Billie Jean

The Legend of Billie Jean is also the title of a 1985 film.

"Billie Jean"
Single by Michael Jackson
From the album Thriller
Released	January 1983
Format	CD single Cassette single 7" Single
Genre	Pop/R&B
Length	4:53
Label	Epic Records
Writer	Michael Jackson
Producer	Quincy Jones
Video director	Steve Barron
Certification	Platinum
Chart positions	#1 (USA) #1 (UK)
Michael Jackson singles chronology
"The Girl Is Mine" 1982	"Billie Jean" 1983	"Beat It" 1983

"Billie Jean" is a 1983 hit single from Michael Jackson's Thriller album. It is often viewed as the song that triggered his success. A number-one hit on the Billboard Hot 100, the song was also the number-one R&B single for nine weeks in the United States. It was voted best single of the year in The Village Voice Pazz & Jop critics' poll, and received two Grammy Awards in 1984 in categories: Best Male R&B Vocal Performance and Best New Rhythm & Blues Song. It was nominated for Record of the Year and Song of the Year, along with "Beat It", at the Grammy Awards of 1984.

On March 06, 2006, "Billie Jean" was re-released as a single in the UK as part of Visionary - The Video Singles.

History

As a song, Michael Jackson undertook the composition of "Billie Jean" quite personally, drawing upon actual circumstances. In about 1981, during a Jacksons tour, a woman known later to be a stalker had accused Jackson of not claiming the paternity of one of her fraternal twins. She went so far as to call herself "Billie Jean Jackson", and to claim she was married to the singer. The woman was later sent to a mental hospital. Later, in a 1996 interview, Jackson said that he had known a lot of figurative "Billie Jeans" who had been Jackson 5 groupies. "Every girl claimed that their child was related to one of my brothers", the singer said.

He started writing the first demo of the song in his home in Hayvenhurst in the fall of 1981. When he presented the song to his co-producer Quincy Jones, Jones had problems with the title. He thought when audiences heard it they would assume Jackson was referring to tennis superstar Billie Jean King. He also had complaints about the length of the song's intro, believing it was too long; Jackson replied that the long intro made him want to dance. Jackson won both arguments: he got to keep the title of the song and the intro.

The introduction of the character Billie Jean is foreshadowed by a two-line reference from the album's first track "Wanna Be Startin' Somethin'", another Jackson-penned song. It’s evident she doesn't have the singer's best interests at heart, "tellin' lies and rubbin' shoulders", but her dismissal is casual: "So they called her mouth a motor". However coupled with her appearance on the second side of the album, the listener is made privy to the earliest of Jackson's lyrics to deal with the subject of celebrity suspicion (some have labeled it paranoia) of those in their periphery (media, groupies, etc.). This marked a subtle but important occasional shift in the entertainer’s material toward somewhat more adult themes.

Jackson is said to have nailed his lead vocal performance on the first take. But it was Jackson's arrangements and orchestration in "Billie Jean" that helped make the song unique. Jackson had wanted to write "the perfect bass line" and has said he worked on it for a couple of weeks until he succeeded with what became the basis of the final product. According to Daryl Hall, Jackson copped that bassline from the song I Can't Go For That(No Can Do).^* He had also arranged the drum and synthesizer lines into perfect order, and with help from co-collaborator Jerry Hey on the strings and horns and Jackson's mastery at multi-tracking his voice for background vocals, completed the final production on "Billie Jean" only weeks before Epic's scheduled release of the Thriller album on December 1 1982. "Billie Jean" was officially the second single from Thriller on the start of January 1983.

Song & video impact

Upon its release, critics who had given the album's lead-off single, "The Girl is Mine", mixed reviews were praising "Billie Jean". The song soon dominated the top of both the Pop Singles Chart for seven weeks and the Black Singles Chart for nine weeks, both consecutively and respectively. But the hit song's impact wasn't limited to its chart success, and it would play a crucial role in defining Jackson's burgeoning crossover influence on pop culture.

Jackson and Epic had planned to present the music video for the song to the executives of newly-formed cable network MTV, which was at the time not playing videos by black performers or even dance artists. Since its inception, the network's playlist was predominantly white and mainly featured videos by the top rock artists of the day such as Duran Duran, Peter Gabriel, The Clash, Blondie, Journey, Pat Benatar, Genesis, and Billy Idol. In 1983 Jackson and CBS Records President Walter Yetnikoff informed MTV's president that if the cable channel didn't play Jackson's video, CBS would literally not allow them to play all of their white artists who were getting exposure on the network, most notably Billy Joel. With that ultimatum, MTV finally bowed to pressure and premiered Jackson's "Billie Jean" video on March 10 1983.

Directed by Steve Barron (who would go on to feature films including the first Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles film), the imaginative and cryptic video loosely followed the song's narrative. It featured Jackson as a lonely, elusive figure walking the streets while the sidewalk literally glowed wherever he stepped. A trenchcoated "stalker" pursues Jackson, supposedly to get the scoop on the titular love-interest, missing his opportunity when Jackson seemingly vanishes beneath glowing bedsheets with his never-seen mystery lover. The video, with its production values and dance performance by the star, was something completely new for MTV and quickly set an industry standard which even Jackson would emulate (and even more quickly re-define with the follow-up "Beat It").

Soon enough, MTV was airing the video in heavy rotation, thus making Jackson the first black performer to find stardom on the network. Producer Jones has said of the early relationship between Jackson and MTV: "...^* rode each other to glory". Other black artists to soon after have videos on MTV included Prince, The Pointer Sisters, Rick James, Lionel Richie and Eddy Grant. Jackson was the first – and by most accounts, is still the greatest – pop megastar to emerge from the network, each benefitting by cross-interest from the other's respective audience. This paved the way for a multitude of artists like Prince, Madonna, Cyndi Lauper, and within a few years his own younger sister Janet Jackson, to also have their careers blossom in the new video arena. By the end of the year, numerous other competing outlets were also showcasing the medium, solidifying music videos as a specific form of entertainment and record promotion.

