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.