Billie Jean
"Billie Jean" is a song by American singer-songwriter Michael Jackson, released by Epic Records on January 2, 1983, as the second single from his sixth studio album, Thriller (1982). It was written and composed by Jackson and produced by Quincy Jones and co-produced by Jackson. "Billie Jean" blends post-disco, R&B, funk, and dance-pop. The lyrics describe a woman, Billie Jean, who claims that the narrator is the father of her newborn son, which he denies. Jackson said the lyrics were based on groupies' claims about his older brothers when he toured with them as the Jackson 5.
For the tennis player, see Billie Jean King. For the film, see The Legend of Billie Jean."Billie Jean"
- "Can't Get Outta the Rain" (US)
- "It's the Falling in Love" (UK)
January 2, 1983
1982
- 4:57 (original album/European single version)[2]
- 4:52 (album reissue/US single version with early fade out)
- 6:21 (12-inch version)
Michael Jackson
- Quincy Jones
- Michael Jackson
"Billie Jean" reached number one on the Billboard Hot 100, topped the Billboard Hot Black Singles chart within three weeks, and became Jackson's fastest-rising number one single since "ABC", "The Love You Save" and "I'll Be There" in 1970, all of which he recorded as a member of the Jackson 5. It was also a number one hit in the UK, Canada, France, Switzerland and Belgium, and reached the top ten in many other countries. "Billie Jean" was one of the best-selling singles of 1983, helping Thriller become the best-selling album of all time, and became Jackson's best-selling solo single. "Billie Jean" is certified Diamond by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) and is one of the best-selling digital singles of all-time.
Jackson's performance of "Billie Jean" on the TV special Motown 25: Yesterday, Today, Forever won universal acclaim and was nominated for an Emmy Award. It introduced a number of Jackson's signatures, including the moonwalk, black sequined jacket, and high-water pants, and was widely imitated. The "Billie Jean" music video, directed by Steve Barron, was the first video by a black artist to be aired in heavy rotation on MTV. Along with the other videos produced for Thriller, it helped establish MTV's cultural importance and make music videos an integral part of popular music marketing. The spare, bass-driven arrangement of "Billie Jean" helped pioneer what one critic called "sleek, post-soul pop music".[3] It also introduced a more paranoid lyrical style for Jackson, a trademark of his later music.
"Billie Jean" was awarded honors including two Grammy Awards and an American Music Award. Billboard ranked it as the No. 2 song for 1983. In a list compiled by Rolling Stone and MTV in 2000, the song was ranked as the sixth greatest pop song since 1963. Rolling Stone placed it at number 58 on its list of The 500 Greatest Songs of All Time in 2004, and at number 44 in its 2021 update of the list. The song was also included in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame's 500 Songs That Shaped Rock and Roll.[4] Frequently listed in magazine polls of the best songs ever made, "Billie Jean" was named the greatest dance record of all time by BBC Radio 2 listeners.
Production[edit]
Jackson said he felt "Billie Jean" would be a success as he was writing it: "A musician knows hit material. Everything has to feel in place. It fulfills you and it makes you feel good. That's how I felt about 'Billie Jean'. I knew it was going to be big when I was writing it."[5][3] He explained that, hearing it in his head while in his car, he was so absorbed that he did not realize his car had caught fire until a passing motorcyclist informed him.[5][3]
Jackson disagreed with the producer, Quincy Jones, about the song. According to some reports, Jones felt it was too weak to be included on Thriller, but Jones has denied this.[9][11][12] Jones disliked the demo and did not care for the bassline,[13] and wanted to cut Jackson's 29-second introduction.[3][14] Jackson, however, insisted that it be kept. According to Jones, he conceded when Jackson said it made him want to dance: "And when Michael Jackson tells you, 'That's what makes me want to dance', well, the rest of us just have to shut up."[3][15]
Jones also wanted to change the title to "Not My Lover", as he believed that people would think the song referred to the tennis player Billie Jean King.[16][17] Jackson refused to change the title and asked Jones to give him co-producing credits for the track, as he felt that the finished product sounded close to his demo. In addition, Jackson wanted extra royalties. Jones granted him neither and the two fell out for several days.[9][13]
