Michael Jackson wrote many of his hit song by himself, including "Billie Jean" and "Beat It." This is another example one he wrote, although it's not nearly as personal as many of his compositions. According to the book Jacksons Number Ones, he wrote it after his mother Katherine asked him to write a song with "a shuffling kind of rhythm."
Jackson had sung about girls in songs like "Rock With You" and "P.Y.T.," but this was the first song that featured a love interest in the video. She was played by a dancer/actress named Tatiana Thumbtzen, and in the video, Jackson seduces her with his dancing. Their real-life relationship is a little murky: a tearful Thumbtzen claimed in the VH1 special Michael Jackson's Secret Childhood that they had an affair, but she was fired from public performances of this song when their relationship started becoming public. When Jackson needed a love interest in later videos, he went with high-profile models: Iman in "Remember The Time" and Naomi Campbell in "In The Closet."
This was the third of five US #1 hits from the Bad album, following up the title track.
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