The Making Of Billie Jean (Song)

[Dangerous Incorporated]

Michael's Billie Jean would have to be his most famous song. Everybody has owned a copy of it at some time. I remember Billie Jean was mixed 91 times and was amazed. I did a little research into the production of Billie Jean and this is what Ive found. Please add any info that you have.

Steve Lukather’s site indicates that the guitar parts were played by Michael himself. However the late David Williams is credited.

Bill Wolfer:

“You know the three chord synth vamp on Michael Jackson's 'Billie Jean?' That's me.”

Drummer Lean Ndugu Chancler was brought in to enhance the "punch" of the song. He said in Musician, "I was placed in a room by myself, so there was no (sound) leakage. Both Michael and Quincy came in to suggest things for the two or three hours it took to cut the track. I played through it about eight to ten times.

The other dominant feature of "Billie Jean" is the bass line, suggested by
Michael. Louis Johnson of the Brothers Johnson told Musician about working on the song with Michael. "He had me bring all my guitars to see how they sounded playing the part. I tried three or four basses before we settled on the Yamaha.
It’s really live, with a lot of power and guts." Veteran jazz musician Tom
Scott received no credit, but played a lyricon solo in the background of the
mix. Engineer Bruce Swedien recalled in Musician: "It was Quincy’s idea to
weave this thread into the thing. It was a last minute overdub thing. Quincy
calls it ‘ear candy.’ It’s just a subliminal element that works well."

Michael’s vocal on "Billie Jean" was recorded in one amazing take.

Ndugu Chancler, is known not only as a world-class drummer and percussionist, but also a producer, composer, clinician and teacher. Ndugu Chancler is a three-time Grammy nominee, he has to his credit an extensive list of performances, recordings, original compositions and productions. As a studio musician, Ndugu Chancler has performed and recorded with Miles Davis, Herbie Hancock, George Duke, Patrice Rushen, Hubert Laws, The Crusaders, Frank Sinatra, Weather Report, Lionel Ritchie, Kenny Rogers, Thelonious Monk and John Lee Hooker. He was the drummer on the biggest selling pop album by Michael Jackson, Thriller, providing the beat on "Billie Jean."



As a producer and songwriter, Ndugu Chancler has written hits for The Dazz Band and George Duke, and produced for Flora Purim, Bill Summers, Toki and his own solo recordings. Ndugu Chancler has co-produced recordings for Santana, The Crusaders, George Duke, Tina Turner, Joe Sample, Wilton Felder and The Meeting, the group he co-leads with Patrice Rushen and Ernie Watts. As a clinician, Ndugu Chancler has led extensive clinic tours for Yamaha, Toca, Paiste, Remo and Shure. In addition to his faculty position in the jazz studies department at the Thornton School, he is on staff at the United States Percussion Camp at Eastern Illinois University, the Stanford University Jazz Workshop, Jazz America and the Thelonious Monk Foundation.


Ndugu Chancler needs no further introduction:

AC: How were you approached regarding the session for Billie Jean?

Ndugu Chancler: I was contacted by Quincy Jones’ office to do that session. I had been working with Quincy on some sessions back then. I was also heavy into producing at that time and was producing as record projects at that same time.

AC: Billie Jean appears to have a very tight feel and the drums in particular really do cement the track together, can you tell us how the drum track was laid down?

Ndugu Chancler: The Drum track was an overdub to the rest of the music and vocals. The Drum Machine was already there, which is what I had to sync up to.

AC: How many takes did you need to nail the drum track, and what did you have as a guide?

Ndugu Chancler: It took about three takes for the basic track. The basic track was only kick, snare, and hat. The toms and cymbals were overdubs.

AC: Were you informed exactly what to play or was there some flexibility to allow for your input?

Ndugu Chancler: Basically I was matching what was already there on the drum machine verbatim.

AC: There is some tasteful hi-hat work on Billy Jean, was this your input?

And what about the tom toms?

Ndugu Chancler: The hi-hat work is one of the trademarks of my sound in the studio. By using the hi-hat I can give the recording my signature without getting in anyone’s way.

AC: Do you recall the microphone set-up for Billie Jean? Our readers would love to know how to achieve that classic sound that may have in fact motivated a generation!

