Billie Jean

Jackson wrote it and produced it with Quincy Jones. A woman named Billie Jean says the narrator is the father of her newborn son, and he denies it. Jackson said it came from groupies he and his brothers met when they performed as the Jackson 5. Jones wanted to cut the 29-second introduction and to retitle the song Not My Lover, but Jackson insisted on keeping both, saying the introduction made him want to dance. Bruce Swedien had him sing the vocal overdubs through a six-foot cardboard tube. Tom Scott played the lyricon and Louis Johnson the bass, and Swedien mixed the song 91 times before the second mix was chosen.

Epic released it on 2 January 1983. It spent seven weeks at number one on the Hot 100 and nine on the R&B chart, was ranked second among the songs of 1983 by Billboard, and went to number one in the UK, Australia, Canada, France, Ireland, Switzerland and Belgium. Steve Barron directed the video, which MTV first refused to play until CBS president Walter Yetnikoff threatened to pull all of the label's videos. It premiered on 10 March 1983. The song won two Grammys at the 1984 ceremony, for best R&B song and best R&B male vocal performance, and Rolling Stone ranked it 44 on its 2021 list of the 500 greatest songs. The video was the first 1980s clip by a solo artist to reach a billion views on YouTube. Kanye West remixed the song as Billie Jean 2008 for the Thriller 25 reissue.

Live

Jackson performed it at Motown 25, recorded on 25 March 1983. He wore a black sequined jacket and a single rhinestone glove, lip-synced the song, and danced the moonwalk in public for the first time. The performance earned an Emmy nomination, and Fred Astaire phoned him the next day.