40 Years Ago… the world was mystified when the first single of Michael Jackson's "Thriller" album was the very worst song; "The Girl Is Mine"

 

40 Years Ago… the world was mystified by the marketing strategy for the new Michael Jackson album, “Thriller.”

 It was an album included “Billie Jean”, “Beat It”, “Wanna Be Startin’ Something”… yet for the lead single they chose none of those. For the lead single they choose the worst possible song they could. For the lead single they chose “The Girl Is Mine.”

Even more mystifying… they didn’t make a video! A “Thriller” single without a video? That’s just weird! And Michael sings “doggone”… who thought that would be cool in 1982? Michael apparently, he wrote the thing.

I guess you could understand the logic. “The Girl Is Mine” was a duet with Paul McCartney. He’d just had a Number One with Stevie Wonder & “Ebony & Ivory,” another rubbish song.

But did the world really deserve to hear Michael & Paul argue over a girl?

 

 Even Paul seems to realize that this is not his best work & starts trolling himself. The best thing we can say about “The Girl Is Mine” is that it gave Michael a catchphrase – “I’m a lover, not a fighter” – and “The Boy Is Mine” decades later.

 

“The Girl Is Mine” is a 4.