The American composer Michael Boddicker said that Jackson played the synthesizer part in one take on the Yamaha CS-80 in seven minutes.[18] However, the synthesizer player Bill Wolfer disputed this, saying he played the CS-80 chords on both on the demo and the album version, and that Boddicker was misremembering the session: "Everyone who worked with Michael Jackson knows that he didn't play keys but a tiny bit, and never played them on a record!"[19] According to Wolfer, the part was his sound design: he programmed it to form a hybrid of brass and string sounds, which had a vocal-like quality to it. Jackson heard Wolfer experimenting with the sound on the CS-80 during the Triumph Tour with the Jacksons, which he liked and called Wolfer in for.[19]
Jones had Jackson sing his vocal overdubs through a six-foot cardboard tube.[3] Jackson's lead vocal was performed in one take; he had received vocal training every morning throughout the production of the song.[6] Jazz saxophonist Tom Scott played the lyricon, an electronic wind instrument. Bassist Louis Johnson played his part on every bass guitar he owned, before Jackson settled for a Yamaha bass.[3]
Engineer Bruce Swedien mixed the song 91 times—unusual for Swedien, who usually mixed a song just once. The mixes grew progressively worse, and Jones asked Swedien to listen again to the second mix, which was much better. The second mix was the final version.[13] Instructed by Jones to create a drum sound with "sonic personality" that no one had heard before, Swedien constructed a platform for the drum kit with special elements including a flat piece of wood between the snare and hi-hat. He said: "There aren't many pieces of music where you can hear the first three or four notes of the drums, and immediately tell what the piece of music is. But I think that is the case with 'Billie Jean'—and that I attribute to sonic personality."[3][13]
Composition[edit]
"Billie Jean" blends post-disco,[21] rhythm and blues,[6][21][22] funk,[20][23] and dance-pop.[6] The song opens with a standard drum beat along with a standard hi-hat, and joined two bars later with a cabasa accompanied by a repetitive bassline. Each time it passes through the tonic, the note is doubled by a distorted synth bass. This accompaniment is followed by a repetitive three-note synth, played staccato with a deep reverb. The defining chord progression is then established. Jackson's quiet vocals enter, accompanied by a finger-snap, which comes and goes during the verses, as the rhythm and chord progression repeats.[6] Greg Phillinganes, who played keys, said of the song: "'Billie Jean' is hot on every level. It's hot rhythmically. It's hot sonically, because the instrumentation is so minimal, you can really hear everything. It's hot melodically ... lyrically [and] vocally. It affects you physically, emotionally, even spiritually."[3]
According to Jones, Jackson "stole" notes from the Jon and Vangelis song "State of Independence";[24] Jones had produced Donna Summer's cover of the song, and Jackson had sung backing vocals.[25] According to Jon Anderson, "They took the riff and made it funky for 'Billie Jean' ... So that's kinda cool, that cross-pollination in music."[24] According to Daryl Hall of Hall & Oates, Jackson told him he had taken the "Billie Jean" groove from their 1981 track "I Can't Go for That (No Can Do)".[26] Hall told him "Oh Michael, what do I care? You did it very differently."[26]
According to Inside the Hits, the lyrics refer to the commotion created by Billie Jean on a dance floor. She entices the crowd with a seductive come-on before luring the narrator to her bedroom, through the fragrance of her perfume. Jackson's vocal range spanned from a high baritone to a falsetto and he usually wrote melodies to show this range. However, in the verses of "Billie Jean", his vocals range from a tenor to a low falsetto. A four-note falsetto is showcased in the chorus and, during the last line, Jackson peaks at a full octave.[6] The song is in the key of F♯ minor with a tempo of 117 beats per minute, thus the verses are in the key of F♯ dorian.[27] Following the first chorus, a cello-like synth eases in at the beginnings of both the third, and later, the fourth, verses. Upon the announcement that the baby's eyes resemble the narrator's, a voice laments, "oh no". This is met with Jackson's signature falsetto "hee hee".[6] The bridge debuts the strings, and holds a pedal tone tonic with the exception of two lines and a chord leading into the chorus. Violins are then played, followed by a four-note minor guitar part. During the guitar part, vocal shouts, screams and laughs are added. Throughout this, the chord progression remains unaltered and is laced with Jackson's vocal hiccups. All the musical and vocal elements are then brought together in the final chorus. In the fade, Jackson repeats the narrator's denial of fathering Billie Jean's child.[6]
Reception[edit]
