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If there was no Billie Jean

goldiewashington

goldiewashington

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I was fascinated by something i read in one of the threads here that said Quincy Jones did not want Billie Jean on the final cut of Thriller. Something about it not being strong enough. It is hard to imagine but for me personally it would not have had much of an impact on how I feel about Thriller.

I like Billie Jean, but my favorite songs on the album are WBSS and Human Nature. I guess it would have had an effect on how we look at Mike as an entertainer b/c he would have had to pick a different song to perform, and who knows if it would have gotten the same reception.
 
Billi Jean is like ET for steven speilberg. If you take every song by michael jackson and his whole image and mix it togheter. then you will have billi jean:)
 
Thriller would still be a great album, but no Billie Jean would be an enormous blow. That is the signature MJ song as far as I'm concerned. And I'm sure he would have still become the King of Pop since he has a plethora of extraordinary music, but MJ with no Billie Jean is like Superman with no cape lol.
 
Quincy also didn't want Smooth Criminal on Bad.

It goes to show that MJ had just as big of a part in the producing of both albums as Q. I'm just irked by some people saying MJ is nothing without Q, when that isn't true.

I'm not knocking Q's genius or anything either.
 
Quincy didn't want Human Nature on Thriller either...

Imagine a world with no Billie Jean, no Human Nature and no Smooth Criminal! :eek: :p :p
 
Grand Master S said:
Thriller would still be a great album, but no Billie Jean would be an enormous blow. That is the signature MJ song as far as I'm concerned. And I'm sure he would have still become the King of Pop since he has a plethora of extraordinary music, but MJ with no Billie Jean is like Superman with no cape lol.
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Hey let's just do analogies for the rest of this thread.

"Thriller" without Billie Jean is like a butterfly without wings.
 
No Billie Jean? No fun.

THRILLER without Billie Jean would mean we'll have one song less in the album.

THRILLER without Billie Jean is like naked hamburgers without the buns.
 
:lol: HAHAHA GMS and TCK....hilarious.

Yes lets make up analogies for the rest of the thread!

Thriller without Billie Jean is like Kool-Aid without the sugar....Ham with no cheese...Thriller without Billie Jean is like never having two things that match...DAAAMMMM! (chris tucker style :lol:)
 
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Thriller without Billie Jean is like Joeseph and Katherine with no Michael........




*GASP* The thought is heartwrenching (seriously :( )





But anyway, I looooove Q, but I'm SO glad BJ made the album. That song is REVOLUTIONARY!!!! And I love every song on that CD!!!!!!! THRILLER RULES!
 
If Billie Jean didn't exist, then Carribean Queen by Billy Ocean, Night Rider by Midnight Star, or Madonna's Like A Virgin wouldn't either, lol.
 
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I can't believe Quincy didn't want it on the album. Billie Jean is my favourite song along with Thriller.

Thriller with out 'Billie Jean' is like the World with out Water.
Or a unsharpened pencil, pointless. (oh sorry that was a bad joke).
 
without Billie jean you have a very good album but not a Great album and that is a big difference. the difference between SuperStar and Star.
 
im sure i heard some where that Quincy thought the intro was too long, imo its one of my favourite parts of the song such a great beat and makes you want to get up and dance :dancing:
 
laurenjayne said:
im sure i heard some where that Quincy thought the intro was too long,
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Actually, it was. An album can only hold a certain amount of time on each side before the sound quality lowers. Quincy has said many times the original mix of the album sounded like garbage. Billie Jean on the album was edited from a longer song, which was later released as a maxi single. That's why on the lyric sheet, the lyrics at the end isn't on the song, but are on the unedited version.
 
Then that meant the entire song was too long. In the six minute demo, there was a part of the song where MJ repeats:

"Billie Jean is
Billie Jean is
Billie Jean is not my lover..."

This was a FUNK groove. The album wasn't that long but I guess it couldn't run up to 80 minutes per single disc at the time.
 
Yes, the 6 minute version wasn't a demo though, but was originally the album version. It was too long for the LP format (which is also why other songs were omitted), so BJ was cut down to the version on the album for sound quality purposes. The original has a longer intro and instrumental break in the middle as well as a longer adlib section at the end. The lyric sheet was printed up before the album was mixed, so contains the original lyrics. It was released as a 12" single. I remember it was played on the radio. I have the long version on vinyl. A record album can hold about 45-50 minutes. A 45 single used to have 4-5 minutes (in the 70s and 80s) which is why sometimes a single is shorter than an album version like Wanna Be Startin' Somethin' or Papa Was A Rolling Stone (album version is about 12 minutes) by The Temptations. If you buy a maxi single, it's generally louder than an album because there's less time on it and so it's good for the clubs which generally had a better sound system than the average home stereo.
 
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DuranDuran said:
Yes, the 6 minute version wasn't a demo though, but was originally the album version. It was too long for the LP format (which is also why other songs were omitted), so BJ was cut down to the version on the album for sound quality purposes. The original has a longer intro and instrumental break in the middle as well as a longer adlib section at the end. The lyric sheet was printed up before the album was mixed, so contains the original lyrics. It was released as a 12" single. I remember it was played on the radio. I have the long version on vinyl. A record album can hold about 45-50 minutes. A 45 single used to have 4-5 minutes (in the 70s and 80s) which is why sometimes a single is shorter than an album version like Wanna Be Startin' Somethin' or Papa Was A Rolling Stone (album version is about 12 minutes) by The Temptations. If you buy a maxi single, it's generally louder than an album because there's less time on it and so it's good for the clubs which generally had a better sound system than the average home stereo.
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So I'm figuring this ain't a demo at all then:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9E_1eYWx4fM
 
troubleman84 said:
Wait, Duran, is this the version you're talking about:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wS9T3WxMYKk&feature=related
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That's it. I read that The Lady In My Life was edited also, but I've never heard it. It was never released, but there are different lyrics on the sheet with the vinyl album. That extra verse from Vincent Price on Thriller was edited out also. But it was put on the Special Edition, but not in the song itself. On another note, I forgot all about that Moonwalker video game, lol.
 
ahha a thriller and bad without billie jean and smooth criminal, it would feel like it is something missing..
 
Quincy Jones never objected to Billie Jean making the final cut of Thriller. His problem with Billie Jean was that the intro was too long. Quincy said in that something like "You could shave, before the intro had finished as it was so so long". So Michael to edited the intro of Billie Jean, and I think the YouTube clip that "troubleman84" posted is the original version of Billie Jean (it was the 12'' single version in 1983). http://www.mjjcommunity.com/forum/member.php?u=9911
 
The intro was edited as was the instrumental bridge and the ending. So I'm thinking MJ & Q came to a compromise about how to promote the song as a pop single. And it worked dividends for both.
 
Without this song, Mike would have the same talent but not the same carreer. He made the difference with this one and it became his classic.
 
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