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30 Cool Facts You Didn't Know About 'Billie Jean'

^^Ha you know once you start talking about something you don't know where you will end up. Let me take a look at it.

Just finished reading it, and what a coincidence since I ordered 2 of his books from Amazon yesterday. I copied this part from his article: "In my next article, I’ll be discussing speakers, amplifiers, control room volume levels and much more." This should increased the listening pleasure of Billie Jean.
 
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Petrarose;3766235 said:
^^Ha you know once you start talking about something you don't know where you will end up. Let me take a look at it.

Just finished reading it, and what a coincidence since I ordered 2 of his books from Amazon yesterday. I copied this part from his article: "In my next article, I’ll be discussing speakers, amplifiers, control room volume levels and much more." This should increased the listening pleasure of Billie Jean.
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It is our precious ears, our senses, that lead us to believe in what we hear!
mothers-day-dumbo-icon-101x60.jpg
 
About Michael admitting he copied Hall and Oates on Billie Jean, I've never believed that.

That song came out in about December 1981 and I'm pretty sure Michael had already recorded demos of Billie Jean before then.
 
eermm... I don't wanna sound like a delirious fan lol :D but I think there's a big chance MJ had that little melody floating around his mind for a long time.

In this video, I think he’s beat boxing sort of the same melody. at 2:11
[video=youtube;OPfWbMRhb9s]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OPfWbMRhb9s[/video]

Maybe this here is only my imagination but I know some composers in real life and sometimes they have a melody in their heads for years and years and they may use it in a composition or not. People in touch with musicians (composers) will know what I’m talking about.

But this is only my humble opinion.
 
^^Oh I heard it. You are right, there is a part of that baseline there.
 
Billie Jean's intro sounding similar to I Can't Go for That by Hall and Oates is no big deal. Lots of songs sound similar to one another. A few examples i can think of is Stevie Wonder's Part Time Lover sounding like Hall And Oates Maneater and 1999 by Prince sounds similar to Susudio by Phil Collins

''Not everything is 100% original'' - Billy Ocean
 
Tonight at President Obama inaugural ball, they rocked to Billie Jean. Right after the president's and first lady's dance, Billie Jean was played. And Chris Tucker was interviewed at the same time.
 
That's great. When I saw it before Obama came they were playing Wanna Be Startin Something. I was just thinking about Michael today (I think of him everyday) but especially today with Obama and Martin Luther King day.
 
L.T.D;3766799 said:
About Michael admitting he copied Hall and Oates on Billie Jean, I've never believed that.

That song came out in about December 1981 and I'm pretty sure Michael had already recorded demos of Billie Jean before then.
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Thanks to heavy airplay on urban contemporary radio stations, "I Can't Go for That" also topped the U.S. R&B chart, a rare feat for a non-African American act. According to the Hall and Oates biography, Hall, upon learning that "I Can't Go For That" had gone to number one on the R&B chart, wrote in his diary, "I'm the head soul brother in the U.S. Where to now?"
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/I_Can't_Go_for_That_(No_Can_Do)

How Hall & Oates Saved Pop Music

JOHN HUDSON 10,833 ViewsAUG 31, 2012
If "Billie Jean" is the cornerstone track of Michael Jackson's 1982 album Thriller, and Thriller is the album that saved pop music, then Hall & Oates, in some not-insignificant way, rescued pop music in the early 1980s, at least according to The New York Times Magazine's Rob Hoeburger. This much will be clear when you read Hoeburger's revisionist history of Thriller (it turns 30 this year) in the Magazine's Riff column. It's an interesting look at how the musical aesthetic of Thriller cut through “the ruins of punk and the chic regions of synthesizer pop” at the time and revitalized the music industry. According to Hoeburger, the key moment was when Jackson heard Hall & Oates' 1981 single "I Can't Go for That (No Can Do) and borrowed its baseline for "Billie Jean." Per Hoeburger:

