Is Michael Jackson's This Is It a fitting final curtain?

You don't want to damn something before you've actually experienced it, but I don't hold out a great deal of hope for the forthcoming Michael Jackson film and CD, This Is It.

There's undoubtedly a fascinating documentary to made about Jackson's abortive comeback, but there's something about the words "with the full support of The Estate Of Michael Jackson" in the credits that suggests – ironically – this isn't going to be it: it's going to be a painful hagiography, suggesting that Jackson shuffled off this mortal coil at the top of his game, despite some pretty convincing evidence to the contrary – including, it has to be said, the fact that he dropped dead from a heart attack while full of benzodiazepines.

Meanwhile, the publicity for the accompanying This Is It album doesn't exactly make you scream with anticipation. It "features the music that inspired the film, demo recordings and two versions of a previously unreleased song": ie. a load of stuff you already own, outtakes that weren't good enough to make the expanded editions of his albums from a few years back, and one new song. They neglect to say if the album also features the sound of the bottom of a barrel being scraped, but that seems fairly likely.

The big draw is the title track, currently streaming at Jackson's website, and, depending on which source you believe, an outtake from either Off the Wall or Dangerous. It's certainly an outtake from somewhere, because the online version sounds weirdly unfinished, as if someone's slapped an orchestral arrangement and backing vocals over a piano demo. If you had your fingers crossed that Jacko would be able to bow out with a Billie Jean, Scream or Smooth Criminal – one of those songs so unequivocally incredible that they temporarily made you forget everything else about him beyond his staggering talent – you're in for a disappointment: it's a ballad, not bad, but not one of his best, decorated with odd lyrics. "This is it, here I stand, I'm the light of the world," it opens, proving, if nothing else, that the tendency towards a Messiah complex that so incensed Jarvis at the Brits was very much intact when he wrote it.

That said, it could have been much worse. It's certainly less unctuous and wrong-headed than some of the stuff with which he padded out his final album, Invincible: tacked on later or not, the harmonies are impressively sumptuous and creamy, and there's a nice guitar part that winds its way around the vocal. It's never going to cause anyone to reassess Jackson's greatest songs, but it's clearly the best that they've got to offer. At least that's what I think. And you? Fitting final curtain for the King of Pop, or shoddily cynical gesture?

Michael Jackson's 'new' song has already been released ... by someone else

Michael Jackson's 'new' song has already been released ... by someone else

This Is It, the new Michael Jackson song recently released with much fanfare was originally destined for a Paul Anka album. The Jackson estate was caught in an embarrassing imbroglio yesterday, discovering their trumpeted Jackson original was written with – and for - the mid-20th-century crooner.

In an initial interview with the New York Times, 68-year-old Paul Anka explained that Jackson's label had never even contacted him about the song, which will be used over the closing credits in the upcoming Michael Jackson documentary. Anka and Jackson wrote the song together in 1983, calling it I Never Heard. Though it was intended for Anka's album Walk A Fine Line, Anka alleges that Jackson "took the tapes" without permission. Anka threatened to sue his former collaborator and while the recordings were returned, they were never released. Instead, I Never Heard – credited to Anka and Jackson – appeared on a 1991 album by R&B singer Safire.

"It's exactly the same song," Anka said yesterday. "They just changed the title."

In that first interview, Anka was unhappy indeed. "They have a major, major problem on their hands," he said. "They will be sued if they don't correct it." But before the end of the day yesterday, agents for Jackson's estate had apologised for their mistake. John McClain, one of Jackson's estate executors, called Anka directly to say that he had not known about Anka's role – or Safire's version – until Jackson fans began to discuss it online. The estate issued a statement acknowledging Anka as a composer and McClain promised that the former teen idol would receive his fair share of royalties.

Anka said that McClain told him, "We took Sony 50 songs, and this was the best of all of them. My thought was that this one sounded different. Now I know why."

McClain himself assembled the new This Is It track, building on a solo piano version Michael Jackson had recorded. McClain added strings and backup vocals by Jackson's brothers, but besides Jackson's changes to the lyrics, it remains very similar to Safire's I Never Heard.

Now that McClain has been in touch, Anka said he harbours no bitterness. "There's nothing but honourable people here ... They did the right thing. I don't think that anybody tried to do the wrong thing. It was an honest mistake."

Hair of the gods: Locks from Elvis and Michael Jackson to go on sale

Hair of the gods: Locks from Elvis and Michael Jackson to go on sale

One clump is nice and thick and reasonably healthy looking; the second has most definitely been fire damaged.

But, bizarrely, locks that once belonged to Elvis Presley and Michael Jackson – the late kings, respectively, of rock'n'roll and – are up for auction this weekend.

Presley's hair, said to date from the 1950s, when an army barber cropped his famous mane, is going under the hammer in Chicago. Meanwhile, 12 strands of Jackson's hair, the legacy of the freak accident in 1984 when his artfullyarranged coiffure caught fire during filming for a Pepsi commercial, are up for grabs in London.

The strands of Jackson's hair were gathered up by Ralph Cohen, the advert's executive producer, who took off his coat to put out the flames.

Together with Cohen's account of the incident and a signed colour photo, the strands are to be auctioned on Saturday.

Jackson's hair is hot property – a company called LifeGem announced plans in July to craft diamonds and jewellery from Jackson's seared locks.

In his account, Cohen recalls how the pyrotechnics set the singer's hair on fire: "And then, as Michael on his cue, was supposed to come down the stairs, the explosion went off and the first thing I noticed was – he was about halfway down the stairs – and I noticed flame emanating from his hair.

"And it took me a moment to register what exactly was happening because there was so much lights and so many different things go on [sic] it was a little confusing but I noticed his hair was on fire and I immediately rushed out from my position.

"I pulled my jacket off as I was running and proceeded to, when I reached him, put it over his head."

At the time onlookers were amazed at the calmness of the 25-year-old singer. Some thought the accident was part of the act. But he suffered serious burns and needed hospital treatment.

Richard Davie, of International Autograph Auctions, is selling the hair and other artefacts at the Radisson Edwardian hotel at Heathrow airport in London.

He said: "This memorabilia has doubled in price since Michael Jackson died. Jackson has huge global appeal with collectors all around the world.

"Of all the things he has done, including dangling his baby from the window and sleeping in an oxygen tent, the hair-burning incident stands out.

"There will be lots of people who will want to buy these items as souvenirs and those who would like them as investments."

Presley's hair is one of around 200 items of memorabilia being sold at Leslie Hindman auctioneers, in Chicago, on Sunday. The items were from the collection of Gary Pepper, and Elvis superfan.

The Jackson strands are expected to fetch around £1,000. But reports suggest the clump of Elvis's hair could go for as much as $100,000 (£63,000), partly because of the idea that DNA could one day be extracted from the samples to produce a clone of the king.