On November 30, 1982,[28] Thriller was released to critical and commercial success.[29] On January 3, 1983, "Billie Jean" was released as the album's second single; it follows Jackson's successful duet with Paul McCartney on "The Girl Is Mine".[30][31] The song reached number one on the Billboard Hot 100 on March 5, 1983 and stayed there for seven weeks, becoming Jackson's biggest solo hit.[32] Billboard ranked it as the No. 2 song for 1983.[33] "Billie Jean" topped the R&B chart within three weeks, and became Jackson's fastest-rising number one single since "ABC", "The Love You Save" and "I'll Be There" in 1970, which he recorded as a member of the Jackson 5. It remained at number one for nine weeks on the R&B chart, being preceded by the Gap Band's "Outstanding", before the single was eventually succeeded by George Clinton's "Atomic Dog".[30] "Billie Jean" peaked at number 9 on the Adult Contemporary chart.[31] It was also number one in the UK Singles Chart. "Billie Jean" and Thriller topped both the singles and album charts in the same week. This occurred on both sides of the Atlantic simultaneously, a feat very few acts have ever achieved. The song was the third best-selling single of 1983 in the US and ninth in the UK.[30] "Billie Jean" also reached number one in Canada, Switzerland and Belgium, and the top ten in Austria, Italy, New Zealand, Norway and Sweden.[34][35]
Billboard called it a "brilliant piece of writing" and "one of [Jackson's] finest performances."[36] In a Rolling Stone review, Christopher Connelly described "Billie Jean" as a "lean, insistent funk number whose message couldn't be more blunt: 'She says I am the one/But the kid is not my son'". He added that the track was a "sad, almost mournful song, but a thumping resolve underlies [Jackson's] feelings".[20] Blender stated that the song was "one of the most sonically eccentric, psychologically fraught, downright bizarre things ever to land on Top 40 radio". They added that it was "frighteningly stark, with a pulsing, cat-on-the-prowl bass figure, whip-crack downbeat and eerie multi-tracked vocals ricocheting in the vast spaces between keyboards and strings". Overall, the magazine described the track as "a five-minute-long nervous breakdown, set to a beat".[3] Stylus said of the song, "It's one of the best representations of film noir in pop music, ending with no resolution except a single mother and selfish, careless scumball."[37] In a review of Thriller 25, AllMusic observed that "Billie Jean" was "startling" in its "futuristic funk".[23] The track also won praise from Jackson biographers. Nelson George stated that Jerry Hey's string arrangement added danger to "Billie Jean", while J. Randy Taraborrelli added that it was "dark and sparse" by Quincy Jones' production standards.[9][38]
"Billie Jean" has been recognized with numerous awards and honors. At the 1984 Grammy Awards the song earned Jackson two of a record eight awards; Best R&B Song and Best R&B Male Vocal Performance. It won the Billboard Music Award for favorite dance/disco 12" LP, and the magazine's 1980's poll named "Billie Jean" as the "Black Single of the Decade". The American Music Awards recognized the track as the Favorite Pop/Rock Single, while Cash Box honored the song with the awards for Top Pop Single and Top Black Single. The track was recognized with the Top International Single award by the Canadian Black Music Awards and awarded the Black Gold Award for Single of the Year. "Billie Jean" has also been awarded for its sales. It won the National Association of Recording Merchandisers Gift of Music award for best-selling single in 1984. By 1989, the standard format single was certified platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America, for shipments of at least one million units.[39][40] The digital sales of "Billie Jean" were certified gold in 2005, for shipments of at least 500,000 units.[41] In May 2014, a viral video of a high school-aged teenager imitating Jackson's Motown 25 performance of the song helped the song re-enter the Billboard Hot 100 at number 14, with much of its chart performance was 95% credited to streams of the viral video.[42] On August 29, 2022, the digital sales of "Billie Jean" were certified Diamond in US.[43]
"Billie Jean" enters the Billboard Global 200 chart where it peaked at 137 on the issue date January 15, 2022.[44]
Pepsi commercials[edit]
In 1984, Pepsi sponsored the Jacksons' Victory Tour. In return, Michael and his brothers were to star in two commercials for the company.[66] Jackson had reworked "Billie Jean" for the commercial and titled it "Pepsi Generation". The song was used as the official jingle for the commercials and released as a 7" promo single. The launch of "The Choice of a New Generation" campaign in February 1984 was attended by 1,600 people who were issued with a programme and the 7" single.[67] During the filming of the second commercial, a firework in the rear of the set was prematurely detonated, setting Jackson's hair ablaze. The incident necessitated reconstructive surgery.[68][69][70] The commercials were premiered at the Grammy Awards, the same night he collected a record eight awards.[66][71]
"Billie Jean 2008 (Kanye West Mix)"
Legacy[edit]
"Billie Jean" aided Thriller in becoming the biggest selling album of all time.[76][77]