Of course, in the end, “Thriller” had several money tracks. There were four solid cornerposts: a blistering rock song (“Beat It”); a sublime ballad (“Human Nature”); an R&B dance sizzler (“Wanna Be Startin’ Somethin’ ”); and a video-friendly story song (“Thriller”). And at the center of it all, connecting the entire work and providing access routes to its outer regions, was a song whose musical basis came from the lone bastion of hope on pop radio in those dark days, Daryl Hall and John Oates. Their solid amalgams of pop, soul, rock and even light electronica had been breaking through the dross for a few years. In January, their “I Can’t Go for That (No Can Do)” logged a week at No. 1 ... Jackson liked “I Can’t Go for That” and heard in it the basis for his own album’s elusive unifier. He lifted its bass line for a song that made him want to dance. (And no wonder; that bass line was itself an echo of ’60s soul.) He could hear it. He could see it. That track was “Billie Jean.” It was one of the last songs completed for “Thriller” — it was reportedly mixed 91 times — and even though Quincy Jones fought Jackson about its inclusion, Jackson insisted. By early November, he was finally satisfied, and the album was rush-released into stores at the end of the month.
We can sort of hear what he means: Both songs have that steady thumping baseline that drive the melody, and Jackson has certainly copped to this in the past. But It's certainly nowhere near Vanilla Ice-David Bowie caliber theft. Still, you be the judge: http://www.theatlanticwire.com/entertainment/2012/08/hall-oates-history-pop-music/56426/
 
max000 said:
Tonight at President Obama inaugural ball, they rocked to Billie Jean. Right after the president's and first lady's dance, Billie Jean was played. And Chris Tucker was interviewed at the same time.
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Thanks for that. If I knew this was going to happen I would have tuned in. Michael forever it seems...

There they go again^^, so now this person from the Times is saying Hall & Oats saved Pop. If they have to give credit to Michael for something, they slip in a "but" clause, and in this case it is Hall & Oats who saved pop because Michael lifted the baseline of that song. Billie Jean, is not only about a baseline; it has several aspects that make it a masterpiece to me, but I notice they like to focus on that driven baseline, probably because they know the story from Oats.

If the baseline from Oats has 60s soul, then the thing is not even 100% original anyway. I am sure some 60s artist can take credit for it as well. Then we have that little humming Michael was doing in the 70s from the clip above, which has part of the baseline in it, so who is the real owner of this baseline?

I just love when these music critics pick out an aspect of a song and make it the centerpiece of the song as though this is a scientific analysis, & then ignore everything else. Then they throw in some silly words to make it seem technical & sophisticated.
 
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If that baseline alone had saved pop music then it would have been "I Can't Go for That" that would have elevated the album that contained it to stratospheric success. It wasn't, which shows a baseline alone can't save pop music.
 
respect77 said:
If that baseline alone had saved pop music then it would have been "I Can't Go for That" that would have elevated the album that contained it to stratospheric success. It wasn't, which shows a baseline alone can't save pop music.
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I was about to post the same :D

Imo, that idea in the article is just another failed attempt to take away credits from MJ.
 
^^Don't forget to post that after the article Respect. That was a good one.
 
Radio Host Big Boy Meets MJ in January 2008, at the Palms Hotel, invited by Michael Jackson, to listen to Michael's new music that Michael recorded for "Thriller 25." Have a listen'!




In honor of Thriller 25, here is "Billie Jean"!


Billie Jean 2008 - Michael Jackson (Feat. Kanye West)

 
analogue said:
Billie Jean's intro sounding similar to I Can't Go for That by Hall and Oates is no big deal. Lots of songs sound similar to one another. A few examples i can think of is Stevie Wonder's Part Time Lover sounding like Hall And Oates Maneater and 1999 by Prince sounds similar to Susudio by Phil Collins

''Not everything is 100% original'' - Billy Ocean
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I was listening this song in my car radio today, sounds familiar if you take off the singing
 
Bubs I hear it and you know I am no music expert. It seems that beat is really very generic. How many songs can we find with it? It would be even more hilarious if we could find it earlier than the Hall & Oats one. Now by the author's ^^ logic, this song you just posted should be a number 1 and change pop.
 
