1986 · Behind the Songs
One of Rapture’s deepest cuts came from the pen of the man who wrote “Thriller.”
By the time Anita Baker recorded Rapture in 1986, she was writing much of her own material — but the album’s most intriguing deep cut arrived from outside. “Mystery,” tucked in the middle of the record, was written by Rod Temperton, the English songwriter behind Heatwave’s sleekest hits and Michael Jackson’s “Thriller,” “Rock with You,” and “Off the Wall.”
It was never released as a single, which is exactly why it rewards the patient listener. Recorded at United Sound Systems in Detroit with producer Michael J. Powell, the track moves on a quiet, mid-tempo pulse: Vernon Fails on keyboards, Powell on guitar, David B. Washington on bass, Arthur Marbury on drums, Lawrence Fratangelo on percussion, and Natalie Jackson on backing vocals. Temperton’s harmonies wind further than the average quiet-storm ballad, and Baker’s contralto treats them like a puzzle she is in no hurry to solve.
A meeting of two crafts
The pairing made sense: Temperton wrote sophisticated pop that never lost its groove, and Baker sang with a jazz singer’s patience. Rapture would go on to sell five million copies in the United States and win Grammy Awards, with “Sweet Love” taking Best Female R&B Vocal Performance and Best R&B Song. But “Mystery” remains the album’s quiet outlier — proof that Baker could take a song from the biggest pop songwriter of the era and make it sound like nobody’s but hers.