'Billie Jean'
Based on a real-life incident in which a woman accused Jackson of fathering her twins (“She says I am the one/ But the kid is not my son”) the song almost didn’t make it onto Thriller because Quincy Jones hated its signature part: the bass line. Thumping and fraught, it feels like the soundtrack to a late-night walk through a bad neighborhood. It successfully makes Jackson sound dangerous, which is no small feat. Amazingly, the video was also one of the first by a black artist ever played on MTV.