AliCat;3767413 said:
Thanks to heavy airplay on urban contemporary radio stations, "I Can't Go for That" also topped the U.S. R&B chart, a rare feat for a non-African American act. According to the Hall and Oates biography, Hall, upon learning that "I Can't Go For That" had gone to number one on the R&B chart, wrote in his diary, "I'm the head soul brother in the U.S. Where to now?"
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/I_Can't_Go_for_That_(No_Can_Do)

How Hall & Oates Saved Pop Music

JOHN HUDSON 10,833 ViewsAUG 31, 2012
If "Billie Jean" is the cornerstone track of Michael Jackson's 1982 album Thriller, and Thriller is the album that saved pop music, then Hall & Oates, in some not-insignificant way, rescued pop music in the early 1980s, at least according to The New York Times Magazine's Rob Hoeburger. This much will be clear when you read Hoeburger's revisionist history of Thriller (it turns 30 this year) in the Magazine's Riff column. It's an interesting look at how the musical aesthetic of Thriller cut through “the ruins of punk and the chic regions of synthesizer pop” at the time and revitalized the music industry. According to Hoeburger, the key moment was when Jackson heard Hall & Oates' 1981 single "I Can't Go for That (No Can Do) and borrowed its baseline for "Billie Jean." Per Hoeburger:

Of course, in the end, “Thriller” had several money tracks. There were four solid cornerposts: a blistering rock song (“Beat It”); a sublime ballad (“Human Nature”); an R&B dance sizzler (“Wanna Be Startin’ Somethin’ ”); and a video-friendly story song (“Thriller”). And at the center of it all, connecting the entire work and providing access routes to its outer regions, was a song whose musical basis came from the lone bastion of hope on pop radio in those dark days, Daryl Hall and John Oates. Their solid amalgams of pop, soul, rock and even light electronica had been breaking through the dross for a few years. In January, their “I Can’t Go for That (No Can Do)” logged a week at No. 1 ... Jackson liked “I Can’t Go for That” and heard in it the basis for his own album’s elusive unifier. He lifted its bass line for a song that made him want to dance. (And no wonder; that bass line was itself an echo of ’60s soul.) He could hear it. He could see it. That track was “Billie Jean.” It was one of the last songs completed for “Thriller” — it was reportedly mixed 91 times — and even though Quincy Jones fought Jackson about its inclusion, Jackson insisted. By early November, he was finally satisfied, and the album was rush-released into stores at the end of the month.
We can sort of hear what he means: Both songs have that steady thumping baseline that drive the melody, and Jackson has certainly copped to this in the past. But It's certainly nowhere near Vanilla Ice-David Bowie caliber theft. Still, you be the judge: http://www.theatlanticwire.com/entertainment/2012/08/hall-oates-history-pop-music/56426/
Click to expand...

Oh yeah thanks for that....my google was broken...

How does that refute what I said about Michael recording demos of Billie Jean before the Hall & Oates song was even released?

It in no way relates to what I said in my post and is just the same thing that has been said over and over again in this thread. I guess the theory is that if you copy and paste a large essay then there will surely be something in there that will prove me wrong, even without looking.
 
Michael Jackson Billie Jean HOME DEMO Rare [HQ]




Billie Jean [ Home Demo 1981]



Recorded - March 1981 "I Can't Go for That (No Can Do)" by Daryl Hall and John Oates.
 
Haha that is so cool! Mixed 91 times...he sang through a cardboard tube :D
 
Here is Hall and Oates explaining about Michael Jackson being inspired to write "Billie Jean." Billie Jean was inspired by "No Can Do," is not in the same category as "Blurred Lines." There is a difference between being inspired and out right stealing a song. Curtis Mayfield inspired Hall and Oates.




quote-our-purpose-is-to-educate-as-well-as-to-entertain-painless-preaching-is-as-good-a-term-as-any-for-curtis-mayfield-251641.jpg
 
I wish no one ever covered BJ a masterpiece like this must be the only released one. The best thing wich can happen to BJ is to be performed live by MJ!
 
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