MAN IN THE STUDIO: Michael Jackson, returning...

MAN IN THE STUDIO: Michael Jackson, returning to music for the first time since he canceled his concert tour last year amid a sexual abuse investigation, will soon enter the studio to record some new songs--but what they’re for is anyone’s guess.

One possibility is material to fill out a long-planned greatest-hits album. The last time Jackson entered a studio to record some new tracks for the collection--which has been in the works for years--he was so prolific he came up with his 1991 album “Dangerous.�

“He’s going in under the same circumstances,� says a Sony Music source, referring to the open-ended nature of the sessions. “The only question is whether it grows any bigger.�

Jackson spokesman Michael Levine confirms that Jackson will be recording some new songs “before too long,� but declined to say when the sessions would begin.