The new partnership with Jones produced hits for George Benson, Aretha Franklin and Donna Summer, to name but a few.
Carter also got to meet Jackson.
“He got out of the car. I was just on my way out and Michael came up and they said, ‘oh, this is Roy from Heatwave’,” he remembers.
“He came out and spoke to me, had a chat about music and what Rod was doing for him and how encouraged he was.”
But the biggest success for Temperton was still to come. In 1980, he began working on Jackson’s next album, Thriller. Released in 1982, he would again write the title track and two other numbers.
The period leading up to Thriller is covered in the new biopic Michael, which ends in the early 1980s, and though the film has drawn criticism for its “sanitised” approach to Jackson’s life, the music scenes have won praise.
Temperton died in 2016, but he is still fondly remembered.
“Rod was such a lovely, lovely man,” Carey recalls. “He was quirky. He used to get up in the morning in the hotel, we had a sink in the hotel, and he literally used to run the tap, put his finger on it, put his finger on one cheek, and then the other cheek and say, that’ll do me.”
Blue adds: “He was a unique talent There was no doubt about it. He should be more recognised.
“One of the greatest songwriters that’s ever come out of the UK, if not the world.”