Billie Jean
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"Billie Jean" was a 1983 single from Michael Jackson's Thriller album. A #1 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 as the best single of the year in The Village Voice Pazz & Jop critics poll and received 2 Grammy Awards in 1984 in categories: Best Male R&B Vocal Performance and Best New Rhythm & Blues Song.
The song was written by Jackson, produced by Quincy Jones and co-produced by Jackson. Its theme is about false accusations of paternity. It is also said that Billie Jean was the name of a girl who sued Michael Jackson because he was supposedly the father of one of her twins (who were fraternal). The song features a guest sax solo by veteran jazz artist Tom Scott.
Jackson performed for the first time his signature dance move, the "Moonwalk", while peforming this song during the Motown 25: Yesterday, Today, Forever special. The celebration, taped on March 25 1983, was eventually aired on May 16 on NBC. The performance can be seen on DVD in Greatest Hits History Volume II.
Jackson would continue to perform "Billie Jean" at each of his tours since the 1984 Victory Tour. The song was also recently performed at his 30th anniversary celebration. Like the performance at Motown 25, the performances featured great dance moves that were never choreographed and always made up on the spot. Jackson would sing the vocals live for every performance until his 1997 History Tour where he would lip sync most of the song but sing adlibs at the end. This was probably due to his increasing age, the demands of his energetic performance, and the high notes of Billie Jean as Jackson has had problems with laryngitis on his tours due to the high range of many of his songs. Jackson continued to expand on the performance adding interesting new touches as time went on making the later performance, albeit lip synced, the most fun and impressive. A performance from Jackson's Dangerous Tour in Bucharest can be seen on DVD in The Ultimate Collection box set.
Also see: "Jackson, Maryellen"eo:Billie Jean