Beat It

Quincy Jones encouraged Jackson to put a rock song like My Sharona on the album. Jackson wrote it, and said he wanted the kind of song he would buy if he bought a rock record. Jeff Porcaro played drums, Steve Lukather guitar, Steve Porcaro synthesizers, and Tom Bahler is credited with the Synclavier. Tito Jackson had recorded a guitar solo, but it was dropped when Eddie Van Halen was called in. Van Halen thought the call from Jones was a prank. He played the solo in two takes on a rented Marshall amplifier with his Frankenstrat guitar, and he said later he did it as a favor.

Released on 21 February 1983 as the third single from Thriller, it reached number one on the Hot 100 on 30 April 1983 and stayed there for three weeks. Billboard ranked it fifth among the songs of 1983. It won the 1984 Grammys for record of the year and best male rock vocal performance. Bob Giraldi wrote and directed the video, filmed on Los Angeles' Skid Row around 9 March 1983 with about 80 members of the Crips and Bloods. Jackson paid the $150,000 cost himself after CBS refused to finance it. It premiered on MTV on 31 March 1983 and reached a billion views on YouTube in November 2023. Rolling Stone ranked the song 185 on its 2021 list of the 500 greatest songs.

Live

Jackson played it on his brothers' Victory Tour, where Eddie Van Halen joined them on stage on 13 July 1984, and on his own Bad, Dangerous and HIStory tours.