Motown 25 performance

The video viewership for the song on both MTV and new African-American focused cable network BET, helped make the song a bigger hit. On March 25 1983, "Billie Jean" and Jackson reached an even larger audience when he debuted the song before a live audience during taping of the tribute special Yesterday, Today, and Forever. Having reunited with the Jackson 5 for a medley of their hits, he remained onstage for a bravura solo performance. Dressed in a glittery black jacket, sparkling silver shirt, tight black pants cuffed high to showcase white spangled socks and black penny loafers, and a single sequined glove (which the entertainer had begun wearing onstage during Jacksons concerts as early as 1980) Jackson signalled the start of his routine with a soon-to-be trademark crouch and snapping a black fedora to his head. Jackson lip-synched his song and the audience rose to their feet.

It was during this electrifying performance that Jackson also debuted a dance move he had discovered from black inner-city youths and tweaked to distinction. Credited to former Solid Gold dancer Cooley Jackson, "The Back Slide" was given a new name by the media following Jackson's interpretation: The "Moonwalk". The step has since gone on to become Jackson's signature dance move, and is synonymous with the song.

Upon its broadcast on May 16, over forty-seven million viewers witnessed Jackson's performance, and the immediate result was unprecedented sales of his "Thriller" album (51 million worldwide as of 2005) ^*. With acccompanying sales of over two million copies, "Billie Jean" remains Jackson's biggest-selling single as a solo artist.

Choreography

"Billie Jean" is generally regarded as the pinnacle of most Michael Jackson performances and stage shows. The song has been the key feature of every concert, from the Victory tour through to the 30th Anniversary Performance at Madison Square Garden in 2001.

The structure of the live "Billie Jean" routine has remained consistent; fans have even named moves that are regularly performed. These include the "Sidewalk" (where Jackson appears to "moonwalk" sideways along the stage, by slightly raising and crossing his feet whilst sliding them sideways), the "Cobrasteen" (where Jackson pivots on his heels, followed by a slide of one foot from front to back, whilst keeping the upper body stiff), and spot spins. Obviously, the most famous move that Jackson performs is his "moonwalk", which occurs always at the bridge in the song. This move is generally never performed in any other song, although slight "moonwalk" variations are also found in "Stranger In Moscow" and "Smooth Criminal". Jackson also usually displays his incredible tapping ability during a "Billie Jean" set.

In concert, "Billie Jean" is almost always extended for an extra two to three minutes with just the beat and bass line, whilst Jackson improvises an array of dance steps. Most fans consider this to be why "Billie Jean" rates as a favorite above other song routines, as Jackson "freestyles" the moves to an extent. Videos of "Billie Jean" performances are readily available on the internet, and on some released VHS/DVD's.

It is important to note that the actual choreography of "Billie Jean" has not changed much since the Motown 25 performance, but has been enhanced through continual performance and improvement.

Credits

Written, arranged and composed by Michael Jackson
Produced by Quincy Jones and Michael Jackson
Lead and background vocals by Michael Jackson
Drums by Leon "Ndugu" Chancler
Bass by Louis Johnson
Guitar by David Williams
Emulator by Michael Boddicker
Rhodes & Synthesizer by Greg Phillinganes
Synthesizer by Greg Smith
Synthesizer & Synthesizer Programming by Bill Wolfer
Vocal, Rhythm and Synthesizer Arrangement by Michael Jackson
String Arrangement by Jerry Hey
Strings Conducted by Jeremy Lubbock

Mixes

Album Version 4:53
12" Version 6:23
Instrumental 6:20

Trivia

The outfit worn by Jackson in the "Billie Jean" video was one of several available for the Michael Jackson action figure produced the following year.

The television talk show Late Night with David Letterman featured a running gag at the height of the song's popularity, which questioned what one of the lyrics was. As part of the refrain was played back, a single word was overdubbed by a deep, male voice (probably bandleader Paul Shaffer's voice) to create the new line, "...the CHAIR is not my son".

Reportedly, Jackson was riding in his Rolls-Royce while writing the song lyrics. He was so occupied in writing the song, he didn't even notice his car was on fire.

Was ranked #58 in Rolling Stone's list of the 500 Greatest Songs of All Time.

In 2005, Blender magazine declared that "Billie Jean" was the greatest song released after 1980.

In 1984, Jackson filmed commercials for Pepsi (with his brothers) with an altered version on the song. During one of the commercial shoots, at the Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles, Michael's hair caught on fire when the pyrotechnics malfunctioned. He suffered second degree burns on his scalp.

The song was remixed by Layo and Bushwacka! in 2002, becoming a dancefloor favorite.

The song is also featured on the video game Grand Theft Auto: Vice City

Sources

Moonwalk — by Michael Jackson, Edited by Jackie Onassis (Doubleday 1988, ISBN 0385247125)
The Michael Jackson Story — by Nelson George (Dell 1983, ISBN 0440155924)
Trapped: Michael Jackson and the Crossover Dream — by Dave Marsh (Bantam 1985, ISBN 055334241X)
Thriller – Special Edition (Epic Records, 2001 — Selected Interviews)
Michael Jackson: The Ultimate Collection (Epic Records, 2004 — Liner Notes)
''Michael Jackson Visionary (http://www.mjvisionary.com/mjvisionary.html)
''UK singles chart (http://uk.launch.yahoo.com/c/uk/single_charts.html)

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