Michael Jackson appears to have first started developing “Earth Song” in 1988 , under the working title “What About Us”. A later source says he refined it for years and only finalized it for HIStory in 1995.

Quick answer

  • Idea/start: 1988.
  • Original working title: “What About Us”.
  • Released: November 1995.

What that means

The song was not a sudden 1995 creation; it seems to have been a long-running project that Michael kept revisiting and expanding over several years. One account says he worked on it in different hotels across Europe and held it back from Dangerous because he felt it still needed a bigger climax.

One-line version

So the simplest answer is: he had the idea in 1988 and spent about seven years shaping it into “Earth Song.”