1 Memo to this decade’s lazy pop moguls: ‘Billie Jean’ was mixed 91 times by Bruce Swedien. 91 times!
Walter Yetnikoff, the president of Jackson’s record label CBS, threatened MTV that he’d go public with their stance on race:
3 Michael Jackson said he came up with the idea while driving his Rolls-Royce down a motorway. He was so absorbed by the song that he didn’t notice his car had caught fire. A guy passing on a motorcyclist warned him and saved his life.
Quincy Jones did not want ‘Billie Jean’ to appear on ‘Thriller’.
5 “But that’s the jelly!…That’s what makes me want to dance,’ said Jackson. And the rest is history.
Kind of. Jackson and Jones quarelled over the title of the song. Worried that people would confuse the name with tennis player Billie Jean King, Jones wanted to change the name to ‘Not My Lover’. Jackson won that battle.
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But he didn’t get the co-producing credit he asked for. Or the subsequent royalties.
Jackson sang the vocals into a six-foot-long cardboard tube.
He performed his first moonwalk when he sang ‘Billie Jean’ on the TV show Motown 25: Yesterday, Today, Forever
You might think ‘Billie Jean’ sounds similar to Hall & Oates’ ‘I Can’t Go for That (No Can Do)’. You’d be right. Here’s Daryl Hall on whether his song influenced the King of Pop.
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ackson’s head was set on fire by special effects explosions while filming a Pepsi-Cola commercial soundtracked by ‘Billie Jean’.
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It propelled ‘Thriller’ to be the best-selling album of all time partly due to winning shitloads of awards and honours.
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Moonwalk.Dancer and singer Jeffrey Daniel was a member of the R&B group Shalamar and pioneered the dance move the backslide — which, after he taught it to Michael Jackson, became known as the moonwalk.
Billie Jean is not my lover
She’s just a girl who claims that I am the one
But the kid is not my son
She says I am the one, but the kid is not my son
Billy Jin չէ իմ սիրուհի
Նա պարզապես մի աղջիկ է, ով պնդում է, որ ես նույնն եմ
Բայց այս երեխան իմ որդին չէ
Նա ասում է, որ ես միակն եմ, բայց երեխան իմ որդին չէ