Ndugu Chancler: Bruce Swedien uses an assortment of basic mics. If I can recall, it a Shure 57 on the snare, and a condenser on the hat. Placement was the most important aspect of getting that sound along with it being recorded onto 16 track 2”tape. All his focus was on getting the drum sound.

AC: What are your feelings regarding the track Billie Jean? I mean after all it really must be one of the most well known Jackson tracks of all time?

Ndugu Chancler: Billie Jean for me represents a good job by all the participants, and the success being rewarded to all because it was done by a winning team. It is grtatifying to be a part of a huge success.

AC: Who exactly did you work with on Billie Jean? I’m talking about the management and the engineer, producer other musicians etc.

Ndugu Chancler: I worked with Quincy Jones, the Producer; Micheal Jackson, the Artist; and Bruce Swedien, the Engineer.

AC: How might you advice a novice looking to become a session musician?

Ndugu Chancler: All musicians looking to do studio work should learn to play various musical styles, get a variety of sounds quickly, read very well, and be able to play with all kinds of musicians and get along with them all. The most important thing is to be very consistent with your playing.

Ndugu Chancler: What are you feelings regarding drum tuning, and did you have any choice regarding this for Billie Jean?

AC: Tuning the drums should blend in with the other instruments and also be representative of the style of music you are playing.

AC: Have you ever played Billie Jean live for Jackson?

Ndugu Chancler: No

AC: Many of our readers would be interested to know your thoughts on creating a “pop” rhythm track, what’s your advice?

Ndugu Chancler: Pop recording is based on simple solid grooves. Less is actually more. Make a creative sacrifice for the sake of the music. Remember you are accompanying a vocalist.

AC: What are you opinions on programmed drums and sequenced drum parts, are you a fan and are you a drum programmer?

Ndugu Chancler: I have no problem with sequencing and programming. In the right hands, it is very creative. I use both in my home studio. Most of the time I play the drum parts from beginning to end for continuity and them edit.

AC: Do you have any favourite drum microphone techniques? If so what are they, recordings have come along way since the Decca Tree, no?

Ndugu Chancler: I use a mic for each part of my kit. I have an endorsement with Shure Microphones and use them on not only my drums but everything else in the studio. They have a wide assortment of mics.

Bruce Swedien:

I also had a special bass drum cover made, and I took the front head off the drum kit, put cinder blocks in there to hold it still, put the cover on and slipped the microphone through. Then I made a special little isolation flap that went between the snare mike and the hi-hat mike in order to give much better imaging.

As for the sounds of the integral rhythm parts, the kick is left fairly open and I can't detect any signs of a noise gate. If it was gated, then a touch of room reverb has been added to loosen the sound up, and give it some spaciousness, almost emulating the way the kick sounds in a room.

What is your concept of reverb for a Michael Jackson mix?

I try not to pre-think any of these things with him, or any other artist for that matter. It’s purely intuitive. With the type of records I do, if you have a formula you’re dead in the water before you start. You’ll notice on the new Michael CD that each song has its own character, and that’s not accidental. I think that’s important on all the records I have done with Michael. If you listen to “Thriller” there’s alot of natural acoustic sounds, like that creaking door at the beginning of the song. Michael is more willing to experiment than a lot of other artists. If I want to try something different, he’s like “Yeah, let’s do it!” He loves the experimentation aspect, coming up with new sounds.

Bruce Swedien:

I have a 32-input Harrison console like the one I used on [Michael Jackson's] Thriller — this is the last one in the 32 series.

Paul Verna on the Mick Guzauski 5.1 channel version of Thriller:

Jackson paid a visit to the studio and after listening to the mix of "Billie Jean", authorized a remix of the entire album...
Jackson's only advice to Guzauski was to employ more of the synthetic bass, rather than the electric bass so that the bass coincides with the one on the original album.

