performs song "You Were There" (he wrote with Buz Kohan) for singer-entertainer Sammy Davis Jr., the first and only time, at the Sammy Davis Jr 6Oth Anniversary TV Special, musical gala honouring Davis Jr..
The event’s funds advantaging the "United Negro College Fund"; for the show's all-star finale, Jackson accompanies Ella Firzgerald and Eddie Murphy on stage.
The celebration started as a 60-minute show, and it wound up 2 1/2 hours long. It runs from 7:30 to 10 p.m. Sunday on ABC and Channel 13. And no wonder, given a cast that includes Frank Sinatra, Michael Jackson, Ella Fitzgerald, Whitney Houston, Clint Eastwood, Goldie Hawn, Bill Cosby, Stevie Wonder, Mike Tyson, Richard Pryor, Gregory Hines, Gregory Peck, Bob Hope, Shirley MacLaine, Debbie Allen, Magic Johnson, Dean Martin, Tony Danza, Jesse Jackson, Quincy Jones, Diahann Carroll, Dionne Warwick, Nell Carter, Lola Falana and Anita Baker. Eddie Murphy hosts, and even he seems subdued by the galaxy of stars he has to introduce.
Sammy’s right there in the front-row box with his wife and family. He laughs and he claps, he cries a little, and he hugs his friends. He even does a tap dance with Hines. But he never says a word.
He can’t. The night the show was taped, he couldn’t talk at all.
It doesn’t matter. His friends speak for him, and to him, in a language of love. They lay their talents at his feet. And a few terrific clip collections tell Sammy’s tale for him.
This is a one-of-a-kind TV spectacular in a spirit that few stars, even show-biz legends, could command.
Nobody knew what Jackson was going to do. "The night before the show, he and Buz Kohan, who wrote the script, went in the rehearsal hall and wrote a song," Schlatter said. "They arranged it overnight, and the night of the show was the first time he’d ever sung it. He wanted to sing something that really related to Sammy."
Backstage, everybody was watching everybody else. Fitzgerald wanted to meet Jackson; Cosby wanted to say hi to Hawn; Murphy wanted to see Sinatra.
The most nerve-racking moment of them all, though, was when Fitzgerald was to make her big onstage entrance, Schlatter said. “We had to have somebody bring her out, so I said to Eddie Murphy, `Take Ella onstage.’
And he says, `Man, I can’t take her. That’s Ella “Fitzgerald.”‘ And Eddie says to Michael Jackson, `Michael, you take her out.’ And Michael says, `I can’t! It’s “Ella.”‘ So I said, `Look, guys, why not take her together? OK?’
At the same date, Michael is reported to have hosted 50 children from "Maclaren Hall" and "Make A Wish Foundation" at his residence, while, via the "Wishes Granted" charity, 4-year-old Darian Pagan, suffering from leukemia, is granted the wish to meet the singer and is, additionally, invited to watch a performance by a group of Canadian acrobats with him.
