Of the many incendiary revelations made during his interview with Vulture, music producing legend Quincy Jones caught the attention of music fans on Wednesday when he claimed that Michael Jackson had stolen many of his hit songs. Jones produced three of Jackson’s best-selling albums, Off The Wall, Thriller, and Bad.
“I hate to get into this publicly, but Michael stole a lot of stuff,” Jones said. “He stole a lot of songs. (Donna Summer’s) ‘State of Independence’ and ‘Billie Jean.’ The notes don’t lie, man. He was as Machiavellian as they come.
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“(He was) greedy, man. Greedy.”
TMZ took the liberty of examining this specific claim that “Billie Jean” and “State of Independence” were the same song musically. The site played the first eight seconds of the Donna Summer song, slowed it down, and played it on top of the base line from Jackson’s “Billie Jean.”
They sounded virtually identical.
The site also noted that the timeline for Jackson to have potentially ripped the song also lines up. Jones was a producer on Summer’s song when it was released in the Summer of 1982. Jackson was working with Jones on his next album, Thriller, which dropped in November of the same year.
Corey Feldman, who Jackson befriended when he was a child actor, spoke with TMZ on the matter on Wednesday after Jones’ interview hit the web.
“But Michael didn’t even get credit for Billie Jean,” Feldman pointed out when the interviewer recalled Jones’ claims. “Isn’t that Rod Temperton? I think Michael was one of the writers on it. Or maybe I’m wrong, maybe that was supposed to be one of his.
“I don’t know. I’d have to hear those words come out of Quincy’s mouth. I know Quincy and I know Michael and they were great friends. So I just can’t imagine that. Why would he condone that? Why would he do another album with him years later?”
Jackson was credited as the sole writer on “Billie Jean,” though Temperton did help write a number of songs off the Thriller album.
Photo: Twitter/@TheSource
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