The Girl Is Mine

The story behind

When Michael Jackson and Paul McCartney got together to record "The Girl Is Mine", Quincy Jones's initial idea was for them to compose something about two men fighting over a woman. Jackson, inspired by that premise, got up in the middle of the night and recorded what he heard in his head onto a tape: the melody, the keyboards, the strings, everything. Later, Jones suggested adding a rap part. The recording took place at Westlake Studios in Los Angeles between April 14 and 16, 1982. It was a process that Jackson described as very fun, full of jokes and games between him and McCartney. In fact, they recorded the instrumental track and vocals almost simultaneously, live, and there is filmed material from those sessions that has not yet been shown publicly. This track, along with "Say Say Say" and "The Man", was part of the collaborations between both artists, although the latter were released on McCartney's album Pipes of Peace in 1983.