A handful of websites (google + groups) claim a "Shure sm7" (radio DJ/voice-over) mic recorded the Thriller album vocals:

Although Cymbals are associated with high frequencies, a boost between 100 and 300Hz can help to emphasise the clunk of the stick on a ride cymbal or hi-hat, something particularly noticeable in Donovan's 'Mellow Yellow', for example. The ringing overtones of crash and ride cymbals can be brought up within the 1-6kHz area, an area characteristic of the sound in Led Zeppelin's 'Rock & Roll', while the sizzle of any of the cymbals can be emphasised in the 8-12kHz range -- check out Metallica's 'Enter Sandman' or Michael Jackson's 'Billie Jean' for examples of this.

Michael Jackson from Moonwalk:

"Not My Lover" was a title we almost used for "Billie Jean" because Q had some objections to calling the song "Billie Jean," my original title. He felt people might immediately think of Billie Jean King, the tennis player. A lot of people have asked me about that song, and the answer is very simple. It's just a case of a girl who says that I'm the father of her child and I'm pleading my innocence because "the kid is not my son."

There was never a real "Billie Jean." (Except for the ones who came after the song.) The girl in the song is a composite of people we've been plagued by over the years. This kind of thing has happened to some of my brothers and I used to be really amazed by it. I couldn't understand how these girls could say they were carrying someone's child when it wasn't true. I can't imagine lying about something like that. Even today there are girls who come to the gate at our house and say the strangest things, like, "Oh, I'm Michael's wife," or "I'm just dropping off the keys to our apartment." I remember one girl who used to drive us completely crazy. I really think that she believed in her mind that she belonged with me. There was another girl who claimed I had gone to bed with her, and she made threats. There've been a couple of serious scuffles at the gate on Hayvenhurst, and they can get dangerous. People yell into the intercom that Jesus sent them to speak with me and God told them to come - unusual and unsettling things.

A musician knows hit material. It has to feel right. Everything has to feel in place. It fulfills you and it makes you feel good. You know it when you hear it. That's how I felt about "Billie Jean." I knew it was going to be big while I was writing it. I was really absorbed in that song. One day during a break in a recording session I was riding down the Ventura Freeway with Nelson Hayes, who was working with me at the time. "Billie Jean" was going around in my head and that's all I was thinking about. We were getting off the freeway when a kid on a motorcycle pulls up to us and says, "Your car's on fire." Suddenly we noticed the smoke and pulled over and the whole bottom of the Rolls-Royce was on fire. That kid probably saved our lives. If the car had exploded, we could have been killed. But I was so absorbed by this tune floating in my head that I didn't even focus on the awful possibilities until later. Even while we were getting help and finding an alternate way to get where we were going, I was silently composing additional material, that's how involved I was with "Billie Jean."

On May 16, 1983, I performed "Billie Jean" on a network telecast in honour of Motown's twenty-fifth anniversary. Almost fifty million people saw that show. After that, many things changed...
The next day I called my management office and said, "Please order me a spy's hat, like a cool fedora - something that a secret agent would wear." I wanted something sinister and special, a real slouchy kind of hat.

 

[IvoryKeys]

Mad props for finding all this information! I'm surprised no one has commented on this yet. I definitely have no info to attach, that's for sure. But I learned a few neat things in your findings. I really thought it was interesting to know the mic set-up for the drums in the BJ takes. Love it! Thx!

 

[giddyup87]

it's amazing reading how quickly and easily he records the vocals on most of his material. I think it relates to how he composers and how his voice at times imitates and takes the characteristics of the instruments around, therefore the arrangement needs to be perfect in his mind for his voice and the song to be the way he imagined.

 

[Dangerous Incorporated]

G-Man: What's the weirdest thing you've done in the studio? In terms of sonics, I mean.


Forger: Before the advent of digital technology, you needed to be creative acoustically and electronically. In the song "Billie Jean," when Michael sings the line "Do think twice" at end of the third verse, he's singing through a cardboard mailing tube. We often would record elements in the bathroom (tiled) because it would give it a short early reflection quality. The main percussion sound on the song "Beat It" was Michael beating on fiberboard drum cases with 1x3 inch pieces of wood in the mirrored room of Westlake Studio A. This was all normal. Now if you want to talk weird, on one song (not MJ) we ran a tape loop around the room supported by microphone stands on a two track machine. It was a loop of burps and was keyed by the kick and snare to give the effect of drums that were alive and breathing.

http://searchwarp.com/swa6433.htm