It was popularly believed that "Billie Jean" was an autobiographical song, referring to someone who claimed Jackson was the father of her child. Based on this theory, Lydia Murdock wrote the song "Superstar", which was a minor hit in 1983, intending this song as a criticism of Jackson's purported denial of paternity.[78]
On his Late Night program in the 1980s, host David Letterman often played a recording of a song with the word "chair" replacing "kid" to create the mondegreen "the chair is not my son".[79]
Frequently listed in magazine polls of the best songs ever made, "Billie Jean" was named the greatest dance record of all time by BBC Radio 2 listeners.[80] In a list compiled by Rolling Stone and MTV in 2000, the song was ranked as the sixth greatest pop song since 1963.[81]
Rolling Stone placed the song at number 58 on its list of The 500 Greatest Songs of All Time in 2004.[82] In the 2021 update of the list it had risen to 44.[83] "Billie Jean" was voted number 2 in The Nation's Favourite Number 1 Single, a British TV program airing on ITV on 21 July 2012. In a similar poll in 2015 the song was voted by the British public as the nation's second favorite 1980s number one.[84]
In an interview, Pharrell Williams stated that "Billie Jean" was one of his favorite songs. "It is hard to say if there is a greater song than 'Billie Jean'. I think there will never be a song like this one again, with this bassline, with this kind of effect, this eternalness, this perfection."[85] When re-released as part of the Visionary campaign in 2006, "Billie Jean" charted at No. 11 in the UK. It remained in the top 200 for over 40 weeks and was the most successful reissue by some distance.[52] According to Thriller 25: The Book (2008), "Billie Jean" is still in heavy rotation; it receives more than 250,000 spins per week in clubs around the world.[85]
Credits adapted from Blender and the album Thriller 25.[3][86]
Other cover versions[edit]
English musician Ian Brown took "Billie Jean" to number 5 on the UK charts in 2000. It was the B-side of "Dolphins Were Monkeys". Brown said, "I love Jackson. I want to do a Jackson EP with 'Thriller', 'Beat It', 'Billie Jean' and 'Rockin' Robin' or 'ABC' on it. Hopefully I'll get it done". Brown later covered "Thriller" on Golden Gaze, from his second solo album, Golden Greats.[52][173]
American rock musician Chris Cornell recorded "Billie Jean" for his Carry On album in 2007. Cornell said of his cover, "I didn't plan on it. It just sort of happened organically. I changed the music quite a bit, I didn't touch the lyrics." He added, "And it's not a joke. I took a completely different approach to it, musically."[174] Cornell had previously performed the song live in Europe, including an acoustic set in Stockholm, Sweden in September 2006.[52][174] He later said, "I was getting ready to do some acoustic shows on a promotional tour for Revelations and I just wanted to have fun with it."[175] The cover received favorable reviews from critics. MTV noted the "bluesier, more pained and impassioned feel" which stripped away "any pop elements of the original".[175] Los Angeles Times described the track as "a grim, spooky take" on Jackson's "Billie Jean", and added that it was "amusing enough, even if it sounds a lot more like Metallica's 'Nothing Else Matters'". The newspaper concluded that "Jacko's mega hit [survived] the stunt translation".[176] In 2008, Cornell's version was performed live by David Cook on the seventh season of American Idol,[177] and this version charted on Billboard's Hot 100 at No. 47.[178]
In 2011, Fall Out Boy frontman Patrick Stump covered the song as part of an a cappella medley of Michael Jackson songs, in which he sang all the parts.[179]
In 2015, Irish musician EDEN released a remix of "Billie Jean" then separately released a cover of the song with his own vocals.[180]
Mashups and remixes[edit]
In 1983, Italian studio group Club House recorded what would now be known as a mashup of "Billie Jean" and the 1972 Steely Dan song "Do It Again", titled "Do It Again Medley with Billie Jean". The song was a top ten hit in Belgium, Ireland and the Netherlands. American band Slingshot recorded a note-for-note remake of the song later that same year; this version hit number one on the Billboard Dance/Disco charts.[181]
A DJ named Linx created a mashup of "Billie Jean" and the 1987 Eric B. & Rakim song "I Know You Got Soul" from the original recordings, releasing it in 1997 as "Billie Jean (Got Soul)". This mashup peaked at number 34 in Sweden.[182]
2manyDJs included a mashup of "Billie Jean", Soulwax's "Saturday" and The Residents' "Kaw-Liga" in their mix album As Heard On Radio Soulwax Pt. 2.
Scottish bhangra group Tigerstyle's song "Nachna Onda Nei" includes the backing tracks of both "Billie Jean" and "Under Pressure" by Queen and David Bowie, with new vocals by Kaka Bhaniawala.[183] In May 2011, dance act Signature used "Nachna Onda Nei" on Britain's Got Talent in their audition and again in their final performance.[184]